It's all uphill from here

So surgery day was last Thursday, and everything went A-OK.

I was nervous.  Particularly because they wouldn't let my husband stay and visit afterward.  Turns out that was probably for the best anyway, but I would have felt so much more reassured knowing he was in the next room.

I lost 22 pounds on the pre-op diet...which I very much begrudged and think could have been handled entirely differently, but who can argue with a pre-surgical weight loss like that?  I did it modifying things here and there to make food actually have some degree of taste.  Apparently though, the surgeon explained that the goal is to make food seem as unimportant as air though...so I guess if your goal is to make food taste less appealing, well, they succeeded.

Recovery wise, I'm pretty much back to the grind today.  I'm sore, but not dying.  The worst pain I had with everything was the first failed attempt to do my IV, and the resulting gas pains from the inflation they do in your abdomen.  That's been killer...and I've been as active as I could be to try and move it.

The swelling and saline they pumped into me, added 10lbs back to my frame.  I'm pleased to say, it's just about gone.

I've been doing nothing but drink clear fluids for days, and that's getting so old - I thought I could manage it without blinking an eye.  But I have to admit it's been difficult.  I haven't been hungry, but I have smelled the food my family is eating, and I want nothing more than to sink my teeth into something - anything really.  At this rate, my teeth will be so weak, the first time I eat a piece of something solid, I may chip a tooth.

But can I tell you how wonderfully strange it is to not be hungry after 4 days of fluids only?  I'm mind boggled by how little a person can get away with and survive.

I am having issues getting my daughter to eat - as I sorta feared.  For starters, she spent a few days with my mother, who, let me tell ya, when it comes to her grandchildren, has no clue what the word "no" means.  My daughter comes home spiked up on sugar and all kinds of crap she never gets and I have to re-wean her.  Then, by not eating normally, I'm losing that "role playing" example setting opportunity.  For this reason alone, I've never wanted 20 days to pass so quickly in my life.

But in the end I'm holding up and looking forward to far less burpy days, traded in for ones spent having fun instead.