Jean rant

I need to vent for a bit here. I got on the scales yesterday. I weight pretty well exactly what i was before the OP. I put on my jeans and have a 2" gap between the top button and hole. Damn but its frustrating! I know i'm still in swell hell but i'd just love to put on my jeans instead of living in track pants. I'm making a commitment here to drop a couple of kilos - i'm currently at 79.7kgs and want to be back to 75/76 again. So it's time to give myself a virtual kick in the butt - eating healthier will be good for my healing, make me feel better and mean that when all the swelling disappears i'll look even better.
Our 10 year anniversary is next week. I'm going to dress up! I have a nice stretchy strapless dress with a green/white/black pattern that i'll wear with my fitted brown blazer and my blue pointy heels. It sounds kind of strange in writting but looks pretty in reality. We're going to go out for tea and maybe for a movie depending whats on, then go parking (heehee!).
I'll post a couple of photos of us all dressed up!

12 days PO

First day home by myself! I got the daughter ready for school and my friend picked her up. I've managed to change boys nappy and put pants on him. And i've done a load of washing and folded some clothes. Not doing too bad - i've found if i do something quickly then sit and rest in between i'm fine and i just keep on repeating it through the day. I've got to get a battery for my scales. I have no idea if i've gained or lost weight in the last couple of weeks. I thought i'd lost weight in hospital but now i'm not sure - it's so hard to tell when you feel swollen like a blimp. I'll get another battery on thursday and then i'm thinking about following my weight watchers cd for a couple of weeks, just to keep an eye on what i'm eating if nothing else.

11 days PO

Well i'm feeling pretty well normal again. No pain, except for my back if i am standing for too long, still taking a couple of ibuprofen a day though in the hope it will help the swelling. Still sleeping on the couch, i'll try our bed in a few more days i think. I tried on my jeans today - big mistake! They fit fine on the legs but are too tight on the waist to do up, and the silly thing is i look smaller because my belly's now flat (or flatish with all the damn swelling). I asked the nurse about using silicon strips the other day but she said to get enough to cover the scar is $180au so unfortunately i have to forget it. I asked about mederma too but again, we can't get it here in Australia (like Bromelin - can't find it locally or on the net). I'm going to give Bio Oil a go, it's specifically for scars and just the moisturising affect can't hurt. I'll get the scar tattoed later on anyway! My belly button is settling down, it looks great at the bottom but the top part still looks distended and strange - i can't wait for the swelling to go down!

9 days PO

Finally got some photos up. The link is

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=amber_stone&x=19&y=16

Still fairly swollen, still got lots of stretch marks and have a weird looking belly button but i'd still take it over the befores any day!

Feeling normal again now. I cleaned the house yesterday and cooked tea - ended up i did too much as i was sore by the end of the day but at least i'm not so worried about how i'll cope next week when bill goes back to work.

The knickers i bought pre-op are starting to hang off me (woohoo!) i haven't tried on my jeans yet - i'm back to my pre-op size in the morning but by night i'm swollen as (stick a goodyear sticker on me and i could pass as a blimp). I think i'll wait a few more weeks, jeans would be too uncomfortable on the incision at the moment anyway.

I finished my antibiotics. Still coughing up bloody flem in the mornings and having a little bit of trouble with my breathing but i think as soon as i start moving around like before i'll be better.

Saw Dr Clifforth yesterday and had my belly button stiches out. He said because we have to travel so far that i dont have to see him again unless i want/need to. He said to let the tummy settle down for around 6mths and then if i'm worried about it i can go back in for some revision. Because i'm still so swollen its hard to know what it will heal like.

Bottom line - i'm so happy with it already and it should hopefully get a lot better!!

