ZhyKitty ~ Post Op Recovery ~ Welcome back !

Hi Cat,
I've read your posts, and see that you're doing very well! See? Did I lie? The small amount of food for fullness is amazing I think. You will gradually be able to tolerate more food, but it takes time.

Can you put gauze pads or something over the sores on your thighs? Sorry to hear you're suffering with them. Seriously...did you ever think THAT would be a problem you'd be dealing with?

I was at school volunteering in my son's third grade class all day today. (Every Wednesday) I just retired from teaching in June, so this gives me a chance to get my teaching "fix" every week! I worked until midnight last night making plans for my small reading group. I'm pooped tonight!

Have a great evening, and feel good!
Denise

I had to sleep in the recliner for a week. I'm a side/part stomach sleeper. I remember having pain sleeping on my side for about 3-4 days after moving to the bed. Things felt "loose" inside.

It's amazing how that gas can rock the house!LOL!

But believe me it will fade some over the next few months. I'm down to just tooting when I'm constipated.

 

Post Edited (couchtater) : 11/11/2010 5:47:08 PM (GMT-7)

Cat,

Once I am asleep, I am like the dead. I don't move! I am sleeping in a semi-sidelying position with pillows behind my back and I hold a pillow over my tummy so I won't scratch the itchy incisions on my belly during my sleep. I wake up in the morning in the same position I went to bed in most of the time.

And the gas...I ate LOTS of fiber in my normal diet, so I guess my body is used to it lol!

How did driving go today?

Too right girls!
I'm sleeping on a doubled up egg-crate mattress structure on my bed - it's also piled in comforters, cushions, and pillows.
It's like sleeping on a cloud.
In younger days I liked a harder bed but my body is sore - and I'm not as young as I used to be. lol

Although it's great to know that it would be possible to change, I'm a wild sleeper from the get go.
Being a twin, if I didnt maintain my space in the bed and control of the blankets, I'd have had problems - and it's a habit I dont think I can break easily... I cant share a bed to this day and have my own even though I'm happily married. *L*

I have always admired those who sleep like the dead. I married a huge man that sleeps like that....but he also snores like a bear (and is at least as big as one) so had I not been a kicking, curling, wild sleeper before I got my own room, I'd have been either steamrolled flat or driven insane years ago.

Ah well, being that these are truly the worst problems besides the blisters and the ft Knox situation that I'm dealing with, I'll consider myself fortunate. BT folks if ever you should get a blister in a place where you cannot bandage it, there's a products called Nexcare available which you should know about - a spray on bandage that moves and breathes like skin. Fabulous stuff.
Credit to my husband for the find.

I'm falling asleep now so I'll report/check in after the doctor/my first time driving tomorrow.

Maybe by then Newlywrapped will have updated her status too... lol

Cat

What a doctor's appointment it was too!

First I'll mention the driving - same as it always was - I was never very good at it. LOL
I rode over the curb when I left the dr office but that's not unusual for me and we can't go blaming it on the surgery! LOL
(I dont see well even with my glasses. lol)

So I went to the Dr and here's what's going on:

1. Pee tested all good.

2. Blood work was painful - they couldnt find a vein and had to hit me right on the wrist. It still stings.

3. The blisters ARE friction blisters! LOL I walked so much I got friction blisters! LOL
I got anti-biotics to make sure they dont get infected - but I think I'm going to stick to neosporin and liquid bandages.
I dont like to take antibiotics unless I REALLY need them.

4. Stomach x-rays showed that I'm full of poop - literally - from the bottom up to the colon but the colon is filled with gas and water so they predicted that in about 2 days I will be getting diarrhea which ought to sort everything out. So, the dumping process is on the way and it should resolve everything else. She said if the check which appears to be in the mail doesn't arrive by Monday to call them and let them know. She also said to get off the opiates because they make the muscles (which work to help you go) go to sleep sometimes and it looks like that is what has happened to me.

On the bright side - I'm 26 lbs lighter than I was in June - and you figure if I'm really that full of waste that when it all comes out I should lose at least another 3- 5 lbs. So, I'm happy with that.
(I never would have believed even 3 months ago that I would ever discuss such things in public if someone had told me.lol)

Thus, no laxatives prescribed - but she did tell me I might want to try a mineral oil enema to get things started if I felt pressure from it.

5. My bloodpressure was high again (though nothing like the numbers I was hitting before surgery) and they want me to take half of my usual dose of meds - which I'd been able to stop taking for a while. Ah well... can't have everything..... : )
I hope to be able to come back off of those meds once I'm healed.


