Hi Annie, I had the hiatius hernia operation 6 months ago, it was performed via key hole surgery and because of this i thought i would be ok after a week, but in fact i thought it was fairly major, after the operation you are put on a liquid diet for approx 3-4 weeks, then you can gradually start to introduce more solid foods, to be honest it took me at least 4months to be eating normally again, when you first have the operation you can literally only eat a few mouthfuls, its such a strange feeling, and keep off the fizzy pop. Be prepaired to lose at least 1stone in weight, for some thats a good thing others not. Hope this has helped you along your way, if you are suffering it is well worth the operation, i just wish i was more prepared for how i was going to feel after the operation, one other thing chew your foodproperly or it will get stuck, and you lose the ability to be sick..   If you need to know anything else just ask..   Elaine