This is Part 3 in my weekend saga; Read Part 1 and Part 2 first.
I don’t remember anything about the surgery, most of the hours of Monday morning are all a mystery to me. I was completely disoriented as I heard the nurses calling my name as I woke up afterwards and if the doctor talked to me at that point I have no recollection. What I did know is that I was laying back and had no pain in my shoulders so obviously surgery was some sort of success. Laughing however hurt like a bitch, as did trying to sit up. I was back in my room in Pediatrics by about 11:30 or so and spent most of the day dozing in and out of consciousness. I did manage to get from the nurses that they had been able to remove all the blood and stop the bleeding without removing any body parts which was definitely a big relief to me. I had a moment of panic when one doctor told me I had received a transfusion when I was pretty sure another one had told me that I hadn’t needed one. Thankfully she checked her facts and I was right. Apparently my body is pretty tough and was ready to heal itself and get back into the swing of things.
My mom showed up by early afternoon and I tried to stay awake as much as possible to keep her and my friend entertained as it was kind of an awkward first meeting spot for the two of them. I was hooked up to a morphine drip though which kept knocking me out whenever I used it. Thankfully my pain was a billion times less than when I had arrived at ER on Sunday night so I really didn’t feel the need to use it that often at all.
They hadn’t allowed me to eat or drink anything at all from the time I was admitted until after surgery and then they kept me on a clear liquid diet all day Monday post surgery. At this point I started thinking about my Whole30 again since my pain wasn’t clouding all other thoughts out of my brain at that point. Up until the point I got admitted I still hadn’t strayed from my challenge even with a guest in town and I was proud of that however hospital food was not a challenge that I had really prepared for. I avoided the jello and fruit juice they kept giving me but I had no idea what was in the broth which I did eat when I finally got some sort of an appetite back. Tuesday morning I was finally given some solid foods again and I chowed down on some eggs (which probably were made with milk) and then surveyed the rest of the options on my tray and wound up eating a bran muffin as the least evil of options being presented to me. I stared at it for a while before ingesting it. Trying to decide if I really wanted to give up my Whole3o at that point when I was already on the recovery side of the whole episode. In the end though I ate it. I figured being in the hospital was a concession I was just going to have to deal with and I’d sort out the details later.
The doctor came and saw me again around mid-morning and asked if I was ready to get out of bed which I enthusiastically said yes to. I was very cranky at this point about being stuck on my back in bed for several days and wasn’t being the most pleasant person in the world to those around me. The nurses came in and unhooked all my machines and helped me to sit up and then stand up and walk around. I was elated to be up and moving again and able to brush my teeth and wash my face! I was also not nearly in as much pain as I was expecting so all in all I was pretty chipper at that point. The doctor also removed the bandage over my wound at this point and I finally got to see the incision. That freaked me out again. I knew they had said staples but nevertheless I wasn’t expecting them to look quite so much like heavy duty staples that you might buy at Home Depot. 12 of them marching right along my lower abdomen. I can picture the wonderful scar that’s going to leave already but at least I’ll have a guideline for future surgeons to use should I ever need a C-section in the future.
They finally released me around 4pm on Tuesday which all sorts of restrictions and instructions that are going to make life not very exciting for a while and several prescriptions for painkillers and then my mom whisked me off to Jersey so I could recover at my parent’s house where I would have bit more support since I obviously wasn’t going to be going back to work anytime soon.
So my weekend didn’t turn out anything like what I had planned and where I stand on my Whole30 now I’m a little confused about. I have to sort my thoughts out on how to proceed from here (thankfully my mom follows a paleo-diet so that should help while I’m here at least) and will post again soon about my emotions on that matter. In the meantime I’m just taking things slow and happy to not be mostly relieved of pain and out of a hospital bed!
