Thursday, May 8, 2014

Day 3: Surprises

It turns out I got bored of posting daily surprisingly quickly.  Apparently there just aren't that many exciting things to talk about in surgery recovery, as most of the major developments revolve around the return of normal body functions, most of which are neither exciting nor polite.  So with that in mind, here's a short list of surprises revolving around surgery:

Surprise #1 -  Almost no pain.  Other than a bit of abdominal pain, I feel essentially fine as long as I'm not moving, and even moving isn't terrible as long as I don't work my abs. This is a lot different from when I injured my kidney, when I was on narcotics and basically sprawled out in bed in pain, all the time, for around two weeks. I'm not even taking tylenol that regularly anymore.  (I think about it sometimes, so I'm at something like 4 pills a day)

Surprise #2 - Shoulder and Neck pain.  Despite the relatively little pain, the worst of it is usually around my shoulders and neck.  This was unexpected, since from what I understand my shoulders aren't that closely involved in my kidney function.  I'm betting it's either because someone was kneeling on me during surgery, or my muscles get all stiff when I don't use them.

Surprise #3 - Shaving.  Turns out they shaved off all the hair around my belly button.  I suppose I should have seen that coming, but yeah.  Surprise!

Surprise #4 - Eating.  This is another non-issue.  Where-as before I basically couldn't eat anything and threw up a few times, this time I was eating grilled cheese and soup within hours of the surgery.  By now I basically feel up for anything.  Supposedly repairing my kidney will make me less prone to nausea, we'll see how that goes.

Surprise #5 - Peeing.  I know this gets into the not-exiting-or-polite body function section, but I'm fairly sure both my kidneys are now working, because I pretty much have to pee all the time. It's honestly a little absurd.  I mean I'm drinking a fair amount of water, but I'm peeing like 10 times a day.  I'm concerned this could be the end of the legendary Perkes bladder (is that really legendary, or does it just come up occasionally on road trips?), but I'm hoping that it's just left over tenderness from having my urinary tract jacked up from all directions.

By the way, happy nurses week!  I really appreciate all the wonderful nurses at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, who made my stay surprisingly enjoyable.  And a shout-out to all my male nurses.  They may not be as beautiful as the women (really though, I've never met a nursing student who wasn't both beautiful and amazing, I'm not quite sure how that happens), but they make for slightly less awkward discussions of urination.

From the return from Havasupai,
when we got lost and ended up in California

3 comments:

  1. Kee hee. Loved this. Although I'm concerned about our road trips now. You're just going to have to bring some empty bottles from now on because we're still not stopping.

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  2. Your frequent peeing could also be from any IV fluids they pumped into you during surgery. I have faith your iron bladder will return and you won't bring shame to the family. Also, I've heard people have shoulder and neck pain after laparoscopic surgery, something about the gas the use making its way out of your body. I'm sure Google can tell you if I'm making that up. Glad you're recovering well.

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    Replies
    1. Wow, good call on the shoulder pain. Google says it is common, and now I have this weird image of them inflating my abdominal cavity with CO2, but that explains a lot of the weird aches I have.

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