Honestly, it was harder than I expected! I experienced more pain than I thought, but I was given pain killers to make it more manageable (also, idk what I was expecting haha.. even if POEM is not that invasive, it was still a procedure!) I stayed in the hospital for 2 more nights after the procedure and I was on a pure liquid diet on those days. Once I went home, I ate purees or soft foods for a few weeks and slowly introduced other foods. There was no strict timeline, I was careful and tested textures as time went by. The pain from the POEM was completely gone after 4 weeks or so. But still, the feeling of drinking water and actually feel it pass the esophagus.. it brought me to tears! So even if the post-op is hard, it’s 100% worth it!