On the morning of surgery we were awake at 5am. We had decided to have a last night at home rather than checking into a B&B and I’m glad that we did. Thankfully hubby was up and about and I had a shower and a close shave – important tip boys, don’t miss this.  Whilst I was showering hubby had breakfast which was great because as I was nil by mouth I didn’t think I could have watched.

We then jumped in the car and headed to the hospital which, at that time of day we did in record time. We got to the hospital about 20 mins before we were due to check into the ward so went to the loo (nerves) and waited till we could go in. its like a big waiting room with loads of pairs of people waiting with bags all looking nervous too.

When we checked in the nurses were lovely and I was told I was first up and so we were ushered into a consulting room.  I was secretly glad that I was getting things over with but my nerves really kicked in at this point.  Hubby did everything he could to distract me, even taking A pic of both of us in one of the big chairs just to make me laugh.

I had gastric bypass surgery. After meeting the anaesthetist, nurse and surgeon, each of which confirmed I understood the procedure, we signed the consent form and were left to change into a gown and fit ted stockings (mine didn’t fit so they told me not to worry) and then what felt like way too soon I was kissing hubby goodbye whilst being ushered into the next room.  The nurses took care of my bags and hubby went off to waiting rooms.

The next room turned out to be the operating theatre.  In what felt like moments I was made comfortable on the bed, had a line into my hand and then an oxygen mask over my face.  Everyone was really lovely, making sure I was ok and that I knew what was going on.  I had a moment of panic when I wanted to run from the room (apparently this is normal) but I didn’t even get to count back from ten as I was out for the count in moments and the next thing I knew I was in the recovery room.

The first thing I noticed when I came round wasn’t pain, but my incredibly itchy feet. I felt like I came round really easy and I started to notice the nurses (who were incredibly lovely) then other patients. It was a weird sensation and apparently my oxygen levels were a little low but apart from that I felt fine – a little tight in the tummy but not the pain I was expecting.

It took a while to get someone to take me up to the ward but when a nurse turned up with a couple of porters I was transported to our ward – Aldwick ward – where there was one other patient who had her surgery a day before – and more importantly Hubby who had been waiting for me throughout the day.

You get bought up in the bed that you spend the rest of your time in which is great as you don’t need to move and then after your initial checks with the nurses they plug you into your monitoring stuff – Lots of sticky monitors, a blood pressure cuff, pain relief, and a sats monitor and then given a jug of water. I can tell you now those first sips of water were like nectar. This is me about an hour later….

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur but I was up and about the same day (to use the loo) and only had water the rest of the day (don’t worry you don’t want anything) and told hubby to head home about 3 o clock as I was just sleeping and drinking and he needed a rest too.

I went into the operating theatre at 9.45 and I came onto the ward at 13.45, apparently I spent an hour and a half in recovery which means (I think) surgery took a couple of hours.