This will be a short one.
I'll go in to more detail on my hospital experience later, but for now let me just say that I'm doing fine. The pain from the incisions themselves is the same sort of constant ache that you get after a ridiculous abdominal workout. It's easy to forget how much you use those muscles. The worst pain so far is internal. As a part of the procedure, the operating team pumped me full of air so they could navigate my inner organs more easily. Over the next few days my body will absorb the air, but now now I'm very gassy.
The pain is only really bad when I burp, hiccup, or cough. I warned E not to make me laugh and so far she's only slipped up once. I don't feel like I've been stabbed fives times so much as I feel like someone's used my stomach as punching bag. That said, I'm not in near as much pain as I thought I'd be and most of what I have is due to soreness. Sitting straight up hurts the worst because it puts pressure on my lower abdomen/spine and causes all of the gas they pumped into me to gather near my shoulders.
I'm still on clear liquids through tomorrow, but I'm in no hurry to move on to pureed or semi-solid just yet. Roughly 12oz of liquid is enough to fill me up right now. I'm not talking 'that was a nice meal' full, I'm talking 'WHY DID YOU LET ME DO THIS!?' full. Twelve fluid ounces - that's a cup of jello and half a cup of juice. It sticks too. I had that jello and juice at roughly 5:45 and even now at 8:25 I'm still a little full. The last thing on my mind is solid food.
At the moment I'm off for a small walk and a drive just to get out of the house.
Hurrah for you! In my experience with laparoscopic surgery, you need to lie flat afterwards, completely flat, until sitting up doesn't hurt. There's something about not squishing up your abdominal organs by sitting up or standing up that helps to dispel the gases. I'm glad that otherwise you're doing well. And proud! Love, A
ReplyDelete