Week 1 after Surgery

May 11, 2009

OK, I was discharged on Sunday, May 3rd and I stayed at my sister's house because she is much closer to the hospital than I am.  It was more convenient for both of us - I needed assistance and my sister & husband were there to help.  My sister was going to her nephews graduation in a few days (out of state) and needed someone to feed her two cats while they were gone - so it was good for all of us.

So it wasn't an eventful week, just sleep, choke down some protein (boy, some of that stuff is down right nasty!), have broth and/or sugar free Jello.  And as much water as possible - at least 64oz per day - which can be tough as my "pouch" can only hold 1 oz right now.  Prior to surgery, I ordered a number of different proteins and a couple of sugar-free syrups to try.  Thank goodness I tried a bunch of sample packs because at least I had some other choices if I couldn't tolerate any one of them.  Our mantra for the first week is:  Walk, walk walk - Sip, sip sip!

The first few days after surgery, I found that my senses of smell and taste was either heightened or skewed - everything started to smell awful - I couldn't stand the smell of anything - and it was driving me nuts - and making it even harder to get my protein drinks in because they smelled awful too!  The chicken broth that I was able to sip in the hospital, was now the most fowl smelling yuckie stuff, that I couldn't sip it if you paid me - the only thing I could get down was the sugar free jello and water.

I tried to get a couple of sips of protein each day, even though I was no where near the 60 grams a day that I was supposed to be working towards.  What can I say, but I tried.

Thursday, May 7, 2009
I had my first follow-up appointment with the Nurse Practitioner, Corinne Vigilante - I like her - she knows her stuff and she is very sweet.  We talked about how my first week went and I told her my experiences with trying to choke down the protein.  I still feel really, really, good - not weak, like I thought I would due to lack of sustenance.  I'm walking a little bit inside the house (it's been raining) - doing my laps around the kitchen, through the dining room, into the living room down the hall and back, a couple of times a day.  This is a good thing - but don't over do it - pace myself.  I can do this!

I came off of my pain medication with in a couple of days of being home - I can't remember exactly when I stopped, but I know it was just 2 or 3 days after I left the hospital - feeling really good!

My blood pressure is perfect!  I haven't had regular BP for I don't know how long and today it's not only regular, but perfect!  I am still in shock - thrilled, but in shock!  I don't have a fever, my pulse is good too! 

Corinne gives me the green light to go onto soft foods beginning on Friday - yahoo!  This should make it much easier to incorporate the protein powders into some of my soft foods.  Soft foods are foods that do not require very much chewing, like loosely scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, string cheese, etc.  I can't wait to start this phase - who ever thought that I would be this excited about having 1 scrambled egg!  This will be a feast (lol)!

Next, Corinne checks out all of my incisions (six) - she removes the band-aids (leaving the steri-strips) and all look good.  The only one to remain covered with gauze, is the incision in my belly button because it is still weeping just a bit.  She says to leave it covered for a few more days and then remove the gauze so that the air can get to it.  We wrap up the visit and next week I'll see the nutritionist and get my first set of labs done.

I am so excited to be able to move on to soft foods, that my husband and I stop at the supermarket to pick up a few things, like eggs, Eggbeaters, skim milk, cottage cheese, greek yogurt - these foods are high in protein - again, I have to work up to 60 grams of protein a day.  I won't be able to reach 60 grams without adding my protein powders to some of the these foods - but that's OK, I'm still experimenting and figure I'll eventually find something that I can make or that I like enough to keep adding the protein powders to.  It's a challenge, but I'm up to it.

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