Pardon the whine, but damn do I hurt. The pain almost seems worse since I’ve come home. Yesterday’s wheelchair ride down to the car and then the hour-long drive home was very painful. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I burst into tears when I made it into the bedroom. But at that point my stomach, intestines and god knows what else were burning and aching, and the gas pains were also quite painful. TMI, but they blew up my abdominal cavity with air during the procedure, and now that air is circulating around and oh-so-slowly making its way out. TMI again, but I’ve seriously never been so anxious to let one rip. These gas pains are horrendous. The worst was on Wednesday night, when the trapped air migrated up to my chest cavity. I’m laying there tingling from head to toe from the morphine (no nausea or vomiting, thank god, since I insisted on anti-nausea meds to take along with the morphine) and suddenly I feel a tight band of pressure around my chest and back, and I’m not only having trouble breathing, but it’s painful to breathe. I seriously started to panic, thinking I was having a collapsed lung or something similarly freaky. Thankfully, a quick vitals check, EKG and x-ray all confirmed that I was fine, and it was in fact trapped air. Since then some of it has dissipated, but there’s plenty left, and it presses painfully on my stomach and intestines.
I have liquid Vicodin… an “elixir”, as it was noted on the prescription form. But I don’t like taking it ’round the clock, despite the fact that I can take 15 ml worth every six hours. I did take it every 6-8 hours in the hospital, after the morphine pump was removed (I was doing that ever 6-8 hours as well), but now that I’m home I’m easing away from it. It does wonders for the pain, but it makes me very sleepy and puts me out for at least an hour or two, and nothing sucks more than not being able to sleep at night because you napped during the day.
So right now I’m sitting here with what feels like an abdominal cavity full of flames. Then there’s the gas pains that add to the fun. And some random shoulder pain (migrated trapped air or agitated nerve from surgery) for good measure. I took a full dose of Vicodin this morning around 11:00am, and a half dose around 5:00pm. As soon as I finish up this post I’m taking a full 15 ml dose, and then I plan on snuggling in bed with Dan (as much as I can snuggle, anyway, since he’s afraid to put any pressure on my chest and stomach, and I’m not too comfortable no matter how I sit or lay) and watching CSI until I drop off. I’ve been wearing my glasses all day (yay laziness!), so I won’t even have to get back up to take out my contacts. Now let’s just hope I don’t have to pee. Nothing sucks more than being ready to nod off, almost pain-free, and then having to haul back up out of bed to go to the bathroom. Yes, I’ve been-there-done-that — last night, and I wasn’t very happy about it. Fortunately, once I did crawl back into bed I crashed hard. I slept for nine hours straight. But irony of ironies? I woke up ON my stomach. Go freakin’ figure.
P.S. I wrote about my surgery experience at That Fat Chick, where I’ve been blogging about my journey with weight loss surgery for the past two and a half years.
Related posts:3 Comments
, on November 22 2009 at 9:11am:
I am sorry you are in so much pain. gas pains can be horrible.. not to mention any other pains you are having. I can only imagine how you feel. In the end, it’ll all be worth it I’m sure. I hope you heal up quickly and have great results. Best of Luck!!
As the domain name suggests, my name is Jenn, and I own this blog. I'm 26 years old and married to my one true ♥, Daniel. And while I have two kids (Alyssa is five, and Ryan is three), you won't find "mommy" in my username or email address, nor does my blog revolve around them. I'm a mother, but most importantly I am me, with a passion for love, blogging, reading, and photography. I'm also a busy freelance writer, web designer & SEO goddess.
Though, I never experienced the level of pain you’re currently feeling, I know that I felt the same way about taking pain medicine when I tore my ACL and had my wisdom teeth removed. Mostly for personal family history reasons.
I hope that the pain starts to subside soon for you.