One week from today, I will be in recovery from my 7:30am surgery and probably still in pain and woozy.

Since it's an outpatient procedure, I'll be back home by now, but the hospital where they do the surgery is less than 15 minutes from my home.

I hope I have a smooth recovery; my girlfriend's recovery was almost trivial (and she had a more involved surgery than me, repairing a huge hiatal hernia at the same time).

Trying not to freak out...

You will be grand. The anticipation of something is often a bigger deal then the actual thing. Be careful to not compare you and your girl too much. You might not recover the way she does and you are gonna drive her crazy with how fast the pounds fall off you! How cool to have a partner that will understand your journey.

Yeah, that's one real benefit of dating another sleever: I get someone to ask "is this normal?", and we don't have to worry about one of us eating fast and trying to "keep up."

My suggestion one day out now is this:

Go in expecting the anesthesia to mess with your mind the first couple of hours after surgery, feels like you have severe cloudy brain for a bit. Get the pain meds, nap and after that first nap the world is a better place. Keep track of your med times and be proactive on them and take them. A few minutes after each of the liquid meds I always felt great--use that time to walk and move about. Then as you get tired from moving nap or rest. Walking and sipping like its a mantra and you feel much better in no time.

I am very excited for you. I did my surgery outpatient as well - I liked not having to sleep in a hospital bed & room for a night.

You've been given some good advice above. Just keep repeating the mantra - "Sleep, Rest, Sip" and throw some medication in there when needed.

All really good advice! Thanks!

I think I'll do okay, since my girlfriend will be with me for the first four days (Thurs.-Sun.) and helping me to remember to do things like sip and walk, even when I'm tired or have cloudy brain syndrome (CBS).