In, down, and out (that's me)
Out, stitched, and in. (that's the stoma)
After the op I was woozy with the wretched morphine drip .. it doesn't suit me very well, but otherwise .. GREAT. Mrs Hall says it was "easy" .. I was in theatre for less than an hour and the hernia mended to boot. No drain, no catheter and out of bed onto my feet 2 hours after I got back to my room. (This, on account of having spilt a beaker of water in the bed and the easiest way to change the sheets was to get me off them .. !!)
They had me on regular obs and oxygen for about 36 hours, but nothing to worry about. Blood pressure and SATs went quite low, but blood tests showed all functions normal and no anaemia.
Tuesday 3rd June
Allowed to eat "little and often". A bit apprehensive cos yesterday's water mostly got puked back up, on account of how windy you get with abdominal surgery .. but it takes a lot to stop me eating ..so ...
- weetabix for brekkie
- soup for lunch
- mash n gravy for tea ...
Mrs Hall told me months ago that this operation would be "a walk in the park" compared to the first one, it seems she is right - just 24 hours after the operation and I generally feel fine, am not in too much pain and can move about pretty well already.
Wednesday 3rd June
Still eating but poohing pretty much stopped today. Now I can start to fret about getting constipated! Ate an extra banana and some apple juice!
Slept all night.
Thursday 4th June
Mrs Hall saw me at 6pm and B brought me home at 7pm.
Still a bit anxious about not poohing very much, re-reading all my cancer mates' blogs/forums about their experiences of reversals and exchanging emails with Moley about how to get on with this.
I love the intenet.
I love my stressless chair, too.
Slept all night on my stressless recliner chair - two reasons for not using my own bed yet: I don't like lying flat and I miss the electric back rest in the hospital bed which saves your abdomen a lot of grief ... stresless chairs lift you up and down easily ..
Friday 5th June
Today I was pleased to see that various mates who I've not heard from for a while are still reading in here ..hiya to Erin, Greg, Christine, Venita, Ann, and anyone else who is reading but not commenting.
Saturday 6th June
Not much loo-action yesterday or today, so felt OK to risk going up 'anley duck, to get my new, , varifocal, vavavoom, Valentino sunglasses ... which are a purely practical investment to make my house-bound days in the garden easier!
Sunday 7th June
Hell. This. Is.
Hell.
Nearly 30 trips to the loo in one day is not funny.
This makes me house-bound and this is also very painful. This is what I was warned about. It is urgent and uncontrollable but (thankfully) only painful in short bursts.
My surgeon calls this toilet-training thing an "adjustment" and classifies it as a "medium-term" problem -- i.e. it won't get sorted over-night. She reckons 2 -4 months to feel you're getting some decent control and up to 6 months for a sense of bering settled into a predicatable pattern and routine with it, but today .. ARGH
The pain isn't from broken skin (yet!) it seems to be a choice of pains which signify the "need to go":
... pain like sense of having a pole jammed HARD up my backside,
or
.....a razor twsited round it
This is the "urgency" thing and this is what hurts .. presumably cos it's had 18 months of not being used, and also cos I don't have much bowel left, and no rectum, so my storage facility is compromised. I can either accept this message .. which today I've mostly been choosing to do and go straight to the loo ..
Or I can try to "control" it which hurts even more .. i.e. ignore it and walk around grimacing whimpering and hoping it goes away .. I've had some success with this, but it feels like an addict declining a fix, cos the pain relief from using the loo is quicker than the control training.
It easier to get the quick fix of using the loo but I wont get "better" without learning to decline the quick fix.
Hopefully:
a) my muscles will get used to being used again and will hurt less,
b) I'll get better at controlling it without the distracted pacing about and grimacing, which makes me pretty anti-social just now!
Monday 8th June
One week since the surgery ..
Well - so far do good - only one loo trip today and I've been up 3 hours .. whooo!
Mum and dad are here and they've just gone out on a shopping trip.
5 comments:
I'm siting here, reading this feeling the twisting razor and willing myself NOT to go to the loo! Oh Suze, I'm sure it will get better.......
Moley
I hope you're right!
just a quick catchup on how you're doing, glad to read the positives as well as the negatives!
avid
Hi. Oh dear! reading the razor bit made me wince. I did a pelvic floor thing just now. Actually, I should do that anyway, but don't do it. At least you are doing what the doctor & med staff tell you, so I'm sure it will get better. I'll pray for that to happen.
Anyway, love to you & B & your parents who are with you right now.
It was nice to see them t'other day. Hope to see you as well soon.
Love. Cousin Pauline. xxxxx
Are Mum and Dad still with you? Hope your weekend goes better love Julie
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