Post-Op Update

Well I am home recovering from my surgery. It went well. I am feeling good considering what they did to me :) My incision sites are sore and I have a lot of tissue gas pain that is sometimes in my shoulder, sometimes my back, sometimes my abdomen (from the carbon dioxide that they pumped me up with for the surgery) but hopefully I'll be feeling back to normal soon.

Surgery was a new experience for me so I thought I'd share how the whole experience was...

I got to the day surgery center at 6:00 am. They had me change into a gown and booties, they started my IV, nurses talked to me, etc. Then Jake got there (he had dropped off the kids with the lady from our ward who was so nice tend them-they had a lot of fun at her house) to be with me in my room for a little bit before they took me back to surgery. Then the OR nurse came and put a hair cover over my head, she told Jake they would take good care of me and then she wheeled my bed down a few halls to the Operating Room. That ride through the halls was such a weird feeling. It seemed like I was watching a movie of the person being pushed through the hall going into surgery. I couldn't believe it was me. When I got in the OR there were a lot of big lights and TV screens and medical equipment. It was still such a surreal feeling. They moved me onto the operating table, strapped my legs to the table so that I didn't fall off, I looked around for a bit and then that's the last thing I remember from that room....

The next thing I knew I was groggily waking up and was breathing through an oxygen mask. It was the strangest feeling. Anesthesia isn't like sleeping where you dream and such, it's like one minute you are doing something and the next minute you are somewhere else doing something else, and you know time has passed but you have no recollection of it. It is just so weird! There were a couple nurses around me talking, monitoring my vitals. I felt some soreness in my abdomen so I figured the surgery was over and I was waking up. I kind of drifted off and on and then they took me back to my room where Jake was. After my surgery my surgeon had gone and talked to Jake and told him that all went well and some aftercare advice.

Back in my recovery room they let me rest for little bit and then they had me up and walking a couple laps around the hall. My legs felt really weak at first from the anesthesia, but then it felt good to be up and around. I rested a little more and then it was time to go home.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store to fill my pain med prescription and get some groceries. I was walking around slowly holding onto Jake's arm, wearing my sweat suit, no make-up, kind of messy hair, and still wearing my yellow "Fall Risk" wrist band. People were probably wondering what just happened to me and what I was doing there. I'm sure I looked lovely :) It actually felt good to be up and about though.

So now it's been a couple of days. Getting in and out of bed is tough, bending down is tough and I have to dodge the Braelyn lap jumps and the Dal power hugs. I am feeling pretty good though. I think the most pain has been coming from that gas that is still in my tissues. I've heard that's the worst part of gall bladder surgery recovery. And the incisions will take some time to heal too. So house cleaning is going to have to be on hold for a little while, but I think we'll survive. As long as recovery continues well, I won't miss any of my classes (because my main professor was out of town the last couple days so we listened to class via podcast on the internet) and I will hopefully only miss one clinical day (tomorrow) and can make that up over Spring Break. So that worked out nice.

Jake has been a Superman and has been doing a wonderful job picking up the slack and taking care of the kids and I, all while feeling tired and in pain himself. He has made me some amazing soups, has kept the kids fed and happy with plenty of playtime and has kept the house from totally falling apart. He is amazing and I am so grateful for him!