Hello, hello. I got home yesterday from the hospital and it is so nice to be home. Now that I'm more comfortable and a tad more lucid I am going to give you the run down of my week more than I could in the last post.
Monday finally came after a slow moving weekend and a LOOONNGG day of prep on Sunday. Monday I didn't have to be to the hospital until 1030a and I was just ITCHING to get moving after driving my daughter to school at 745a.
Fast forward to the hospital--- typical fluids and blood draw etc.. but then they put me in this gown that they blow warm into... because apparently the body being warm promotes healing. Shivering takes energy away from healing. Here's the crazy inflated gown.
Oh, how nice was it that I unknowingly matched my pedicure to the puffy gown-->
Nice right!!?? Ha. So at about 1pm I meet the anesthesiologist. He gives me some diluadid and some valium. Apparently the valium is to reduce muscle spasms and I would be getting more later. Mat told me we were around talking for a bit after the valium. I remember nothing. I don't remember saying goodbye or anything. This is the last thing I recall ---->
I am truly a light weight. My surgery took about 3.5 hours. My incision is bigger than planned because my surgeon got in there to look around and make sure he didn't see Crohn's anywhere. That's why I chose the version of the surgery I did instead of the full laproscopic that almost has zero scarring. I wanted him to look at it, not just through the camera.
I vaguely remember waking up in my room. I distinctly remember the pain. I can not describe it. I was about 80% out of it, but some things break through. My husband said when they were moving me from the gurney to the bed I was making what he described as 'whale sounds' in response to the pain. It wasn't human. I don't remember much else, but I do remember this because I didn't like the first one so I made him retake it so I was waving. I'm a weirdo. This was shortly after getting into my room. Maybe 90 minutes after surgery ended.--->
I don't remember much about that night luckily. The next day was not so hot either. A lot of pain. Long day. There were not enough pain meds on Tuesday. OMG. Plus, I had a total asshole RN who works a different department who was filling in. He basically was implying I didn't need the amount of pain meds I was asking for and that I was just, ya know, trying to get high one day after major surgery. Needless to say, he was dealt with. I had a LONG chat with the nurse manager. You don't mess with me on a good day, much less a day after I had an organ removed.
This was the best thing about being in the hospital---->
The personal pain med button. That little blue button delivered magic via IV. I didn't have to call and wait. It was great. The first few days were tough. When you are in pain you breath really shallow which could end up causing pneumonia because your lungs are not expanded all the way. And given my history this spring of having had it, I had to meet with a respiratory therapist twice a day and do breathing exercises that sucked really bad. Holy shit. Taking a deep breath into this spirometer thing made me want to cry. It's unreal how you don't notice what you use your abdominal area for until it's hurting. I started walking and just forcing myself to take deep breaths because the thought of going through all that and then getting stuck in the hospital even longer for pneumonia was too much to handle. I fought through it. I would just put pressure on my wounds and breathe in so that they were kinda held in place. Same thing with coughing, sneezing etc. It's as if I had to hold myself together. Within 2 days I passed their tests and they were just testing my O2 level in my blood. I was 100% so they were happy. After surgery it was only 80%.
Okay, wanna see my guts? Ok, good. Here they are.
Totally rotten and diseased. I am so glad they are gone. I am so glad they are no longer sucking the life out of me anymore. They should be pink. They are yellow because they are sick, and infected. They are scarred and mishappen because of years of ulcers and disease. Many people with UC fight to keep their intestines. I will never understand it. As hard as this last week was, it was easier than one or two days of really bad flares. This was a long time coming. I have a long road ahead but it can only get better.
About Day 4 I was feeling this ----->
Day 5 ---> Loony
Very long week. Today I had my first visit with my home health nurse who will help me deal with my new ostomy and make sure I'm healing ok in between doctor's appointments. I won't be driving for a while. Or swimming. Or eating anything yummy. But I'm fine with that....That's temporary. Tomorrow's a new day...hopefully a little less pain. Still trying to deal with the physical element of it all. It's not pretty. A large vertical incision, the stoma. Emotionally, I'm still coming to terms with it. It's very hard for me to look at.
I go see my surgeon tomorrow. We'll see what kind of good stuff he has for me.
