The day after…

I was first on the list yesterday morning, we were up at 5:30am to shower and get organised and off to the hospital. By 8am I had been prepped, changed, stocking’d, IV’d and was lying in theatre being told to go to sleep smiling so I could wake up smiling.

I was very hot when I woke up, and my legs were being inflated and deflated on about a 30 second cycle. What appeared to be calf/knee/thigh pressure cuffs were around my legs and in conjunction with the TED stockings were supposed to prevent blood clots. Strange feeling.

Once up in the ward I started to feel the pain, so I got some panadol. Woo hoo. The first one was given to me whole and I duly swallowed it…and it sat like a giant brick in my stomach until I had a few more sips of water and I could almost feel it dissolving.

Then I slept and dozed on and off for the rest of the night. Only to wake up at 3am to discover my period had started. This isn’t usually a problem – however for me my period is accompanied by bad bloating, GAS and constipation. Greeeeat…like I need extra GAS problems.  Bowels open at 3:30pm – which is good, I’ve heard stories of people waiting four, five days even a week just to fart! let alone poo, so I’m glad I was able to do both from the outset.  On Friday afternoon I did start taking Degas though, because I remembered from when I had my appendix out the gas was the worst pain ever, and the degas is making a big difference.

I was home this morning (Friday) and have been sipping liquids and sleeping on an off for most of the day. I’m still in quite a lot of pain – mostly around the port site and in a band across my chest and up into my left shoulder – the dreaded shoulder tip pain. That is actually the worst of it…because it’s a “take your breath” away kind of pain and every time it washes over me I feel a little faint.

I filled out my weights and measures book on Wednesday night, and was pleased to note that I was 140kg pre optifast and on the morning of surgery was 133kg. I’m happy with that. Let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come.

Blair said the surgery went well, no complications, liver small and sturdy, no nicks, cuts or anything else untoward. I’m just looking forward to the shoulder/chest pain to go away.