Still a bit of gas pain and I’m not able to eat much. I’ve lost 5 pounds but I expect that’s all fluids because I can’t drink much at a time.  I haven’t had a poo since last Thursday and it’s beginning to worry me.  I don’t feel like I need to have one either.  I’m resting a lot and drinking as much as I can.

It was all done around noon yesterday. I arrived at the hospital at 7am and went to my room, got weighed, blood pressured, temperatured and heart rated and then I was given a hospital gown and paper panties. The gown would have fit a 400 pound man and the panties would have fit him too. It was really funny. They assume people coming in for this surgery are really big and I’m fat but I’m only 5′ tall and don’t quite meet the requirements for gastric banding at a body mass index of 40. Because I have type II diabetes and high blood pressure that put me over the line of acceptability. Next came the electrocardiograph and then I waited for about 15 minutes.

I was wheeled into the operating room and found lots of people milling around waiting for me. Three nurses, one anesthetist and two surgeons. It seems I commanded quite a crowd.

The first IV didn’t seat properly but the second one did and soon I was fast asleep. I remember barely being awake and the breathing tube being removed and then I remember waking up again in the recovery room. What I don’t remember was any pain.

When I got back to my room I had pain and quite a bit of it but it wasn’t from the surgery — it was from the gas that they pump in the stomach area so they have room to work. When the gas moves around (like the bubble in a level) it’s painful but I’m told it will disappear over the next couple of days. The spots where the lap tools went in are not painful at all. A bit of discomfort is it. I can move around just fine.

I got ice chips and water yesterday along with an IV drip that was in until I left the hospital this morning. I was given 1/4 litre of the salty sugary stuff every hour – so I got up to use the toilet a lot, but with no pain other than the gas.

For breakfast I got a glass of apple juice and lemon-lime jello – they call it jelly here. I can drink all the clear liquids I want today and starting tomorrow I have 3 meals a day of anything I can pull through a straw. I’m not hungry.

The experience I had at the hospital was terrific and I don’t have one complaint at all.

That’s it for day 2.

Don’t forget to leave me some comments – I need moral support.

Ok, I got up earlier than I thought I would. I did sleep but not a lot. I’m ready to leave for the hospital now. It really begins today.

Ok, it’s 12:32 am and I haven’t been able to fall asleep yet. I have to be up at 5:30. I’m not really nervous or at least I don’t feel nervous. I just want to get it over and get the first 6 weeks over and then I’ll be fine. I hate waiting for surgery, don’t you? Just get it going. That long wait in the morning won’t make me happy but I won’t tell you about that til I get home.

I read over all the food guidelines from the dietician I saw a couple of weeks ago. Then I went to the store and got apple juice, cranberry juice, tea, broth and nothing else. When I get home the cupboard won’t be bare of things I can consume. Oh.. and at the rate of 2 tablespoons at a time to ensure that I don’t throw up.

Throwing up before the band is fully seated is not a good thing, I’ve been told. I haven’t eaten since 6:30 and I stopped drinking at 11 so I should be fine in the nausea department.

I just re-read this and I’m thinking — why would anyone go through this if they weren’t sick?

Well, I am sick. Sick with Type II diabetes and high blood pressure. And I’m sick of being fat, if you really want to know the truth.

**Before photos will be taken in the morning but they won’t get posted til I get back I don’t think.