Day 1 - Post op

the next day (which would i guess be day 1 post op) was not the best. i tried to spend a lot of time sleeping and making sure that my ice packs were on and frozen... they feel so much better when they are frozen. i couldn’t imagine spending another night in the hospital with nurses that didn’t really care too much about my needs (i mean, they would put my dinner tray down and leave me to try and figure out how to syringe food into my mouth... ). my surgeon came around 4:00 or so (this was on Tuesday) and he told me how well everything went and how impressed he was. he told me that it was ok if i wanted to go home that night as i would probably sleep better there anyway. i got the discharge papers from the nurses and a ride out to the car in a wheelchair pushed my Brandon. the car ride home was not a good experience either (man i am soooo optimistic!). there was a detour which took us on a bumpy road and delayed our time. then when we were on the highway there was a rollover which meant the traffic was at a stand still. i thought i was going to die. we finally made it home and i didn’t realize it would be that hard... when i was in the hospital i was hooked up to an oxygen make which was just placed loosely around my ice packs and helped me breathe and helped to keep my lips moist... on the way home however, i had none of that and found breathing to be substantially difficult. kind of scary. i got home to a lovely decorated house that my step-dad left for me. there were balloons and cards and flowers and it was a nice surprise, but it was hard to focus on this instead of breathing.  my stomach was still nauseous all night... i thought it was a good idea to take a Tylenol 3 (don’t do it, terrible idea!) and the codeine mixed with blood and lack of substance in my body led to an achy night. it also led to constipation which is never fun... and when i would get up and bend my head down blood would seep down from my nose (scary, yes!). rest-assured, the doctor said this would happen and was no cause to panic. that evening i was up and down all night from the lazy-boy... when the ice packs thawed out, i got really uncomfortable. also sounding like darth vader trying to breathe was some cause for concern. i would get really hungry around 3:00 or so, then get up again around 7 or earlier to try and get more food in my stomach. Brandon would jump up and help me all the time, he really has made this process so much more tolerable. i cant imagine how people could do this by themselves.

Brushing my teeth for the first time.

Brushing felt soooo good!

Yep, this is beauty!

Homeward bound.