Band surgery - Tue 10 Mar 2009

My gastric band surgery was booked for Tuesday 10 Mar 2009 at the First Trust hospital in Preston. I travelled over by train on Monday and went to the hospital to have my bllod done. The hospital is a small private facility with 22 rooms a few miles out of Preston. The Ibis hotel is only a 10 min walk away although you have to drag your case under the motorway subway.

I went to the hospital on Tuesday morning for 8am and was escoted to my private room with en suite. I changed into my paper pj's and waited to see the surgeon, 5 people were being banded that day and I was number 3 however I did have a delay as due to problems with my blood samples a further sample was taken and sent off to Blackpool hospital for analysis . My blood platelets were down which is what makes your blood clot, a further discussion with the surgeon and we wre ready to go. The staff nurses at the hospital were lovely, I eventually was taken down to theatre about 3pm and the op went well and was straight forward. When I came round I was monitored by one of the nurses before being taken back to my room. The tube that is put down your throat during surgery makes your voice a bit rough for a while after and I was not uncomfortable as given painkillers. The aneatatist came to see me and advised me that I suffered from sleep apnea where I stopped breathing whilst sleeping so hopefully with continued sustained weight loss this will be another ailment that is cured.

The only real pain I got was with the trapped wind. We stayed in hospital overnight and due to my sleep apnea I was checked regularly through the night. The following day the only problem was the trapped wind which gave me acute pain in my shoulder. It was a releif to return home on Wednesday. My stomach is swollen following surgery but my shoulder hurts that much i'm not really aware of any pain in my tummy area. I went to bed at approx 1.30am thinking I was going to be in for a long night,I propped myself up in bed and felt the strain on my stomach wounds as I lay down and my shoulder began to hurt. Anyway I had a heqted whey bean bag so tried to get in a comfy position and amazingly fell almost straight to sleep and awoke at 6.50am on Thursday - Great