txhotmomma
Five Weeks Post Pannilectomy
Mar 15, 2011
I think this was one of the worst decisions of my life, if not the worst! I would not choose to do this again if I could go back and do it all over again. I understand everyone has different issues and my circumstance may be unique to me, but in my case, and me personally, I would not reccomend this to anyone!I was so excited to get my pannilectomy. I was working out two to three hours a day to make sure my body was in the best physical shape for surgery. I had lost 140 lbs, and although my skin was not horrible, I definitly wanted the pannilectomy to get rid of it! I was so ready, or so I thought, for this chapter to start.
My surgery was on Friday, February 4th. Everything went fine, I was doing great even into Saturday. Saturday morning the nurse came to get me up to try to sit up and walk, and when I sat up on the side of the bed I passed out. So they put me back in the bed and waited for the dr. Two hours later I needed to go to the bathroom but they had already taken my catheder out. The nurse asked the dr, and he said I could use a bed pan or go to the rest room. Of coarse I was not going to use a bed pan! I am going to the bathroom, so I hurried with the nurse and my husbands help to get to the potty, and as soon as I got there, passed out again. They took my blood and ran some tests and my blood count was down to 9 and was supposed to be a 10. I don't even remember them re-inserting the catheder, but they did. That was when they started the first blood transfusion. I felt fine, except for a little pain in my tummy, wich I thought and the nurse agreed that it was probably gas pains from the surgery. I was ordered to stay in bed until my blood count went up.
Sunday morning my blood count was at 8 and my stomach pain was starting to increase. The dr came in and said that I had internal bleeding and had to have another surgery. They then decided to give me a pick line instead of an iv line. By noon I was being taken to surgery again, to be re-opened and my bleeding stopped and cleaned out. My husband and I truely beleived I was going to bleed to death on the table and that was the end of the line for me. By the time I was going into surgery the pain in my stomach had increased to almost unbearable! It was a very irie feeling, beeing wheeled into the empty surgery area on a Sunday afternoon with no one around except for the dr and nurses for my surgery.
Thankfully by Thursday, and after 8, yes I said eight, blood transfussions, I was doing better and released to go home. The dr said he thought everything was fine, although I may have to have another surgery, but only time would tell. I went home with four drains, to be cleaned twice a day, and my compression band.
I had one drain taken out per week. One week I made the mistake of not takeing pain meds before my apt, and that was a HUGE mistake! Thankfully my husband had gotten time off from work to help at home and my mother was able to come and help as well, as there would have been no other way we could have made it. We also had a great support system in place with friends and church family that were so wonderful to help!
Now I am five weeks post op - still not feeling 100% I would say I am at about 75-80% right now. I still get tired, I still hurt where my bleeding was, I still swell by the end of the day and I am depressed from everything I have been through.
With all that said, I know my God is bigger than me and my troubles and that He will see me through to the end. God says in John 14:18 "I will not leave you as orphans: I will come to you" I know God did not and will not leave me. I did learn that my body and my obsession with my body is not the fight to be fighting, it is not the reason I am here, and there are many more things that are much more important than my skin. God showed me in the time before my second surgery that I am to love God first and then love others the way that He has loved me. A simple truth we all know, but is much harder to live by.
before and after pics to be posted soon
