Well everyone, i was sleeved on 9-15-09 @ 7:30 am. I will try to get as detailed as possible because prior to being sleeved, I wanted to know all the details.

I arrived to the hospital at 6 am with my mom and fiance. They took me to my room to start my IV, which they did without a problem. At around 7am, I was taken to preop holding but my family was unable to go back there. So we said our goodbyes (I wanted to cry but I didnt). LOL

While in Preop holding the anesthesiologist came to speak with me regarding my medical history, etc. I told him that I was nervous and he reassured me. My preop nurse spoke with me as well and helped to calm my nerves and finally my surgeon Dr Alanis came to speak with me and I was a nervous wreck at this point. Dr Alanis re-assured me that I was in good hands. I was then rolled into the OR as Dr Alanis went to speak with my family.

The OR nurse turned on some music and asked me if I mind if they had music on, I said no. I knew this was something common in the OR, since I have worked in the OR setting before, we would listen to music while we worked.

Anyway, the anesthesiologist put some medicine in my IV and all I remember saying is "When am I going to go to sleep". After that everything else is a blur, so lets say I was probably asleep in less than 10 seconds. LOL

The next thing I remember, the surgical crew was telling me how fantastic I did and how easy my procedure was. I was under for approximately one hour and 30 minutes (thats including instrument counting, hiatal hernia repair etc).

Oh yeah, the doc found a hiatal hernia that he repaired. I had no idea that I had one.

I was whisked away to the ICU (which is standard procedure for my surgeon), my family was in the room waiting for me. We laughed and I dozed off. My family left and came back later.

The nursing staff was awesome!! Im a nurse and I have never seen the nurse to patient ratio staffing that they had in their ICU and Med Surg units. They woke me up faithfully every two hours for breathing exercises and ambulating. Oh yeah, I received Lactated Ringers via IV as well as some medication for my stomach--I was so sedated I dont remember what it was. I was also on a morphine pump. My highest level of pain was probably a 5 out of 10, with 10 being the highest. The worst is the gas pain, which was worst on the left side, which is where I heard is where all the activity is done on.

I went for my final leak test the next morning---I passed no leaks. I was then transferred to the med surg floor. The nurses were awesome, I plan to go back up there to give them flowers or something, Ive never seen such level of nursing care. Even on the med surg unit, which is known to be the busiest, they made sure that I ambulated, did my breathing exercises and sipped on fluids.

So I was discharged today around 11:30 am on the following meds:

1. Carafate (which Walgreens is out of, will have to get it tommorrow)- this protects the mucosal lining of the stomach.

2. liquid hydrocodone

3. Pepcid

So all in all, it wasnt a bad experience. I am still sore in the abdominal region and I have not felt hungry at all. Can you believe that? I know I can't. The hardest part is not being able to sleep on my belly, as I have always slept on my stomach.

Oh yeah, I lost -.06 lbs, which is good because I hear that alot of people are pumped full of fluids that they tend to gain. My tummy is slightly rumbly, I dont really know why, im sure its trying to get use to its new size and how to produce the acid.

Well that was my experience, now im focusing on walking, sipping and breathing exercises. Thanks to all for lending support during this journey.:cursing:

This is actually my second bout with this in about a month, grrrrr. I have been drinking lots of Water and gatorade, at nearly six months out, I can drink quite a bit. When I first got sleeved, I had a very difficult time with fluids.

Thanks for the well wishes.

That sucks, are you a teacher? Just curious, they seem to get all the nasty creepy crawlies right when school starts. Im glad that you can get your fluids in though.