Surgery Day

   This is it! It was the day of surgery and my final weigh in weight was 303 pounds. I was hoping to be under 300 but that unfortunately didn't happen. I'm pretty sure I was retaining a ton of water weight from the two days of my all liquid diet, but it's all good. 

   We got there bright and early at 5:15am and I was hooked up to everything by 7:15am. My doctor ran a little late but everyone warned me that would happen. He usually does. In the mean time I got to spend some time with my hubby and mom until he got there. 
 

   Honestly, the morning went by pretty fast and the procedure felt instantaneous to me. I literally remember Nancy, my support coordinator from Dr. Billy's office, saying to me "This is the first day of the rest of your life" and then I was out! Before I knew it I had some really severe pain in my abdomen...like it was on fire! Then the nurses assured me I would be receiving some pain medicine momentarily. Within a few seconds the burning pain slowly subsided and then I just had to focus on my breathing. It seems sort of silly to focus on breathing, but when you're overweight you use every muscle in your stomach to help you breath and now all of the sudden ever contraction of you stomach muscles hurts like a b****. Finally they rolled me out to meet my hubby and mom and we all made our way out to my room. 

   They briefed me about what Dr. Billy said. First, he wasn't able to do the spider sleeve because there was too much obstructing his view. Secondly, everything else went perfectly fine! There were no complications and I was going to try to walk later that afternoon. The first few hours weren't too bad, but pretty soon that shoulder pain kicked in. I had been warned that the excess gas they pump into you (to make sure there aren't any leaks) manifests itself in possible shoulder pain. Some people get it and some people don't: I DID! I was on the verge of tears a few times and had to force myself out of bed to start walking because that's the only way to get rid of it. For me it was the worst part of Day #1 post-op! 

   I also made sure that my hubby called work to let them know that everything went alright and these were the lovely flowers that got delivered to me by Shell's Petals:

    In fact, the girl who delivered them arrived in time to see me stand for the first time!