Day 13 - Post-op
Well, life never goes the way you plan it out in your head, does it? For the last few days, intermittently, I have been getting a really severe pain in my lower right abdomen. I had spoken to my doctor about it a few days ago and after asking me a bunch of questions and discussing it we decided it was probably caused by the drain I have in me and since I would be getting it out on the 11th we would watch and see. Yesterday morning that pain woke me up. I painstakingly took myself off to the bathroom hoping that that was the problem. I peed pretty good but that didn't help and nothing else was going to happen so I made my way back to the bed. It hurt so bad that I was crying. My hubby and daughter were downstairs enjoying their weekly time of bonding over zombie movies. I always think I have to be tough so I managed to lay down on my back and if I didn't move even a centimeter it wasn't too bad but any movement at all sent a stabbing sensation to that area, I was also beginning to feel nauseous. After dealing with it alone for over an hour and a half I finally called downstairs and asked Steve if he would come up. He was there immediately, took one look at me and asked what was wrong. I told him and he said, "Call the doctor, right now!" So I got hold of the doctor and he finally said I needed to go to the ER. Off we went!
So to make a very long story short, they sent me to ct scan, they ruled out kidney stones and decided it wasn't appendicitis but the ER doc said that he and my doc had reviewed the scan together and there was something a little funky near my appendix. They removed my drain while I was there and all I can say about that is, "Hallelujah!" The doc told me when they released me that there was a 50/50 chance that I would be back within 24-48 hours with appendicitis! So far, so good. I feel so much better just having that drain out of me. I think it was something drain related causing the pain. I haven't even had any pain medication since leaving the ER nearly 24 hours ago.
On another note is the weight loss. If you have been reading since the beginning then you know that I went up 8 pounds after coming home from the hospital. I really didn't stress too much about that. I knew it had to be fluid. Since then I have lost that 8 pounds and another 5 on top of it. My weight this morning was...drumroll...213. That is down a total of 32 pounds since first meeting with the surgeon. I know I am weird in this bariatric world but I really don't want to lose it too fast. I am physically unable to exercise much still and if I lose really fast then I will just have more ugly excess skin to deal with. Sigh. Am I complaining? I sure shouldn't be, should I? Okay, so I will leave the weight loss speed and the excess skin in God's hands. He always takes good care of my so why would He stop now!?
One thing I have to mention. Others have mentioned it on their blogs but we always think we are gonna be different, we are gonna do better. It is this: It is so tough to get all your protein and your fluids in. It seems strange to me that someone who could down an entire half gallon of ice cream, or eat 5-6 pieces of thick pizza and breadsticks and soda would have any difficulty drinking 40+ ounces of water and other liquid or getting in 60+ grams of protein but it is true. You are not really hungry and right now at the last day of my liquid diet, I am pretty tired of protein shakes. I am excited for tomorrow when I move to the pureed diet. I will be adding cottage cheese, non-fat yogurt, canned chicken and tuna (blended with broth to be like baby food) and a few other things. Just to have something to kind of "chew" will be great!! Come back soon to see how it goes!
