33 Hours Post-Op

So before, in the happy little corners of my mind, I thought there's no way that this recovery would be as bad as recovering from a c-section. They weren't cutting through muscle this time around, I managed 9 years ago, it'll be a breeze.

I am waiting for the breeziness to occur. Still waiting...

No they weren't cutting through the muscle, but they were stitching all that muscle back together. So frankly the least of my worries right now is the actual incision. The amount of muscle pain that I am feeling from right below my ribs to right above my hip line is, probably an 8. As long as I don't move at all, I'm okay, but if I try to shift in any direction - HOLY CAMOLE does it hurt!

Yesterday was alright. We were supposed to arrive at the surgical facility at 7:30, well due to traffic into Toronto on a Thursday morning we got to town at 7:58. At 6:30 we're in Oshawa and I'm looking around thinking "What are all you people doing up now? Are you nuts?" So I call the nurse's station to let them know we're on our way, and Barb (nurse supreme) says, "Don't worry, we won't start without you." I hate being late for anything. And now I was going to be late for my own surgery, where a Dr. was going to cut me from hip to hip and now that Dr. might be irritated with me because I was late.

Thankfully she wasn't. I got into the OR at 8:15 and the anaesthesiologist was fitting me with an IV and I was just thinking that all the cabinetry on the far side of the room was dancing a bit, when the next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room. Apparently the surgery took about 2 hours and 20 minutes. All went well. It took me a while to stop being all fuzzy headed. I got to have some sips of water, my husband came in and sat with me for a bit. I sat up and immediately got pretty woozy, so the nurse gave me some gravol in my IV. I got taken to the bathroom via wheelchair the first time out and wheeled back after a fairly non-eventful pee. I found myself surprised at how straight I seemed to be standing when I was on my feet (that is NO longer the case). Second time to the bathroom and hour later I went via wheelchair, but managed to walk back to the recovery room. Third trip I was up and back and getting dressed with my husband's help. Realized that without bed-rails at home, my mobility was going to be an issue.

We had a non-eventful ride home, I was still kind of loopy. My husband dropped off the prescription for my T3s and then got me settled in the recliner in our family room.  I love my recliner. And you know why I love my recliner? Because you can't tell that it's a recliner until you actually recline in it. There are no levers or buttons or anything to take away from the attractiveness of this chair. Which is lovely for a camouflaged piece of furniture, but not great when one has to engage one's legs and stomach muscles to recline or come out of a recline. And my arms aren't quite long enough to reach the end of the arm rests so that I can really get a grip and use my arms instead of my core muscles. Which means I must rely upon my spouse or child to lower me into the recline or get me out of it.

Those T3s that I was taking last night? Well, unbeknownst to me, they also had caffeine in them. I have this thing with caffeine. I can't have caffeine after noon. I have one cup of coffee (really it's half a cup of coffee with half a cup of soy milk) in the morning and that's it for me. When I was 18 I thought I was suffering from insomnia, when in actuality, I was drinking caffeinated tea after dinner and that was keeping me up. So last night, whacked out on the T3s? I was stoned out my head, but completely unable to sleep. ALL NIGHT. I finally slept at 4:30 a.m. when I took 2 extra strength Advil plus some back medication.

When I spoke to the Dr. today about getting a different prescription without caffeine in it she was genuinely astounded that the caffeine would keep me up. I have a freakish metabolism. I am quite looking forward to crashing tonight with the plain codeine although the Dr. is worried that I'll have issues with constipation because of the pain meds. As long as I can get a restful sleep tonight I'm sure that I'll be much better tomorrow.

Right now? Sitting here typing, the thing that is the most painful for me? It's my ass. My ass is pretty much numb from sitting all day. I hate that I have to walkie-talkie my family to get them to help me up. Invariably, I would forget to take the walkie-talkie with me so I would end up yelling for my husband anyway. My poor daughter is looking at me like I've lost my mind and I've pretty much said to her

"Don't gain 50 pounds with your first baby. ONLY gain 25 pounds. ONLY 25 lbs! And don't have babies when you're in your late 30s." 

Because I don't want her to be in this position when she's 41 thinking to herself  "Am I completely out of my ever-lovin' mind?"

And my period? It started tonight. So my poor husband got a crash course in affixing a maxi-pad to panties and then wiggling them up my thighs and then slightly under the binder. So far since the operation, I haven't been wearing any panties so that I don't have to contend with the pulling them up an down. Sorry if that's too much information, but it's WAY easier this way, believe me and now I have to wear panties and I ain't happy about it.

But all in all, in spite of the pain - it's okay. That's not to say that I wouldn't just rather be in a coma for say two weeks and then be able to leap out of bed all able to stand up without a drain sticking out of my body - which is also REALLY grossing out my daughter - but because that's not an option, I'm choosing to believe that tomorrow will be better than today and the day after will be even better than that and before you know it I will be able to stand up right and walk more than to my kitchen.

Cheers!
Heather