Lovely To Be Home!

It was a long day. Lots of riding in the car which is exhausting and not comfortable...but not as painful as it was on my way back to Gwen's from the hospital. Got home and my wonderful husband had the house so clean and tidy - better than I do! He brought in, and put away, my loads of stuff from the last 2 weeks as I rested in my recliner and greeted my dogs (good thing I put a pillow over my belly for protection!).

Had my post-surgical checkup this afternoon with my surgeon's PA. Everything seems to be coming along fine. The hard lump around my navel is a hematoma that will eventually be absorbed. I had a long list of questions, and all were answered to my satisfaction. I was especially glad to learn that I can once again take aspirin and NSAIDs. Because my liver enzymes tend to go above normal levels so often, my doctor doesn't like me to take tylenol. And because my stomach has been so bad for so long, she hasn't allowed aspirin or NSAIDs either. So just for arthritis pain I have had to take narcotics, and have found them to be much less effective. She gives me the kinds that have a lot of narcotic with just a little tylenol, and I guess they work from the perspective that I don't care so much about the pain. But I now can start taking regular aspirin (my best resource) or motrin again, or for more severe pain, I can take a larger dose of motrin and alternate it with a small dose of tylenol, which gives me better relief for almost anything than narcotics do. This was great news!

I can drive again 3 weeks post-op; have sex carefully as comfort/lack of pain dictates; lift my grandson after 4 weeks from a higher elevation (he can climb onto furniture and I can pick him up from there), eat oopsies without the same issues bread causes (I won't be able to have bread for a very long time, if ever), and so forth. All is going well and with care should continue to do so. I will see the surgeon again on January 14th.

The PA re-iterated that the first 100 days will be critical to my healing, so I plan to take good care of myself, do the best I can nutritionally and every other way. He also told me that it will be a year before I am fully healed, and that sometimes it even takes a little longer. He said that my brain will be under some effects of anesthesia for over a month, and between that and the impact on my body from the stresses of this kind of surgery, my exhaustion and feeling drained is to be expected for at least that long.

So all is well, I am home, my dear husband is taking good care of me, and I will continue to concentrate on doing everything I can to heal well - it's the only chance I have to do it right, and the rest of my life depends on it :).