Good night everyone. Thanks for reading. XO
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Hello, hello. I got home yesterday from the hospital and it is so nice to be home. Now that I'm more comfortable and a tad more lucid I am going to give you the run down of my week more than I could in the last post.
Monday finally came after a slow moving weekend and a LOOONNGG day of prep on Sunday. Monday I didn't have to be to the hospital until 1030a and I was just ITCHING to get moving after driving my daughter to school at 745a.
Fast forward to the hospital--- typical fluids and blood draw etc.. but then they put me in this gown that they blow warm into... because apparently the body being warm promotes healing. Shivering takes energy away from healing. Here's the crazy inflated gown.
Oh, how nice was it that I unknowingly matched my pedicure to the puffy gown-->
Nice right!!?? Ha. So at about 1pm I meet the anesthesiologist. He gives me some diluadid and some valium. Apparently the valium is to reduce muscle spasms and I would be getting more later. Mat told me we were around talking for a bit after the valium. I remember nothing. I don't remember saying goodbye or anything. This is the last thing I recall ---->
I am truly a light weight. My surgery took about 3.5 hours. My incision is bigger than planned because my surgeon got in there to look around and make sure he didn't see Crohn's anywhere. That's why I chose the version of the surgery I did instead of the full laproscopic that almost has zero scarring. I wanted him to look at it, not just through the camera.
I vaguely remember waking up in my room. I distinctly remember the pain. I can not describe it. I was about 80% out of it, but some things break through. My husband said when they were moving me from the gurney to the bed I was making what he described as 'whale sounds' in response to the pain. It wasn't human. I don't remember much else, but I do remember this because I didn't like the first one so I made him retake it so I was waving. I'm a weirdo. This was shortly after getting into my room. Maybe 90 minutes after surgery ended.--->
I don't remember much about that night luckily. The next day was not so hot either. A lot of pain. Long day. There were not enough pain meds on Tuesday. OMG. Plus, I had a total asshole RN who works a different department who was filling in. He basically was implying I didn't need the amount of pain meds I was asking for and that I was just, ya know, trying to get high one day after major surgery. Needless to say, he was dealt with. I had a LONG chat with the nurse manager. You don't mess with me on a good day, much less a day after I had an organ removed.
This was the best thing about being in the hospital---->
The personal pain med button. That little blue button delivered magic via IV. I didn't have to call and wait. It was great. The first few days were tough. When you are in pain you breath really shallow which could end up causing pneumonia because your lungs are not expanded all the way. And given my history this spring of having had it, I had to meet with a respiratory therapist twice a day and do breathing exercises that sucked really bad. Holy shit. Taking a deep breath into this spirometer thing made me want to cry. It's unreal how you don't notice what you use your abdominal area for until it's hurting. I started walking and just forcing myself to take deep breaths because the thought of going through all that and then getting stuck in the hospital even longer for pneumonia was too much to handle. I fought through it. I would just put pressure on my wounds and breathe in so that they were kinda held in place. Same thing with coughing, sneezing etc. It's as if I had to hold myself together. Within 2 days I passed their tests and they were just testing my O2 level in my blood. I was 100% so they were happy. After surgery it was only 80%.
Okay, wanna see my guts? Ok, good. Here they are.
Totally rotten and diseased. I am so glad they are gone. I am so glad they are no longer sucking the life out of me anymore. They should be pink. They are yellow because they are sick, and infected. They are scarred and mishappen because of years of ulcers and disease. Many people with UC fight to keep their intestines. I will never understand it. As hard as this last week was, it was easier than one or two days of really bad flares. This was a long time coming. I have a long road ahead but it can only get better.
About Day 4 I was feeling this ----->
Day 5 ---> Loony
Very long week. Today I had my first visit with my home health nurse who will help me deal with my new ostomy and make sure I'm healing ok in between doctor's appointments. I won't be driving for a while. Or swimming. Or eating anything yummy. But I'm fine with that....That's temporary. Tomorrow's a new day...hopefully a little less pain. Still trying to deal with the physical element of it all. It's not pretty. A large vertical incision, the stoma. Emotionally, I'm still coming to terms with it. It's very hard for me to look at.
I go see my surgeon tomorrow. We'll see what kind of good stuff he has for me.
Good night everyone. Thanks for reading. XO
<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12277951/?claim=75juqmu6hv7">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
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