27 Year Old, Fat Since Birth, No Kids, Got Sleeved - New Brunswick, NJ

My surgeon didn't require a pre-op diet, which is one of the reasons I chose to do my surgery with him. I had to stop eating and drinking by midnight the night before, which I did. My surgery was scheduled for 7am and I was asked to be at the hospital at 5:45am. Checking in was a breeze since a coordinator had called me the week before and asked me a ton of questions, twice. My nerves really kicked in when they showed me to a pre-op room to undress and put on the gown and hairnet, but the nurse that was attending me was so sweet and told me she had seen a lot of patients have this surgery with great results, and that calmed me down a little. I told her I was really scared of getting nauseous and she got a patch for me and placed it behind my ear. I was weighted and my weight was 232 (it was 234 in my home scale). When she was ready to withdraw my blood I told her that I have very small veins and that doctors always withdraw it from my hand. She decided to place needle where she could withdraw the blood and then place the IV in the same place so she wouldn't have to poke me twice, not sure what that is called, but I was very grateful for that. At that moment, I was getting so nervous because it was almost 7am and I sincerely thought about walking out.... But then the anesthesiologist walked in and asked a few questions and then my surgeon came in and told me the surgery was "a piece of cake" and before I knew it they were wheeling me into the operating room. Once I laid down on the operating table and the next thing I remember was waking up and feeling nice and warm and feeling the tiniest amount of pain right by my left rib. I was so happy I just smiled and thanked god I was alive LOL. I dozed off and on and then woke up when they took me to the room I would be spending the night in.

When I got to the room and laid down in the bed they told me I wouldnt be able to eat anything for the rest of the day and would start on clear liquids the following day. I honestly didnt even care. I wasn't thirsty or anything, I was mostly sleepy but I had energy, which really shocked me. By 3pm, I was up and walked to the bathroom by myself. I did feel a little unsteady but the nurse came by in case I needed help and my mother was also there.

I didn't have any nauseousness or pain for the rest of the day I was in the hospital when I was laying down. The only time I would feel a little pain was when I would sit up in bed in order to get up, but once I was up I good. A new nurse came by and administered the medicine for the blood clots and also for nauseousness. They did give me one of those pain pumps that you can administer yourself, and you better believe I was pumping that every 30 minutes LOL Not that I was in pain, but I didn't want to be. No shame in not wanting to be in pain!

For the rest of my stay in the hospital (a little over a day, I was discharged around 2pm the day after the surgery) I just layed in bed and tried to nap when I could and walked the hallway about once or twice. I didnt feel any of the gas pain that everyone talks about, luckily.

I had the sleeve gastrectomy procedure done 5 weeks ago and I'm really happy with the results so far. The day before the surgery I was 234 and as of today, I am 207. I met with the doctor for the first consultation in the beginning of May and had my surgery 3 weeks later. I was really surprised at how fast I healed and how minimal the pain was. The most pain I felt was on the left side right by the rib, but it was mostly soreness like you would get from doing a lot of crunches. I was really scared that I was going to have problems drinking/eating and most of all throwing up, but I haven't had to vomit at all and can eat anything without an issue. My boyfriend jokes that I have a stomach made of "steel" LOL.