I had to sleep in a recliner for the first 3 days. Make sure you have someone there to help you get up. I'm very independent and it irratated me to not be able to get up on my own but was grateful to have my husband there to help.
I stayed just one night. Once I was doing Laos around the nurses station they said I was good to go. No swallow test. I took 6 weeks off... Mainly because I work for the government and could.. Ha! But was glad to be able to build my strength back up.
After my surgery I had "que sera sera what will be will be" tattooed on my ankle. Didn't have any meaning to the surgery just personal things I was going through in my life. But I love it. I call it my mid-life crisis tattoo. But now that I have seen some of the posts regarding tattoos for our new lives after weight loss it makes me go .... Hmmmmm. So I will have to think on that and may get another...