Home again

The operation went like a dream. Nothing to report - totally uneventful. It was surprisingly quick, about 2 hours, and I was waking up to a slightly sore throat and a kind of dullish pain (not much of one) at the top of my tummy. The painkillers used post op were good old paracetamol, intravenously in my drip, to avoid any nausea or vomiting. I have 5 small dressings over the 5 small holes and very little else to show for it! Laparascopic surgery is amazing. The small surgical hospital was clean - really clean, and the staff were very kind and very professional. I have only the highest praise for my surgeon Robert Fris, he is a very skilled and knowledgeable man, but also comes across in a warm and caring way. Big ups to the anaesthestist Ian Harrison too, who took lots of time to explain things, even the icky question that my son was curious about - "How do they get the bit of the stomach out that they have removed?". Answer - "You don't want to know..."

The healing is going very well. I'm on liquids all this week, thin liquids. Next week will be thicker liquids. I'm not having any difficulty getting my meals in and sipping water between the meals. I did at first, it was late Thursday (op was on Tuesday) before my tiny new stomach seemed to 'open up' and let things through. I feel full after my glass of Up and Go - or whatever I'm drinking. I am thinking about food, and that will no doubt pass in time. I dreamed of big fat greasy chips last night. There is definately a part of me that will miss eating junk food. The price for eating that rubbish is too high though and I'm not going to torture myself by hanging onto it.

There are a whole lot of foods that are really tasty and healthy at the same time, and I look forward to meal planning with a different viewpoint. The old me with the seemingly endless stomach capacity would think how I could make things filling...like pasta and potatoes etc, pure starch. I went for the filling things because I never did feel full. I was hungry all the time, even after eating 2 plates of curry and rice I would be thinking of what to have for desert. I still don't fully understand how I got to be like that. Even when I made healthy food choices the constant hunger would be there.

I feel as if its the start of a whole new life.