Â
The surgery was worse than I expected. It affected me in so many ways-I felt weak and dizzy to the point of nausea if I sat up too straight in bed, much less got out of bed. I felt way more general pain all over than I expected. I couldn't drink any water or eat any food for the first 24 hours (brutal), and moving around on the bed-even to squidge upward-was fine the first day (thank you anesthesia) and excruciating the second.
All in all, it hurt. As I mentioned in one of my videos, it's really easy to think of laproscopic surgery as kind of minimally invasive and minimally painful. To be honest, it's real surgery. And surgery is never going to be fun or a walk in the park.
Since coming home, I feel like I don't even know my own body. And not yet in that exciting, weight-loss kind of way-right now things are sore and swollen and muscles are bunched up around my stomach (especially the port site, that seems to be the most sore and aggravated), I'm tired then dizzy, then weak, then cold, then perfectly warm, then shaky. I know my body's healing, but it's a little bit of a ride. And food has been difficult. The first day and a half home from the hospital (so days 2 and 3 post op) I had a real problem even sipping. Everything seemed to be sitting in my chest and nothing seemed to be passing through the band, and it was really uncomfortable and painful. I'd have to sleep for an hour after a few sips of a protein shake.
Gradually, of course, things loosened up. On Day 4 post op I was pretty comfortable swallowing liquids and I had coughed up most of the phlegm that accumulates in your lungs during surgery (why, I don't know, but if you don't cough a lot you can develop pneumonia, and I'll take a pass on that. Whoever thought coughing is a good idea for abdominal surgery, however, is a terrible person), which meant I could stop coughing so much, and I felt a noticeable improvement in mental clarity and strength.
It's Day 5 today, and I can walk around now, I'm getting more strength back, and I'm very excited to lower my dosage on the pain meds. Day 5, however, has been the most exhausted of all, and I'm hoping this will mean good things for Day 6, as I've been almost narcoleptic today. I'm also having issues controlling my blood sugar, however, as I work toward a full regimen of protein shakes. We'll see how it goes.
Overall, though, the thing that's really struck me the most is how many people are supporting me in this. My team at Brigham and Women's was amazing-nurse Vicki in the PACU, and nurses Liz, Megan (who was due to have her baby YESTERDAY and was still a wonderful, attentive nurse) and Charlotte were so wonderful to me. Dr. Vernon did my surgery and was tremendous, and Dr. Zaleski helped me post-op and was so wicked nice. On top of that, friends and family were there for me in person and via internet in a way that just made me feel like so many people are and will continue to be 100% behind me. So more than all the pain, thank you all for the love, prayers, and support.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
