5 Weeks Ago Today…

Are you getting a deja-vue feeling here… Seriously, so far I have improved a bit every day, but nothing has happened that I would shout from the rooftops about, but I do have some news.

My scar is healed very well (in fact without meaning to gross you out too much, my last scab came off today) although bits of it are still pretty pink and my chest drain site has finally had the all clear. I can take a shower just as soon as hubby gets home from work – I shall be making noises just like on the Herbal Essences shampoo ads I am sure (and it won’t have much to do with hubby beyond his help to actually get in the darn shower (which is over the bath))! My preggo belly is also much smaller – I still don’t have the tummy I had but I can at least see my feet past it now (hee hee!).

I can now hobble around with just one crutch (but I’m not much good at it – altho’ by comparison I am positively speedy with two) and all in all, I am starting to feel like moving around much more. I have gone from oohing and owwing at every move, to wincing at every move, to moving sometimes without wincing, to now moving mostly without wincing, oohing or owwing at all…except first thing in the mornings - but I used to get stiff and ooh and ow a bit then before the op so I guess I can’t complain too much. I would be lying if I said there wasn't still plenty of pain, but at least it seems much more manageable now. Something really odd, is that around my rib (or lack of it) often feels really tight – like someone has me wrapped in a band and is squeezing it inwards – odd but not vastly painful. Something else which isn’t painful at all is around the incision site. In fact, it’s mostly completely numb. Now I know from other people (and from past operations) that the skin around an incision goes numb but does eventually come back to life. Yep – I have just poked my appendix scar (which I also remember went numb) – I can definitely feel it now. Anyway, for most of my new (awesomely huge) scar, I have an area for around 2” each side which is numb.

The only other update news I have is that I tried halving my night time dose of painkillers and found it to be not a great idea. To be fair I was not in agony, but I was uncomfortable enough that I didn’t sleep much. Given that I know that sleep (for me) is a great healer I decided to give myself another week before trying again. Once I can get that dose cut down then I can hopefully start to decrease doses and get weaned off the ‘heavier’ stuff. Just as long as I can sleep I’ll be happy….