See??!! I TOLD you I was worried I would be bad about keeping this up. I knew it would be tough before surgery since there was really nothing to report on, but I thought after surgery, it would be a daily thing. I was wrong :( Part of the problem was that while at home recovering from surgery, I was reading and lurking from my little netbook on my recliner and it's too hard to type while sitting in a recliner on a netbook!
But today I am back at work (yesterday first day back) so now I am at my desk and fully present again!
All the days leading up to surgery, since I last posted, were uneventful. I was worried more about this surgery than any other I've had, and of course was worried as I have a beautiful little boy who needs his mommy, but never once did I doubt the decision I had made.
So, to make a long story short (which by now, you probably know I can't do!), I had a fantastic surgery with no complications, very little pain, very fast recovery....pretty boring overall. I was surprised when I woke up from surgery how much pain I was in, though, even with a PCA pump. I thought it would be minimal compared to other surgeries, but I was surprised. Especially for me, since I have a VERY high tolerance to pain and heal really fast. (I was walking the halls and carrying my baby the same day as my C-section with the nurses yelling at me the whole time). I was fine by the next day, though. Not perfect, was sore and was definitely moving around gingerly, but I was okay with my pain meds. I was off my pain meds by day 4, even my liquid Tylenol.
I had one scare the day after during my leak test (drink contrast while the doctor watches on a screen). I went down to radiology and drank this nasty, foul, awful contrast (worse than normal contrast in case it gets in your body through a potential leak). I was afraid I was going to have to drink about 8 oz, but they said only about 1-2, so that was good. At this point, I was so freakin' thirsty, I thought ANY kind of wetness would be good, but boy was I wrong! That stuff is soooooo bitter! Anyhoo, I stood in front of the scanner, drank my cocktail, and waited, but the radiologist told me it wasn't moving...it was stuck at the bottom of my esophagus and not going anywhere. I asked if that was normal, and he said, not really -it's normal to have it go really slow, but not to not move at all. So then I started to get worried. He had me sit for about 5 -10 minutes, then had me stand in front of the scanner again, but it still hadn't moved. Now I was getting MORE worried. I was SOOO thirsty and I know they weren't going to let me drink, obviously, if I couldn't get anything down! So then he had me go for a walk around the radiology dept and come back. Once I got back and stood in front of the scanner again, a little had moved all the through, but most was still stuck up top. They didn't make me drink anymore nasties, though. Then he said he would call my doctor to discuss, but I still could not have anything by mouth. Now, I had had surgery at 7:30 the preceding morning and I wasn't even allowed ICE CHIPS! Nothing by mouth meant NOTHING, I guess. And I was so dry.
So went back to my room all worried about the leak test since almost nothing went through...did I have a stricture already? Was I just really swollen?? And how could they know if I had a potential leak because they didn't see the fluid go through??
Anyway, my doctor came a little bit later on his rounds, told me everything looked fine, enough went through where they could see if there were leak problems or potential and not to worry about the fluid not going down, it was only because I was swollen and it would ease. But the most important thing was that I could have fluids now! Hallelujah!!! After that, it was uneventful and I was home by five that day.
At home, it was really weird trying to drink as there was always that 'pressure'....this little 'hangup' before whatever I'd drank decided to move into my new little tummy. I was very conscious of this because of my failed leak test and figured liquid was just hanging out in my esophagus and I didn’t want to ‘flood’ myself. I would just drink really, really slow and it slowly got better, day by day. I started on full liquids, so I was drinking protein shakes, Carnation instant breakfast with fortified milk and unflavored protein (which is NEVER unflavored), strained cream soups. Not much the first few days, obviously. I didn’t even try to get in the 700 calories and 50 grams of protein minimum my doctor wanted. There was no way. I just drank water to keep hydrated and took in what I could. As they days went on, the more I take. I was actually surprised by day five or so what I could take in. I had always read that people couldn’t even take in four teaspoons of liquid, but I could drink an 8oz shake in about a half hour (after about 3-4 days, that is). But still, that pressure if I took too big of sips, or too many at once. And through all this, NO HUNGER, thank God. I did have small, very small cravings, like “wouldn’t that be good,” or wouldn’t that taste good right now”, but easily ignored and looked over as the head hunger it was.
So, just day after day, each day got better, each day I could take in a little more. Which leads to today….which I will continue in the next post, since this one is getting SOOOO long!!!
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