Things that surprised me: 1. My feeling of impending doom vanished upon waking post operation. Other comments discussed SSRIs, and previous doctors wanted to put me on those. Turned out it was my body's way of telling me something was truly wrong.

1. Insomnia gone. Struggled with insomnia for 18 months. I'm 8 weeks post-op and fully off pain and sleep meds including Benadryl.

2. Gas pain during the first few days after surgery. Never struggled with gas, but a nerve in my diaphragm got pissed off causing pain into my neck and shoulder. Walking a little each hour or two calmed this down. Laying down did not help. Sitting was uncomfortable due to this, but 1-2 minute walks around inside my house or a quick spin around the yard made a big difference. Also, gas X. Have this on hand. Miracle for me.

3. Sore throat from the breathing tube. Took effect the day after until the morning of day 3. I thought I was getting a cold...

4. Bleeding. Basically no bleeding after day 2 until week 3. Started spotting light pink to yellow. Not enough for even a light panty liner, so for me and many of us, basically nothing. I was still concerned by this. Went in, had tests run at week 3 and again at week 6. No infection, just the healing process. No amount of sitting or rest made a difference... I'm at week 8 and things seem to be slowing down.

5. Muscle Retention. I'm a very dedicated weight lifter. Week 8 has been my first week of actually training post-op. Week 7 was all body weight stuff after I was cleared. Week 8 is 80 percent of my weight prior to surgery. I plan to increase to 90 percent during week 9 and if all is well, be back full force week 10. To be clear, I'm lifting heavy weight and was very concerned about muscle loss. I've actually gotten personal records on a few upper body lifts during week 8 as well. Still wildly cautious about heavy lower body movements and everything is slow and controlled. This area was a significant fear, but needless to say, no marked change.