mrsdworden
Post-op day 3 & 4
Jan 25, 2019
Here I am again with your faithful update.
Wednesday morning we were still in hosptial, recovering. My husband was in a lot of pain but I was doing rather well! I was able to get up and move with no real trouble, he seemed to have gas stuck in his chest. We think we figured out why...he had misunderstood the breathing exercises and was only doing 1 breath while I was doing 10 per hour. So please make sure you do the breathing!!
At around 8am they came and whisked us off to X-ray where we drank the contrast for the barium X-ray. Don’t be afraid...it tastes like flavorless chalky water. No big deal. Now knowing what it does, i would drink it all day. We were able to see our brand new stomach on the X-ray (its less than 10cm wide but the way) and NO LEAKS! YIPPEEE!!!
Later on, one of the surgeons came and removed our drains. Ok that ish is just flat out weird. (No, i didnt look because I’m a chicken). It is quick and painless, and just ....weird. Ya gotta do it...just embrace it; its over before you know it.
BEST PART: they told us we could go home early. We jumped on that train! We packed up and headed out at about 1:30pm. They gave us a departing packet with instructions on how to shower, care for our drain incision, some nexium (which we crack and drink the little balls with a shot of water), some pain meds, and copies of all our medical records which we can copy and give to our Primary Doctor in the States (how cool is that?).
Once we were home.....the sleep came HARD! I didnt want to get out of my wonderful bed. Wednesday was sleep day 100%. When i woke on Thursday, I wanted a shower so bad I could scream. It was fully awkward knowing that i have an open wound but I still enjoyed every second of it, even though it took all my energy. I laid down for a while afterwards...I’m giving myself a full pass on being lazy and healing at my own pace. Soon i felt good enough to get up and head to the living room (btw the hubby has much more energy now and is fully without pain), I took a sublingual shot of B vitamins hoping for a pick-me-up and I did pretty good all day! My energy really ebbs and flows but Im not worrying just yet.
Overall day 4 was just resting on the couch....minus the dramatic event of our neighbors dog falling in the community lake while they are away on vacation and we were the only people home to rescue it......sigh...can you imagine if we were both at work!!!!??? Poor thing would have been there for hours until their housesitter arrived home.
I confess, i am starting to dream of soft foods and I’m counting the days until i can drink milk again. The nice part is, I’m not freaking out over it. My stomach is no longer my driving force behind what I eat. It’s amazing to recognize how much it was in control of me. Telling me i “needed” that 4th taco to feel better. *to feel better*!! What the hell is that? Now it’s me saying, You need your protein and your waters to stay healthy and theres no argument from King Tummy.
I know this is only temporary and before I know it I will be able to chew again and I will be able to live on a healthy, serving-size-appropriate meal and no longer stuffing myself because there is still food on the plate that i “need” or “should” finish. I am so eager to break free from those made up rules that only left me feeling full of guilt instead of nourishment. I’m ready to savor the flavor of a food instead of shoving as much into me as a can until i feel “better”.
Whew....pretty early for all this revelation. I think i’ll close with that. Hopefully, I’ll be back tonight to finish out our Day 5 details. I imagine it will get more boring from here but who knows!
Thanks for dropping by and have a great day!
