"It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine." ~REM

And, just like that, it’s over. I was told to report to the Cleveland Clinic at 11:30 AM on Wednesday, December 19, which meant my surgery was expected to start by 1:30. My parents and my sister accompanied me. Things got delayed and my surgery didn’t start until about 3:30. I eventually made it to my room around 9:30 PM. I wasn’t bothered by any of this but I felt bad for my family members who had come to the hospital with me. It was a long, stressful day for them.

All of the rooms on the bariatric floor are private rooms so I didn’t have a roommate which was nice. I experienced the worst of the pain in the recovery room but I had a self-administered morphine pump and the nurse also gave me extra doses until the pain was under control. Otherwise, there was just a lot of soreness and discomfort. While they wanted me to get up and walk as soon as possible, it was difficult to do so due to all of the wires coming out of me. Additionally, most bariatric patients are much larger than me so my hospital gown was way too big and kept falling off, exposing bits I didn’t want exposed ;)  Nonetheless, I made my first walking trip up and down the hallway around 11 PM on the night of surgery. At this point I was not allowed to eat or drink anything, not even water or ice chips. I did have a sponge with which I could wet the inside of my mouth. I will admit to cheating and squeezing the water into my mouth and swallowing it. My throat was so dry!

I spent two nights in the hospital then was permitted to go home once the doctors felt my pain was managed, I was mobile, and I could drink enough to maintain hydration. One by one, the wires were removed and I was introduced to ice chips, water, apple and grape juice diluted with water, jello, and decaffeinated tea. I was so thirsty that I wanted to gulp everything down but I had to force myself to take small, slow sips. Just a tiny bit of anything made me feel stuffed. I drank as much as I could and made as many trips up and down the hallway to show the doctors I was ready to go home.

Finally, on Friday evening, I was discharged. Of course it was at rush hour and the roads were bad but, hey, I was on morphine, so I didn’t mind the extra-long ride home. My mom, sister, and niece, Rachel, spent the first night with me. It was uneventful.

So the surgery was over and you expect that’s the hardest part of it. Actually, it was probably the easiest part. The worst part so far has been this incredible feeling of fullness. I feel like I have eaten a seven course meal, all the time. This feeling never goes away. I have to force myself to eat, which is still just liquids, and drink, and sometimes it seems an impossible task to get in as much as I need each day. It is so uncomfortable. I would really just like to fast forward to about a month from now when I expect things to be much closer to my new normal.

The happiest part of all of this is the lives that I have touched. To date, three people I know have taken steps to investigate weight loss surgery (i.e. connected with doctors) and several others have expressed an interest in learning more about it. I am so excited for them to get healthy with me and I can’t wait to follow their stories too!