Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Post Surgery

So here it is Monday night already.  I kept meaning to check in, but never sat down and gave myself the chance to.  So here goes.

We got a Thursday morning saying we could come in early if possible.  Katie and I shoved the kids off to school, dropped off Robb at daycare and headed to the hospital.  We got there maybe 20 minutes early so it didn't really change much.  We checked in and got called back, so I got to sit around naked in a chair for a little while.  The nurse did some tasteful shaving of the area and Katie came back to wait until it was my turn.  While we were sitting in the pre-op room, Katie got a call saying Eva had a fever at school.  She explained what was going on, so she was going to have to hangout for a while in the nurse's office until she could get away from me.  I wasn't really worried about surgery; from what the doctor explained, it was pretty simple and straight forward.  They chose to remove the lymph node from my pelvis area, mostly because it was the easiest to get to and would be the least painful for me to recover from.



After some waiting with Katie, they wheeled me into the surgery room.  People were hustling around getting things ready, but they were all very kind and upbeat.  I remember scooting off the movable bed I was laying on to the operating table and laying down.  They moved my  arms around a bit and put a mask over my face.  That is about all I remember.  It felt like I was awake and alert one second, and gone the next.  I remember waking up in the general recovery room next.  The nurses noticed I was up and came over, but I'm not sure what I said.  Probably something incoherent and embarrassing.  I think I went back to sleep and woke up in a different room with Katie there.  I know I had to pee before I left, so they gave me some water or juice and some toast to test my stomach.  Everything came out ok and shortly after they sent me home.

This is where it gets a little weird.  I know we had to stop at the pharmacy at West Acres.  I know I stayed in the truck while Katie went inside.  I know I had my phone.  I don't quite know how I managed to email my bosses at work that I was on my way home.  I guess I rambled on about how much I enjoy working there (which is true) and that I appreciate their patience with all of this (which is also true), but I don't remember sending it.  I think I texted my dad, too.  After that, I remember getting home and climbing into bed and it was dark for a while.  And I was ok with that.  So if you got a random email or text from me on Thursday, that's why.



The rest of the day and weekend went pretty well.  I wasn't feeling much pain, even after my meds wore off.  I took a hydrocodone mostly to stay ahead of the pain I was expecting, but all it really did was upset my stomach.  I had a hard time sleeping Thursday night, but eventually conked out and actually slept pretty well.  Eva stayed home with me Friday due to her fever, I think we both slept most of the morning, but I stayed in bed the rest of the day just trying to rest.  I felt really good, but didn't want to tear open the incision or anything.  I managed to empty the dishwasher, but otherwise slept for the most part.  Saturday and Sunday were about the same.  Not much activity, Tylenol here and there for pain.  Come Monday I was ready to get out of the house and back to work.

Monday went fine as well.  It was nice being around everyone at work again.  I had only told my managers about what was going on, but there is a great guy that is dealing with cancer that I talked to for a while as well.  He understands what's going on and talked about his experiences so far, and I'm very thankful.  We're not giving up hope yet, but I think both Katie and I understand it is a real possibility.  Joe pulled me aside and talked for about 30 minutes and it was nice.  I also had to take Robb to an appointment, but moving around has been a lot easier.  My incision feels fine, but the swelling in my leg has kept up.  It is starting to limit movement in my leg so that is pretty annoying.  Right now, it is right in my hip so I don't have full range of motion there but hopefully we can figure something out to get the swelling down.

I'm finishing this Tuesday morning.  I have an appointment with Dr Dees (who did the surgery) and 10am this morning.  I don't know if I'll get any results or anything yet; I think it is just a follow-up appointment to make sure I'm not doing anything stupid and my incision is healing up.  I'm trying to stay calm but I keep bouncing around.  Part of me just wants to know, the other never wants to find out.  I'll check in once I hear back.

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