Wednesday afternoon I entered the club officially. Woo-hoo!

Things literally couldn't have gone any smoother, at least thus far. Went into the hospital at 1pm intending to begin surgery at 3:45, only to learn that my surgeon was ahead of schedule for the day - thereby moving me up from 3:45 to 2:30 or so.

I remember making it as far as the OR at around 2:20pm, but the next thing I rememebered after that was waking up in recovery at around 5:30, fully banded. On a 1-10 scale I'd rate my abdominal pain as a 1/2 immediately after surgery (though it's now up to about a 2-3 - worth noting, but not worth crying over). My biggest problem thus far has been cotton-mouth, a by-product of the anesthesia and that I'm only allowed to drink 30ml/cc of Water every 15 minutes.

The only thing I'll advise fellow Bandoleros: if you smoke, STOP WELL BEFORE SURGERY. The reason? Cough. I'm a smoker (or having stopped 3 days ago, hopefully an ex-smoker) who literally wasn't made aware that quitting was an important pre-requisite to the operation until it was too late. I haven't coughed often, but when I have, it's hurt quite a bit. So even if your doctors don't tell you about it - STOP SMOKING WELL BEFORE YOUR SURGERY DATE!

Anyway, I got home around 8pm and promptly went to sleep. Woke up this morning around 2:30, not due to any pain but due to a cotton-mouth episode. I don't want to jinx things, but things as a whole seem to be going great thus far. Have a follow-up appointment next Friday morning, with a first fill slated for late March. I don't miss food yet, I have absolutely no sense of hunger nor nausea, and in fact if it weren't for the cotton-mouth I wouldn't even want water.

LOL, okay yeah, that wouldn't have gone over well with me either! I think you handled it quite well. I am fortunate to have a very patient and loving husband. Lord knows he has to be with me! He actually gave me a bell to ring when I need him. I just used my cell phone and called him though! :thumbup:

Glad to hear that you are finally getting some rest and that your tummy soreness is starting to fade away. You will find it improves daily!:biggrin:

I think you handled it quite well.

True, considering what I was really thinking was akin to "Damnit, woman, would you please just leave me the f*** alone!"

:thumbup:

And by the way ladies, most times when a guy's speaking to you nicely (in one of those tones that you aren't quite sure if he's really being nice or just condescending toward you) in an effort to stop doing something, you've literally hit their last nerve, and they're about to snap... so cease and desist whatever it is you're doing post-haste. :biggrin2:

Sadly, my wife hasn't gotten that after, oh, 17 years or so... but I think she got it today. :biggrin:

Well, while the surgeon himself has proven to be great, his office staff proved themselves to me to be borderline incompetent - they missed key points all along the way, only remembering them if I brought them up.

At one point someone among their office staff said they utilized a "team approach" to the process, at which point I piped up that if that were true, the team had a strange resemblance to the Pittsburgh Pirates or Tampa Bay Devil Rays. :ohmy:

Hey!, The Pirates never give up! :cheers2:

Hey!, The Pirates never give up! :cheers2:

Perhaps, but the last time they won a World Series, I was watching it at Memorial Stadium in knee socks and you hadn't been born yet. :ohmy:

My mental battle with food has taken a weird turn today. Though I've by and large been okay in the hunger department, satisfying myself with allegedly forbidden pleasures like tomato soup and yogurt smoothies (protein shakes start Monday), I've taken interest in something I had never even remotely considered before - going into a food service-related business, specifically a hot dog or sub sandwich shop.

I've spent the bulk of the last 24 hours mentally listing the different kinds of meats and cheeses that are common to sub shops (Subway, Jersey Mike's, etc.), and/or doing similar mental lists of condiments for hot dogs (mustard, relish, kraut, even some that make me gag to think about such as ketchup and slaw).

I even went so far as to look into commercial hot dog grilling equipment - what it cost, how it is to operate, etc. The entire time I wasn't thinking that I was hungry, or how much I could've went for a good dog or sub (at the time, I wasn't remotely hungry) and I didn't buy anything of course, but it was a solid hour before it dawned on me what I was doing. Talk about a deep-seated craving for a Nathan's Famous expressing itself in a weird way!