Nice to hear about your journey so fa Skinny.... glad you're gonna start a diary :)

Diary it is :D and available in the diary section !

Hiya Skinny :)

Lots of ppl will be calling you that soon lol

Congrats on joining the losers bench and I wish you the very best from here on in...I agree about the diary...would be great to follow your new life

xx Kyles

Hi Skinny,

Thanks for the update on surgery, it is always great to hear how people went we are all so different !

Onward and downward.

Hugs Gail

Hi HelloSkinny,

Glad to see you are home and coped well with the surgery and stay in hospital.

Great loss so far

G'Day HelloSkinny,

Great to hear that your surgery went well and you are now in the comfort of your own home. Your on the slide down the sleeve now...I wish you well in your journey and look forward to seeing how you progress.

Take Care

Jo

HelloSkinny

I am just 12 days out and had a very similar experience to yours. I feel fantastic. Have you started a diary? If not I would cut and paste this entry into it and you can add to it from there. Sounds like you are going great guns as well. If you wanted to have a look at my diary I try to keep it updated every couple of days as well.

Cheers, Here's to seeing less of you. (In the good way of course) lol

Hello :D

I just got home a few hours ago so here is my experience:

I was not on a special diet but I had to be on all clear liquid the day before the surgery
and nothing to eat or drink after midnight on surgery day
(I need to say I went (with my skinny husband) to our favorite restaurant the day before the clear liquid diet)

Everything went good I got my surgery at 3 pm or so in the afternoon and woke up in my room at 8:30 pm or so, a lots of things happened at the same time when I woke up, 2 person asking me if I can change myself from one bed to another on my own : my sleepy and confused answer : not a chance !, somebody saying my husband is on the phone : my sleepy and confused answer : say hello tell him to call back in 4 hours (I had no idea what time it was) lol

When I woke up more for real, I learned everything went well, that I have a drain on my right side, that I got a catheter during surgery but that they took it off before I woke up (Thanks god !) it's not an experience I want to have souvenirs off.

My IV on my left hand was hooked up on some product to stay hydrated and pain medicine I could push on every 10 minutes (morphine I think) and then the first night started....injection on my tummy to prevent blood clot , blood withdrawal at 3 am to check white/red blood cell/hemoglobin (come on people, what is the point to do that at 3 am every night ?), taking of my pulse, tension every 4 hours, extra injection on my IV of some antibiotics and pain medicine.

I stayed there 3 nights total (It's 2 in general but I guess I was a little late in my progression since I was the last one in surgery, on day 2 I didn't had gas yet and was not able to drink enough liquid either which is a requirement to be released).

The first night was hard to go through (needed to pee every 20 minutes or so) which made me autonomous quite fast, the kind of awkward thing was that I had to pee in a graduated bowl and had to call the nurse every time to come take note and clean up the bowl... when you go pee so often it's getting a little awkward (Or at least it was for me)..specially when u need to go AGAIN ! after 10 minutes....And I am not talking about the joy of the catheter removal the first night.... pee a little bit.... wait.... pee another little bit....stand up, wash my hand.... need to pee again....so fun....

About diet :
Theses first 3 days, I got fed about the same thing
- broth (vegetable (too spicy), chicken or beef)
- herbal teal (lemon, rustic apple or mint)
- diet jello
- and sometime on lucky meals apple juice
- water (with crystal leger if desired)

Of course they give you all that but there is just no way in hell you will eat it all. On day 2 I was able to drink the whole broth but really 1 spoon at the time over a long time + the apple juice + 1/4 of the jello I think that was my biggest meal of all, most of the others beeing a few sppon of each.

About Pain :
Not comfortable : going to pee the first night (after catheter removal)
Medium Pain : when breathing, my whole back muscle and plexus were kinda sore
Big Pain : Right area, either the drain or the incision under it were EXTREMELY painfull when walking on the second day after surgery. On the first day it was painful but I was able to for a walk 1.5 time, the day after I was just able to do about 0.5 lap the pain was really killing me. The last day, after the drain got removed, I thought I would be fine (staying in the bed is fine, sometime uncomfortable when you move around but it's alright) until... I stand up.... not possible... but after a while and with some extra pain medicine (mix acetaminophen/codein) it went all easier.

Stuff I brought with me I never used :
Robe
Various cloth to sleep at night
Most of my Books (I guess I just like the silence, watching a little TV or just thinking about stuff)

Stuff I brought with me I used :
tootbrush/toothpaste
deodorant
hairbrush
Pillow
Large cloth when I got released
Flip Flop
Moisturizer
I didn't brought a bra and it was a good choice

Coming Home :
I have about 1 hr of car to come home but it was sunday, we had no traffic and I was happy to have my pillow with me stuck on my stomach the whole time. I then sent my husband to get some food and medicine for me and I am now for the most part all set.

I couldn't resist the temptation to weight myself after about 4 days spent at the hospital drinking water, apple juice, broth, tea and Jello.... - 5 lb (- 2.27 kg), it's a good start !

Feel free to ask any questions, I will do my best to answer them !