I am alive!!!

Well ladies! I did it, I am now on the other side.  I am a banded woman.  Before I talk about my experience, I have say I am a person who lets it all out there.  I don't  hide facts, I really like to tell it how it is, because I hate experiencing things and thinking...why didn't anyone tell me about THIS.  Like having a baby...no one tells you all the nity grity, nasty details. I remember thinking when I was in labor and leaking fluids everywhere, why didn't any one tell me? SO here it goes.....

I not only was banded, but also had a hiatal hernia repaired.  I went in the morning of surgery and went through all the normal procedures, blood, urine, iv, etc.  They wheeled me back to surgery around 11am and and the last thing I remember was a mask on my face and them telling me to take deep breaths.  The next thing I remember is waking up to them taking the intubation tube out of my throat and it was scary.  I couldn't breath and my stomach hurt SO bad.  I was quite teary and the nurse kept rudely telling me to calm down and that she would get me some pain meds.  It kept hurting.  Finally after a half hour (I know this because she kept telling me what time it was) I was finally comfortable.  It was a little scary for me, but I got over it.  I then went to my room and stayed one night in the hospital.  The hospital stay was interesting, I won't go into detail about because it's not really important.  I will say this......I was in a lot of pain.  I kept thinking, what is wrong with you Sumer?  Everyone said it was way better than they thought it would be, but this was way worse.  I had a c-section with my last baby and this experience was FAR more painful.  My doctor then told me that it was because of the hernia repair that I was in so much pain.  I don't know why, I just know it hurt, and it took a while to find meds that would control it.  I came home the next day and honestly that night I thought I might have to go back to the hospital.  I was SO full of gas.  My stomach was so hard I felt like my incisions might burst open at any minute.  I am now on day 4 and I STILL have a lot of gas in there.  I am walking as much as I can and using heating pads, but am still really gassy. My lungs continue to hurt from the intubation, but are getting better.  How do you people do it?  I read on one blog that she went back to work 4 days post-op, going downstairs to get some broth poops me out.  I am holding on to the fact that each day is getting better.  Its hard to say if I "feel" my band yet as I still am so full of gas.  I will say that one Popsicle fills me up and I have to wait awhile to drink anything else.  I am trying to get the 48-64oz of fluids in, but it's hard, there just isn't a lot of room in there.
The experience was quite painful and continues to be somewhat painful, but I am excited to feel my band more and see what time brings me.  My BFF said I already look skinnier! LOL.  It was sweet.  Well ladies, just wanted to let you know I did it and am now one of you.  I am not trying to scare any of you out there that haven't been banded yet, just want to be honest,  MY experience was not like most I guess.  I didn't feel this way a couple days ago, but it WAS worth it and I know I will see that even more as I heal more and more.
Now I need to catch up on my blog reading.  Toodles!