Bubbles everywhere but Out!

I can hear gas bubbles everywhere in my body – up near my shoulder, under my left breast, over in my right kidney area.  The problem is, it’s running amuck inside and not going out!   I haven’t passed gas or even so much as burped in the last two days.  Trying to ‘push’ does absolutely nothing.

I slept pretty well last night, and I do have some discomfort this morning.  I think my best bet though is to stop the pain meds and switch to tylenol in hopes that maybe I’ll have a bowel movement that will release some of the pressure on my belly.  I feel so tight and bloated.  So, this morning I took two different types of laxatives along with some Gas-x, and I’m going to try to drink as much as I can today.  I’m also going to eat a lot of fruit and try to take a short walk.  Other than that, there’s nothing I can really do, I suppose.

Still no hot flashes or sudden mood changes that I’ve noticed.  Just wishing this bowling ball in my belly would dissipate.

Mistakes I made Post-Mastectomy

So, now that I’m healing from my hysterectomy, I realize that I made a lot of mistakes after my mastectomy.  First, I sold the medical table that I had bought.  That table was so useful in carting around laptop, tissues, snacks, phone, etc – I could push it all over the house and/or keep it near me in bed.

Second, I threw out all of the abdominal binders I had.  Now that my belly is sore, distended, and painful, I realize that having that pressure would probably help.  They sell these on the hystersister website, but I’m too annoyed with myself that I got rid of my free ones that I can’t bring myself to buy new ones at $40 a piece!

I also got rid of all of my granny panties.  Those were the panties I found that had some tummy compression.  I bet that would feel good too now, especially because my current underwear waistband is rubbing my bellybutton, and there are stitches there.  I did get those at Target though for $6 a pair, so I might be able to just get some more pretty easily.

Laparoscopic incisions (graphic pic)

Here is a picture of my very swollen belly, along with the laparoscopic incisions. You can also see my abdominal scar from January’s surgery.

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I should also add that I managed to gain 3 pounds between yesterday morning and this evening. I’m guessing it’s just a lot of fluid and swelling.  But still – didn’t they remove a couple of pounds of organs?

 

Hysterectomy Done!

I’ll give a brief overview of the last two days’ events, since I’m still rather groggy from the anesthesia and can’t seem to stay awake for longer than 20 minutes at a time.

Yesterday morning,the surgeon’s scheduler called to say he was running early, and if it were possible, we could come in earlier.  I had just gotten out of the shower, but we scaddadled right on over the hospital.  I was starving from my liquid diet the day before and really just wanted to get the whole thing over with. Once at the hospital, my paperwork was  processed and I was in pre-op almost immediately.  Several people came by – a few nurses, my doctor, his resident, the anesthesiologist.  My husband and parents were there with me until they were ready to wheel me into the OR.

And then I woke up in the recovery room.  I was very groggy, in and out of sleep, and not in much pain.  At around 4, I was brought up to my hospital room where my parents and husband were waiting.  My husband left soon after to pick up our son from school.

I did have one small meltdown – I wanted more pain meds, I was having a lot of pain (a combination of the crampiness from the surgery and stitches along with gas), the pain was making me extremely nauseous, and the nurses weren’t responding to my call for meds.  Eventually, a nurse brought me some other pain meds and some Compazine, and within a few minutes I was fine.

Soon after that, they removed my catheter and my parents left.  I was alone for the night.  But, it’s really so much easier to get in and out of bed than I thought it would be.  I got up several times in the night to pee, but the only time I called the nurse was for pain meds.  It was sort of empowering to do this myself, since my mom had stayed with me every minute of the five days that I was in the hospital in January and then I needed help with everything.

This morning, the residents, nurses, and Dr Sukumvanich all came by to check on me.  Dr Sukumvanich said the initial pathology all came back clear, but they will do a more detailed view of all of the tissue – results won’t come back for that for a week or so.

I ate a bit of breakfast and then my mom and husband arrived.  I was discharged very early, but it took about four hours to get the paperwork done and the wheelchair to arrive.  Finally, at 1pm, I was home in my own bed.

The Percocet is only keeping me comfortable for about two hours.  Then I start counting down minutes until I can take it again.  I did just take some Gas-x hoping that might help – the doctor said it wouldn’t (he gave me an explanation I really didn’t understand), but I figure it can’t hurt.  Mood-wise I feel fine – I think right now I’m concentrating on handling the physical pain, so that’s helping me not worry to much about mood changes.