So after my 6th ER trip this summer, the doctors finally got sick of me and decided to get me some surgery! I was admitted to hospital on July 26th and had my surgery August 1st. They took out the terminal ileum as well as a small chunk of colon and my appendix since they were already in the area. I got to come home yesterday, and now I have some burning questions.
1) The actual incision seems to be healing well, but the area of muscle just beneath the incision and maybe a bit to my left is still giving me an excruciating amount of pain. When I'm not moving there's not much pain, but when I try to get up, sit down, lay down, basically do anything, it hurts so bad that I literally can't breathe and start to whimper like a wounded dog. Is this normal? How long will this last? It's been a week since surgery and it doesn't seem to be getting much better.
2) How long until the gas in my gut starts to settle down? Today I noticed that I can sort of lay on my side a bit, but prior to that every time I tried to lay anywhere but on my back there was so much gas that I felt someone was blowing up a hot air balloon in my belly. Then popping it. Then blowing up another one. =\
I have some good hospital stories that I'll post later but right now I'm not really feeling up to it. I can't believe that as few as two weeks ago I had no idea I'd be having surgery, and now here I am sitting in bed with those parts of my anatomy in a jar in a lab somewhere (still waiting for the pathology).
Does anyone have any surgery recovery tips or good stories? I'd love to hear 'em.
1) The actual incision seems to be healing well, but the area of muscle just beneath the incision and maybe a bit to my left is still giving me an excruciating amount of pain. When I'm not moving there's not much pain, but when I try to get up, sit down, lay down, basically do anything, it hurts so bad that I literally can't breathe and start to whimper like a wounded dog. Is this normal? How long will this last? It's been a week since surgery and it doesn't seem to be getting much better.
2) How long until the gas in my gut starts to settle down? Today I noticed that I can sort of lay on my side a bit, but prior to that every time I tried to lay anywhere but on my back there was so much gas that I felt someone was blowing up a hot air balloon in my belly. Then popping it. Then blowing up another one. =\
I have some good hospital stories that I'll post later but right now I'm not really feeling up to it. I can't believe that as few as two weeks ago I had no idea I'd be having surgery, and now here I am sitting in bed with those parts of my anatomy in a jar in a lab somewhere (still waiting for the pathology).
Does anyone have any surgery recovery tips or good stories? I'd love to hear 'em.