Some pics of my Last Supper, Before Photos, and at the Hospital

Jan 29, 2009

Well got home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Boy was I not prepared for all the PAIN (and I do mean PAIN) that I would have with the surgery. I had never had surgery before so this was all new. The second day (Tuesday Jan 27th, 2009) I was crying, having panic attacks and wondering what in the heck I did to myself. I would have totally NOT had the surgery if I had known how bad the pain would be. That being said, I AM A HUGE BABY and my threshold for pain is 0 (really).

Almost all the pain came from the gas and bloating INSIDE. Gas-X did not work. I've had 3 children, two of them totally natural, and I can say that this was about the same, if not worse than childbirth, it certainly lasted longer...... Nothing I could do would alleviate the pain. I did get some pain meds every 6 hrs (Hydrocortazone) but it ran out way before I was due again. No matter how I laid or sat or moved I could not stop the pain let alone get comfortable. Sleeping.....forget about it! I was in a beautiful private room with windows and a view and it wasn't too noisy, but the pain kept me from sleeping at all. I got up and walked around as much as I could, but I felt like a truck ran over me so that wasn't more than twice a day. I didn't really have any pain where my staples are. But I will tell you it HURTS the next day after surgery.

If you're a baby like me or just can't handle pain, chose the gym membership and Jenny Craig oveer surgery. I'm not saying anything bad about the surgery or trying to dissuade anyone, but I think everyone should know about the huge PAIN factor. Now that I got that out of the way.....

The next day it was a little better and I got to go home so I was happy about that. We live way out in the country on the worse dirt road you'd ever seen so after a 45 min drive home, when we finally got to our dirt road my husband aired down the tires to 8 pounds (we have a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon) and proceeded up the horribly ruddy, holy, totally not maintained road. We live like a mile or a mile and a half down the road so it took us like another 15 minutes, but my husband went very slow and we made it home without carnage.

Today (3 days after surgery) and one day after coming home I'm doing about 80% better. I'm not on any pain meds since Dr. Suh said that I should only use the pain med that sent me home with for pain at the incision sites, and if I used it for the pain of bloating and gas that it would just make it worse. I still have some bloating and gas and some pain. I've been doing dishes, laundry feeding my mother-in-law's Coi fish and quail and just cleaning up. It seems to hurt less when I'm up doing things.

Burping and farting for me has been very hard. My birps usually come out more like a gage or hiccup with hurts and trying to pass gas has left my staples sore (not really sure if it's the inside staples or the outside ones). The first time I passed gas (the third day after surgery--yesterday) my husband clapped and cheered....it was humbling to say the least....

I did weigh myself today and I'm down 10 POUNDS!!! I was 284 at my last dr.s appointment on January 23rd and now, 7 days letter I'm 274!!! YAY

I'll try and upload (if I can figure it out and my stupid satellite connections is fast enough) some Last Supper photos of my family and I at Macaroni Grill and my before pics that were taken the night before surgery (1/25/09).

Last Supper, 1-24-08 at The Macaroni Grill:
Richard & Melissa