Well, that was a horrendous experience.

BUT, all is well now.

My gastric sleeve was performed on August 12th 2019.

All the pre-op stuff was fine and I was excited and looking forward to a quick exit on day 2. I notice that most of you are in the USA, which I am not so there are a few things we do differently. My blood's were all good and the day before my op I just had to ring the private hospital I was going to, to check on what time my admission was on the Monday. I was first on the list for the day so was taken to theatre at 0830am.

I hopped onto the operating table myself, which was a bit weird, but I know some places do it this way. I was just trying not to stress and go with the flow! Cannulas were inserted into both hands and then off to the land of fairies I went.

I am oblivious to how much later I woke, but I was in absolute agony and the Dr's struggled to get my pain under control. Eventually, after lots of vague voices/mumbling/crying, I must have zonked out again before being taken back to my room.

Now the next 8 days are a bit jumbled and blurred. My family have clarified some things for me so I 'kind of' have a correct recollection of events.

I was in constant and severe abdominal pain.

I could not stop vomiting.

I could not keep in 2.5ml of water per 5 mins.

By Day 8 post-op, my Surgeon decided to do a Dilation via Endoscope because he had decided that I had a constriction. By this stage, I was on regular morphine, IV potassium (it had dropped due to the vomiting) and constant fluid balance. As you can imagine I was desperate and delirious by this point.

I woke from the endoscopy....in the same pain, still unable to hold anything in.

I'm not sure how soon after this I was transferred via emergency ambulance to the big local hospital and had a revision done, so have ended up with a '1 anastomosis bypass'. Finally being able to drink and keep it down was amazing and such a huge relief.

Lots of other bits went on during all this as I had to have a midline catheter put in rather than the normal cannulae that you would have in your hands/arms etc, lots of medication tweaking, iv fluids, blood tests etc

So you can see my abdomen day 1, then a few days later and then starting to fade well today All in the wrong order lol the middle pic is today. I also had a fall in the bathroom on the 20th and landed on the toilet, I only vaguely remember the fall and thought I had broken my ribs (obvs hadn't), then had no recollection of the fall for a few days lol!

ANYWAY! Now the horror is over and I am finally home, I am tolerating protein fluids well, got my high protein milk made up and add it to my breakfast smoothie and tomato/chicken soup. Not so keen on the slight texture the protein powder leaves in my mouth but hey ho. I am super weak and wobbly and showering myself and getting my 'drinks' are my limit, but just trying to do a little more each time I stand up AND I must remember I had not 1 but 2 major ops plus all the stress and strain in between

I am absolutely dying to taste REAL food and not thick claggy high protein things with so much sweetness. Even tinned soup is too sweet sigh

I have my 2 weeks follow up with my surgeon and Dietician next week. Weight is falling off I have lost 15kg/33lbs to date

aww thanks, I shall follow you too, you will be able to keep your kidneys too I am sure!

Good thing was I lost 16kg in that 2 weeks, see silver linings everywhere haha