Gillibobs' Blog

So, just to get you up to speed, here’s where we are so far:

Being Admitted –>It’s done –> The Morning After –> and finally, where we started Major Surgery.

So where I left you was the very morning after the surgery, but to be honest, I need to go back a bit as when I blogged from hospital I was off my t*ts on morphine… not the best

Here’s what really happened:

I went down to theatre at about 11:15 and was put to sleep by the anaethstatist Mr Morrison whilst my consultant Mr Griffith held me hand. I woke up in recover about 13:00, but I am not totally sure of the time due to the drugs that I was on. I had an oxygen mask on and two cannulae in the back of my hand. I felt a little woozy but not too bad. I also had Patient Controlled Analgesia or “PCA”, which is basically morphine and it was linked to a button control that I was given so that I could self administer. I was told that I could press the button once every 5 minutes and it would give me 1mg of the drug. I could press every couple of minutes, but I would only get a dose every 5 minutes, so there was no chance that I could overdose.

After half an hour or so in recovery I was taken back into my room and luckily the lady I thought I was sharing with was moved to her own room. The nurse looking after me (Amy) called Moochy but told him to wait for a couple of hours to let me get some rest before he came to see me.

For the rest of that day Moochy stayed with me and I was a little out of it. The combination of the pain killers they gave me in surgery, the morphine and the anaesthetic I am not surprised. I didn’t have a very good night’s sleep either, I wasn’t in too much pain, but everything was a bit of out kilter with my consciousness levels, so I only really had longer than 15 minutes at 4:00am for an hour.

Day 1 – Post Op

My first day post-op started ok and this was when I found out I had staples across the very bottom of my belly and the whole thing was very sore. The nurses came in and gave me a a bed bath and I found out very quickly that you have to leave your dignity at the door regarding these things.They were lovely though so it wasnt too bad. I was also helped to get out of bed and get dressed into my own PJ’s and sit in the chair for an hour, which I did and felt fine. I did also at this stage, have a catheter in so that I didn’t have to worry about going to the loo.

After the hour, I was taught a sort of rolling technique to get back into bed, so that I wouldn’t pull on my bruised abdominal. At this point I was feeling ok.

Moochy came about 11:00 ish and then this is when I started to go downhill a little bit. The nurses came to take my catheter out and help me to go to the loo and I started to feel a little queasy, which does of course make me come out in a cold sweat with fear. I have to say though, they were very good and gave me an injection of cetirizine which did make me feel a little better. However throughout the rest of the day, I did feel nauseous and rotten and even when Moochy came back to visit me in the evening, I sent him away again after 15 minutes as when I feel that bad, I just need to be on my own.

I did however have a 2nd anti-emetic injection and a better nights sleep and woke up feeling normal.

Day 2 – Post Op

It’s fair to say that 24 hrs makes a huge difference sometime as come Friday morning the nausea had gone & I felt much better in myself. My consultant had come to see me yesterday when I was feeling rough and I couldn’t talk to him, but he came to see me during lunch and said that if I continued to be ok I could go home the day after – I couldn’t believe it.

Did I mention I had 22 staples at my wound site by the way?! Each and every one was sore but actually with continual painkillers, it was manageable. So I spent the rest of the day just chilling, which basically meant watching TV, napping and chatting to Moochy. I did also get a visit from Moochy’s sister, which was great and it was lovely to see her. I had an OK night’s sleep again without having to take any sleeping tablets. Ace.

Day 3 – Post Op

My day started fairly sedately as I woke up about 6:30 and took my time having breakfast and coming to with general rumblings of an early morning hospital. I had a shower on my own and after some general discharge information, I was allowed to come home at around 13:00. I say general discharge information, but to be specific, this is what they told me.

• The myths about not being able to lift a kettle were nonsense and the guide was not to lift anything about 3kg/6lbs. So no baskets of washing, no hoovering, no Sunday Roasts etc, but light things were fine.
• It’s best to shower instead of bathe and when doing so pat my staples dry and then finish of drying them with cool hairdryer, which dries between the staples.
• I had to try and do 2 x 10 minute walks a day in the first week and build it up slowly every day after that.
• Roll on an off the bed.
• If I had to cough or sneeze, I had to draw my knees up to my chest if I was sitting  or lying down or bend my knees if standing up and both of these techniques should absorb some of the shock and pain.
• Talking of pain, as I refused Codeine (made me feel sick) and hadn’t had Tramadol in hospital, I was going to try to stick to Paracetamol and ibuprofen in the following regime:

Paracetamol: 6:00am – 12:00 noon – 6:00pm – 12:00 midnight with ibuprofen in between.

So there you are then. I didn’t feel too bad coming come, but didn’t sleep very well the first night. Having to sleep on my back, I just couldn’t get comfortable and so was a bit restless.

Day 4

Had a not too bad day today and started to get into a small routine. Did my 2 x 10 minute walks and I am pleased to report that I finally went to the loo. We made a little chart to document my pain relief and I even managed to have a shower. Moochy’s mum and dad came to see me and I felt pretty ok all day. However just before bed, I had to go to the loo and it was a bit gross and well to cut a long story short, I had about 3-4 hours sleep as I had a dicky tum in the night and whilst I wasn’t actually sick, it came very very close. As I have mentioned before, I am not very good in these situations so had a very disturbed night.

I am sure that last nights problems were down to a few things, but possibly me already having IBS and eating too many cupcakes etc yesterday just exacerbated things. My consultant said that this operation means that they rummage around in my tummy and that can make me feel without any other factors. He also said that my recovery would be very up and down and so far, he is right.

Day 5

Oo I haven’t had a great day today, I am just very tired and had an upset stomach all day. I couldn’t have very much to eat and I realised that I hadn’t slept properly for almost 1 week. I have just been quite quiet and just tried to rest. I did manage to start my exercises though and went for 1 of my 10 minute walks. Let’s hope I get a decent night’s sleep tonight.

cont…