Well, that's my daily update. I'm feeling better today in every other way than those little quirks!
This surgery was so worth it! All of this is nothing compared to what I was going through with the GERD and the Hernia.
I'd hate to but I'd do it again to feel as good as I do today. : )

Newlywrapped, when you get on later, make sure you give us an update too! : )

*Waves to Joy, Kitt and Denise*

Cat

Post Edited (ZhyKitty) : 11/12/2010 10:48:19 AM (GMT-7)

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! My father said almost the SAME thing! lol

I spent most of the day in bed watching movies.

Have a good evening! : )

Cat

I loaded the laptop with e-books, audio books, movies and music - and there is a table just across from the "water closet." lol
I am set to go! (I've even got a tube of desitin diaper cream on stand-by! lol)
Heck, I've been waiting to blast off into outer space all week with the gas....
If I were to draw a picture of myself it would be me being gas propelled through the yard (where I do most of my walking).
You could see it on the X-rays - it was wild looking.
That's a big check! LOL


Well, enough potty humor. I'm sure I'm giving you guys TMI - it's just that it sort of occupies your whole life at this point in the healing....and everything revolves around it. I'm sure you remember! Can't drink this or that - too much gas. Can't go far from the house - might get that check. I dont want any company - because you'd need a large sound system to drown out my stomach noises....etc.

I look forward to the time when this part is over... but it being the worst of the discomfort besides the shoulders - which is also gas come to think of it - it's really not all THAT bad.

It beats the reflux and chest pain any day! : )

Cat

Hi Cat,
Get used to the gurgling, because while it won't be with you all the time, it will come and go. You can hear it across the room!

LOL, Joy...farting in front of your class isn't fun! Kids love fart humor, and they don't take it politely. It's a teaching moment...how to hear a fart and be polite about it!

Hey, Cat...this is the forum of TMI...we couldn't communicate without TMI!

I got a call from my surgeon's office...I'm scheduled for a video esophogram next Tuesday--movies of my swallowing! Very fancy. Maybe I've got a future in silent movies! Instead of a piano, you and Joy can make the sounds for it!

Then on December 7th (I go in at noon, which sucks. No food all day...that sucks) I get the trifecta--manometry (12:45), then endoscopy(1:45), and they're putting in a special PH probe at that time--it has two points of measure...one higher than the other, to check for reflux that could reach lungs and vocal chords. It is supposed to measure movement, so supposedly that will check for bile reflux. We shall see. I go back the next day at 3 to get the probe out.

On the bright side, I go to see the surgeon just ten days after the test, which is a record in my experience. My other GI kept me waiting for months.

Fun, fun, fun!

Hope you have a great day!
Denise

Denise,

       

We'd make a great movie!

How's everything going, kitty?

How about it, folks!

Presenting the "Newly Wrapped Orchestra"!

 

Hi guys... *blinks, looking at the emoticon gathering*

Wow - I always miss out on the fun stuff! lol

Denise, I'm so glad you're getting in with the surgeon so quickly! That's about how it went with mine!
This time, I know you'll be lucky too!


Newlywrapped - hey! No progress with ft knoxx. I'm starting to think they lied to me.
At this moment I am finding out the hard way what happens when we eat something we aren't ready for.
Wow, it hurts.
Really hurts.
I'm not taking those pain meds anymore though.
They're the reason I wasnt on last night.
I took just one pill and I waited till 4 pm to do it after trying to do housework all day - and it threw me for a loop.
I never cared for opiates, they make me so nauseous sometimes and I need to be seriously hurting to take them or I get very, very high which I dont like. So, I'm done with the pain meds.

Just now I picked up and ate a piece of fish. I thought since swallowing is so much easier now that that would be okay as long as I chewed good - but it wasn't. Note to self, some things that will pass the wrap ok will still irritate your tummy.

Well, tomorrow I wont get so ahead of myself.

I will say every day is better than the one before it. I almost feel guilty that my surgery went so well.
Every problem I had going in was solved and I'm improving every day.
Maybe that's needed on here too though so other new people wont hear nothing but scary stories. *L*

Newlywrapped, how are you doing? Any problems at all?

Mine have been so minor compared to everything I read about here....on day 12 I can eat some solids without pain - others still hurt.
No problem with swelling, cuts healing, soreness backing off.....you can feel it if you push yourself too much but I think it's going to be hard to remember to be gentle by the beginning of week 6 if I improve this much every week....


*waves to the people amassing emoticons*

You people are nuts.... lol

Cat

Congratulations!!!!!!

That's such wonderful news!!!!!! *hugs & smiles*