Everyone's usually curious about the day of surgery. How did things go? How did you feel? How long were you there?

My experience was this:
I had been looking forward to this day for SOOO long, I was well prepared at home for my return, I had read my post-op food guide 100 times and I knew what was expected of me that I was very calm that Thursday morning.

Surgery had no complications, and I awoke pretty groggy from the anesthesia (I'd never had surgery before), I had no pain, but some general discomfort in my abdomen. While I was in "recovery" my husband was able to sit with me for a little while to know that everything was fine.

At Johns Hopkins Bayview the bariatric surgery floor has all private rooms, and everyone is recovering from the same thing. When I was alone with my thoughts for the first time, that moment of "fear of the unknown" sank in and I thought to myself; "what have you done?". I quickly reminded myself that this is the best thing to happen to me since my son was born and any pain, discomfort, inconvenience, or adjustments were just temporary. My eyes were on the prize and I was up that night taking my first walk, it wasn't a lap, but it was a corridor and back.

I figured out quickly that morphine (in the pain pump) makes me nauseous. We changed meds and I wasn't heaving after that. I was drinking my water (w/ crystal light) and broth and eating my jello. Friday I was walking laps around the hospital floor after my meals and some needed rest. Saturday I had showered, put my regular clothes on and was ready to go home!

I left the hospital with a binder and compression hose (which I later found out I didn't need to wear after discharge). I do think the binder helped with my comfort while sleeping & coughing.

At home I followed my instructions and did what I was supposed to. With the liquid diet and pureed diet there were no problems and nothing my system couldn't handle. When I got to my soft diet and my food world was slowly reopening I ran into some minor road blocks. I found out that tuna (in a can) didn't agree with me, and neither did scrambled eggs the first time I had them. I highly recommend that everyone EAT SLOWLY. I found that when I was being mindless and eating too quickly that I would get discomfort in my chest and either have to burp or vomit, and that's no fun. When I was able to return to a regular diet I tried every new thing at home just in case it didn't sit well.

My husband and I are an active couple that enjoy going out with our son every weekend. This never stopped, even when I was on a different stage of my post-op diet. At restaurants I would just order whatever I could have, and brought along my protein drink or had it before we left the house.

There's a time of learning and adjusting to your new life. Support from the people closest to you is VERY important. I'm lucky to have a super husband who's my biggest supporter. I wouldn't be as successful without him.

These days, at almost 7 mos post-op, things feel normal and I LOVE IT! I have no regrets and would do it all over again tomorrow.