Hello! I really wish I had blogged my experience throughout my recovery after surgery, but all I can do now is try and remember and relay it now!
A month ago I reluctantly walked into the hospital at 6:30 am. First attempt at an IV was unsuccessful, certainly not to my surprise. I got to be wrapped up in cozy warm blankets while I was waiting to walk into the operating room. Once I was finally called in (totally sucks sitting and waiting for something you know will be awful) I walked through the winding halls into the brightly lit OR and hopped up on the table and had the "seat belt" strapped over my legs to make sure I didn't fall. The anesthesiologist came in, seemed like a nice guy, and put my IV in on the side of my hand. Not the nicest place for it, but atleast it was in. My GI popped in for a moment to say hi before I was knocked out. Before the surgery, I agreed to have an epidural. They put me to sleep before this happened but I did hear talk of bringing in the "spinal". Lovely. My surgeon came in, and this was about the time I fell asleep.
When I woke up, it had been about 3.5 hours. I was super groggy of course, kept mumbling to the nurse that I liked her sparkly lanyard that held her ID badge. They took out the catheter, which didn't hurt at all. Just a little pressure. I think after an hour in recovery and sort of awake, I was brought to my hospital room where my mom and grandma (nanny) was waiting for me. The pain, from what I remember, was never really awful. I guess this is a combination of the epidural from the first day and pain lessening once the epidural was done.
The first day I just laid in bed, talked with my mom and Nanny, called some friends. At the time my mind felt pretty clear, and I was very lucid talking with people, but I realize now that I was a bit foggy. I wasn't allowed to drink water, but I did suck on some ice chips which ended up making me nauseous so that was taken away. One of the worst parts of the first day was that the epidural had taken away my ability to release my bladder muscles, so I needed an "in and out" catheter twice before I was actually able to go on my own. And this is worsened by the fact that the IV is pumping so much liquids in you, you have to pee a lot! About 12 hours after my surgery I was able to pee on my own.
The second day I was forced to take a walk, which at the time really sucked, but as I learned walking is probably the most important part of your recovery. I also got to see my incisions for the first time, and I assure you it wasn't pretty. Although it was laparoscopic, I have a 2 inch vertical incision through my belly button, a 3/4 inch horizontal incision on my lower left side, a small cut above the large one that looks more like a scratch, and another small one down low in the pubic region. There was steri strips covering them all but I could see part of the large incision and it was poofy, purple, and massively bruised. My whole stomache was very bloated too. But it was normal, I was told, and now everything looks great. I can't remember if it was the first or second day, but my right shoulder started to hurt really bad. I think I felt it more than the surgery pain. (Which by the way, was a constant dull, maybe medium type pain that I never felt go away no matter how many times I hit the morphine button) I was told the shoulder pain was from the gas they put in your abdominal cavity to be able to see everything. Eventually this went away but it was quite bad while it was there.
The next days went a little like this: wake up to morning bloodwork around 6/7 am. Day nurse comes for rounds to ask how your feeling, look at tummy, check blood pressure, oxygen levels and take temp. Brings by meds. Breakfast at 8 am. Shower. Visitors allowed at 11. Lunch at 12. Hang out with visitors or my amazing mom who was there pretty much every available visiting hour (I love you). Take walks as much as possible around the floor. Hope and pray that I pass gas!!(haha this becomes something you really want to happen, they won't let you go home until you do!) Dinner at 5. Day nurse comes to stick the awful blood thinning needle in my belly (it was horrible and stung like crazy). Night nurse comes at 7 pm and repeats what morning nurse had done at the start of her shift. Visiting hours done at 9, watch a movie until bed. Try to sleep.
Sleeping was not my forte during my 6 FREAKING DAYS I spent in the hospital. Its a bit of a touchy subject for me. I wasn't expecting to be there for so long, 3 or 4 days tops was what I was thinking. I eventually learned to ask for a sleeping pill which was amazing and helped me sleep through the night.
Food was interesting. My second day I was allowed clear fluids which was quite unappetizing but I did my best. Then full fluids was introduced which was slightly better because it included dairy. Then they tried soft solids but that didn't work. That led me to have the worst night ever which included me standing at the nurses station bawling my eyes out from the gas pains in the middle of the night. Basically what happens is when they do the resection, your intestines swell up at the site. This makes it hard for your body to digest food properly, since the swelling creates a block. So liquids were ok they got through, but eating solids just ended in me having the worst pains. There's nothing that can be done to ease this pain, and to top it off, pain meds slow down your bowels so its counterproductive. That night I stopped taking oxycodone so my bowels had the best shot at digesting.
The nurses had taken out my IV early that day, as I had passed some gas and it looked like I would be going home the next day. That would have been 4 nights in the hospital. The day after the awful night I was really dizzy, started dry heaving after sipping water, and I was definitely not going home. I was really upset that day. I had a pretty positive attitude throughout the whole ordeal up until that point. I just really really wanted to go home and recover in my own bed. The day before I was walking almost normally, smiling, laughing, full of energy. The day after I was bed ridden, could hardly walk and was just miserable.
Day 6 was better, I ate some salmon for dinner, and then the day after that I finally went home!!!!! (the day before my birthday!)
Once I was home, my recovery was a lot faster. Everyday I felt much better than the day before. I went for walks down the street twice a day and I noticed my pace was getting faster. First the old people were passing me. Then one day I realized I was walking like I did before surgery! That was pretty awesome! It was about a week and a half after my surgery.
I was put on prednisone to help speed up recovery, which lasted for about a month with a quick taper. It's done now, and the only side effect i noticed was that i had trouble sleeping for about a week.no major side effects were noticed.
I had felt in the days coming up to the surgery how silly it seemed that I would be voluntarily walking into a hospital to get cut open. I had felt really good leading up to it and was questioning if I should do it or not. My doc explained why it was necessary, which helped, but I still felt weird about it. After my surgery I was told that my small intestines had grown fistulas to my large intestine, and quite quickly. A month before a CT scan showed none of them, just the phlegmon which was the reason for my surgery. They had to take out 10cm of an otherwise perfectly healthy large colon because of the fistulas. Just goes to show how crazy your body is- I had no symptoms that something else was going on.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this surgery.. But know I know and my advice to myself in the future and to everyone else (hopefully this advice is not needed) WALK WALK WALK!!! It sucks and hurts and you are as slow as a turtle, but it is super necessary. It gets your bowesl moving. If they don't move your stay in the hospital and stuck with a lot of pain of food getting blocked.
I would like to take a moment to thank my wonderful mother, my dad, nanny, aunt and uncle and cousins, boyfriend, and my numerous awesome friends who came (some more than once) to visit with me in the hospital and afterwards at home. I love you all and I probably wouldn't have been back to my normal self as quickly if it had not been for all of your support.
Please leave a comment if you have any questions! I am more than willing to help anyone with their concerns if you are facing surgery.
Talk to you all later!
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