Surgery and hospital stay

First of all, I'm so thrilled that Dr. Greenbaum was able to do the full DS! The scar tissue did cause the surgery to take longer (about 5 hours total) but it was successful and I only lost about 1/2 cup of blood during the surgery. I really don't remember most of the rest of surgery day. I'm told I went to the recovery room for a few hours then to a room in the Critical Care Unit. I vaguely recall my husband being in the room and him telling me it was 6:30 pm. I'm also pretty sure they had me up and out of bed that same day, just walking to the curtain on the room and back, supported by two nurses. Oh yeah, I did find out on my phone that he took a very unflattering picture of me sleeping and texted it to all my family. LOL
Pain management while in the hospital was pretty good, I had an in-wound continuously running pump and also a morphine pump on-demand. I also had full heart monitoring the entire time I was in the hospital as well as a JP drain, IV, central line and pressure cuff at all times. Other than the times I was up walking, I had the compression boots on my legs and they also put support stockings on me.
The morning after the surgery, I was taken down to radiology for an upper GI. It was not a pleasant experience. They had me sitting in a chair until the moment when the radiologist walked into the room, then had me stand up in the machine and drink some nasty stuff. It was very hard to drink very much, I think I got three small gulps down. Fortunately, the radiologist gave the all-clear and I was sent back to my room. The nausea was terrible that day. They first gave me Zofran, then later Phenergan. It was then end of the day before the nausea subsided somewhat.
The third day, I was allowed some water and ice chips. Tiny sips were tolerated pretty well. They also took out the catheter which was good on one hand, but on the other hand it also meant that every time I had to pee (which is pretty often when you have an IV!) I had to ring for a nurse to get unhooked from all the monitoring and get out of bed, only to reverse the process in a short time. I was also told that I would be sent to a regular room as soon as one was available, but in fact that never happened, I stayed in the CCU the entire time I was in the hospital.
By the 4th day, they were giving me a full bariatric tray with jello, coffee, broth and water. I didn't eat more than a few bites of each but everything sat pretty well. Any nausea was minimal. They finally took out my central line but they had a hard time getting out all the stitches in my neck. In fact, I still have one more knot they couldn't get out but hopefully the Dr. will be able to extract it when I go for my postop appt. My kids say my neck looks like I was bitten by a vampire haha!
The following day I was finally discharged. Dr. Greenbaum took out the JP drain and the in-wound pain pump and the nurses unhooked everything else.
The drive home was pretty excruciating, every bump in the road hurt and even sitting up in the car was not very comfortable, but it was sure great to walk in my own home again and see and (gingerly!) hug my kids.