After Surgery

I am home after surgery. I actually got home yesterday afternoon. The surgery went well. Gi doc was able to grab the mystery bump with the colonoscopy. Surgeon cleaned up scar tissue (from appendectomy 12 years ago? from Crohns? From some sort of girl part source? no idea) through the lap. They thought I would be able to go home the same day but it quickly became apparent this was not happening.

Pain control was a big issue as shaking everything up down there made the crohn's unhappy as well as all the jiggled parts screaming at everyone that they didn't deserve that sort of invasion, not to mention the parts that got sliced and diced. Oddly enough, you can't go home if you pass out from pain.

Then my blood pressure dropped way low. So, then I had to stay until it stabilized into something more normal but still lower than normal.

The mystery bump is still a mystery. G.I. Doc wouldn't say without pathology report coming back, which will be mid-week some time. So, for right now, it is a "cecal mass" still.

I haven't eaten yet really. Jello, broth, a graham cracker that made me most unhappy and a roll that mostly came up almost immediately. My hands and feet are swollen. My left hand is very swollen but looking better. The i.v. infiltrated. I told them to do something about it when it started to hurt, but they flushed it and claimed it was fine. Two hours later when it was all swollen and gross they acted like I had not ever mentioned this to them. Arg. It really just looks awful, not hurt, though typing is making it a bit owie in a stiff sort of way. Lovely bruises on my arms from failed iv attempts.

Biggest annoyance (other than never imagining this would hurt like the dickens) has been having trouble peeing. It is better now but at first, getting the muscles to work right to pee was not happening at all.

Biggest hospital annoyance: LOUD people. My roommates had loud visitors. The hallways were full of loud visitors. I was massively annoyed by the 12 or so yo boy hanging out in the hall when they wanted to transfer me from the gurney to the room. Uh...I know my butt is hanging out and I don't really want to flash that kid. He needs to go into a room or proceed quickly to a non patient part of the hospital.

Another annoyance: nurse arguing with us about my daily meds because they weren't on the order. I definitely need the imuran or I will be back here with more serious issues than this really soon. That nurse also had a hard time understanding what I was saying, a propensity for not answering questions about meds (sorry but I am going to ask what you are giving me and why) and 3 days into this fun still thought my partner was my mother.

What was interesting about the one roommate with the loud visitors was that she complained that she wasn't in a private room because I had to go to her side of the room to use the bathroom and the toilet flushing was loud.

The hospital kitchen is being remodeled so the meals seem to have taken a turn for the worse for visitors as well as patients. It was just as well that I couldn't eat because the boiled cauliflower and fried, mayonaise and gravy doused items that appeared on people's trays made my powdered broth look inviting. I don't know how they expect people to make healthy dietary choices when they can't offer them on a hospital tray.

Good things: nurse in surgery recovery was very good even though she had this thing for kissing my forehead. TLC in the hospital room. (even though I never stayed awake for a whole show and frequently had no idea at all about it) Finding out that the OR prep nurse had a colostomy and used to like ginger ale but gags when she sees it in the grocery store now too.

Below is the picture of the lap incisions. There are three. You can't actually see the one in my belly button. The small red line toward the middle at the top is the first. The third is the red line in the middle of the brownish (betadine) area at the bottom. They each were covered by a band-aid, with very little blood. (They traced the outline of the blood on the bandaid so they could tell if they were bleeding, and they definitely didn't bleed much.) The bottom bruise is pretty nasty but the incisions seem to be healing well.