6 days PO

Feeling much better today. Moving around with more ease, slept on the couch last night and slept straight through from 10pm to 7am. Not coughing as much which is such a relief! I can't believe how swollen i am!! I took my measurements and i'm about 1/2" bigger all round and up to 3" by the end of the day. And i still look better than before! He took a fair bit out - he said 1.5kgs but to remember that skin doesn't weigh that much and a little can make a big difference. I forgot to ask him if he tightened the muscles but i think he probably would have, my waist looks too defined. I'm moving around a lot more, i'm squatting to pick things up as i can't bend but the more up right i get the less it hurts my back. I was going to go grocery shopping tomorrow with Bill but i think it will just be too much too soon so i'll write myself a list - i have such a weird thing for veggies. I still cant eat much in a sitting - probably well under half than before, not sure if thats because i've been sick or because everything is so tight down there. But all in all getting much better.

Not sure why the last post got cut of, but anyway, they started me on antibiotics and i'm now feeling a lot better. I was able to come home yesterday. The drive was 1.5hrs long and by half way i'd started to get a bit sore. I hit the emotional rollercoaster when i got home and couldnt stop crying. Still not sure why. Its Tuesday morning now. I had a bad night last night. I couldnt stop coughing for nearly 3hrs. I ended up losing it - so tired, so sore i just started crying. I fell asleep finally and woke up this morning sore. I slept most of the night on my side with a pillow stuffed under my waist. probably not the best idea. I took my measurements today - up by about 4cm all over. Still i'm standing nearly upright so my back isn't as sore. I think the whole op and infection is just catching up on me and i feel exhausted! I go back to the docs on Friday to get the stitches out of my belly button.

Good luck Erica!!

Back home again! What a rollercoaster the last few days have been! Still to start from the beginning;

Thursday, Surgery day! I got to the hospital at 2:15. By the time i'd seen the nurse, changed and been prepped the theatre nurse came and got me. They got me on a bed, covered me in warm blankets then the surgeon came an marked me. The anaethetist put the i.v in my hand and started to medicate me. They then wheeled me into theatre, moved me onto the bed and i was out!
I came to that night around 6.30, i think, i was sore but had a pethedine pain pump in. I needed help to go to the toilet - the nurse brought a bed pan in a chair base to me and helped me up. Then i was out of it again.

Friday.
The pain was pretty good again - could have something to do with me being high as a kite on the damn pethedine! The day nurse helped me have a shower. I remember sitting in the shower chair and being able to look straight down! Totally flat - you could put a level on me belly! It looked so much better than i ever expected. After the first time i was able to get myself to the toilet by myself.
I was raving about how little pain i was in (yes still high from the pethedine!) so that afternoon they took out the i.v and the pain pump. Pain was still manageable but a bit sore still.

Saturday.
Had a shower by myself this morning. Went for a small walk - hunched over - can't walk far before i'm exhausted. Bad cough on and off all day - some good advice, dont cough! Feel asleep at around 11am, woke up shaking, ended up with a fever of above 39'c. That settled but they had the doc in to see me. He couldnt find anything wrong with me so they left it. If all went well i'd go home tomorrow. They took out the drains. Oh that was weird! You know the feeling you get when you scrape your fingers down a black board, thats what its like! I could feel the drain move through my belly - it didnt hurt it was just yucky!

Sunday.
Woke up at 4am shaking again. Felt like hell. Woke up at 6am burning up. Yep, had a fever again. This time they had the doc in. It ended up that i had a chest infection. They sent me for chest x-rays as because i hadnt been breathing deeply part of my lower right lung had collapsed. So they started

Well the surgery is tomorrow! I rang the hospital for my surgery time and its around 2:30/2:45. I have to be there at 2:15. I booked Amber (my 5.5yr old) a day off school so we'll go and do the grocery shopping in the morning to fill in some time and then finish off packing my bag and go! My nerves have settled a bit and am feeling not too bad about tomorrow. I'm still not sure about what to expect with recovery so i've packed a couple of puzzle magazines and my ipod. Hopefully i'll be able to walk around a bit - I'm having a pain pump so the pain hopefully wont be too bad. Of course my MIL is certain that having the pain pump for a couple of days means that i'll be coming home with a morphine addiction! All i can think of is Homer Simpson and 'Maybe a little morphine will refresh my memory...'(yes, we watch WAY too much tv!!)

Wish me luck!!!