I won’t lie: I’m glad the month is coming to an end, if for no other reason than to not have to remember to blog every single day. Heh.
Surgery sucks. It sucks hardcore. It sucks sucks sucks. I’m three days post-op, and for some reason these last three days have dragged like three weeks. It’s been a blur of laying in bed and sitting in a recliner and walking stiffly and hunched throughout the house and eating small bits of food and taking vitamins and pain medicine and yes, I will go ahead and say it, such lovely things as stool softeners and laxatives. I’m more than a little antsy over the fact that the aforementioned medications have yet to do produce any results. Blargh. I know from previous experience that it can take a few days after abdominal surgery for the entire digestive tract to “wake up” and get back to doing what it should, but I also know from previous experience how painful and miserable it can be when a digestive tract does finally “wake up” and get back to doing what it should – hence why I’m trying to speed up and ease the process. Bah. Nevermind that things on that end never seemed quite right after I had my gallbladder removed; I’m also wondering and hoping that maybe part of that problem was due to my twisted/looped/stupid small intestine issue, and now with that resolved I may have more normality/regularity.
Why am I still in so much painnnnnnnnnnnnn? Dan went ahead and canceled his hunting trip plans. 
I’m relieved, but I feel really bad. Jason has been coming over each day to “Jennsit” me, and Amanda came today to visit with me for a bit and help out. Originally she was going to stay the night, but then Dan canceled his hunting trip, Jason was able to come over this afternoon, and Dan’s aunt sent me a text this morning asking if she could take Alyssa and Ryan until tomorrow (and spoil them with a trip to an outdoor garden that has loads of Christmas lights and other displays), so Amanda wound up leaving after a little while. I was happy to see her, but I feel bad that she came all this way for not a very long period of time.
Check out my oh-so-sexy abdominal bloat/swelling (it certainly explains the pain):
(the black is my pants; the purple is my bra)
Oh, those raised red patches? Those are welts/hives – an allergic reaction to the surgical tape placed on my incisions. So on top of miserable pain I also have unbearable itching and burning. Gahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Why on earth do they insist on putting tape on people who are allergic to it? (I’m allergic to tape as well.) You’d think they’d at least spare you that misery.
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I even went to see my surgeon last year after the allergic reaction the first time, gah. I take most of the responsibility for not remembering and speaking up about it in pre-op (then again, when I spoke up about my morphine sensitivity and only being able to tolerate it with anti-nausea meds, they switched me to something else that made me heave horribly upon waking up. Knowing my luck they would have switched to a tape that would have caused my skin to fall off in chunks, heh.), but damn, you think there would have been a note made in my chart.
I’m allergic to the tape as well and certain types of cortisone cream works really well for that blotchy red itchy burning feeling. I hope you get better soon! Sending positive healing energies your way.
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I’m switching between a cortisone cream and two types of calamine lotion. I have the standard pink stuff which seems to work nice, and then we have this white gel I tried this morning that provided insta relief. WHOO! And thanks.
Hope you feel better lady!
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Thanks.
Ouch! Poor you
Hope you start to feel better soon
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That’s awful! I’m sorry to hear it’s been so arduous for you in recovery.
Will the surgery ultimately fix your pain issues from the last year? Or did they find out what the problem is and have no real solution?
As long as the surprise pain is taken care of, once you’re healed up here it will be so much better in the long run.
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The problem, in “layman’s terms”, is that from being overweight for SO long (since I was about 10), I had fat deposits built up around my intestines. I lost them when I lost so much weight, and for the most part the tissue and muscle and such in my abdominal cavity adjusted to continue supporting and keeping my intestines in place. But there were two “voids” – gaps in the muscle and tissue where my intestines were able to slip through and get caught or twisted. That’s what was causing so much pain. My surgeon found those voids during surgery and stitched them shut. Since I don’t plan on losing more than another 10 lbs or so, and have NO plans to regain a sick amount of weight and then lose it again, this should never ever ever happen again. Thank god!
Taking laxitives and stool softeners and not getting results always freaks me the fuck out. Like, what happened?
Feel better, Jenn. I hope your pain, swelling, and general discomfort go away soon.
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That’s happened to you as well? Seriously, two stool softeners a day from Thursday onward, a Dulcalax on Friday morning, and then Miralax on Saturday and Sunday morning, and still NOTHING. I don’t feel any type of discomfort, which I suppose is a good thing, but I’m still freaking the fuck out!