See my pre-op post or Day of Surgery – Day 2
Day 3:
I’m not sure if this is belongs here or day 2 but this is a warning, it’s graphic. I made it clear I was going to document the highs and lows and boy is this next part a low, it’s about the poops.
Going into day 3, about 11pm the night before, I had a terrible pain. I hadn’t eaten much, and I’d been taking stool softeners for at least 10 days prior to the surgery so I thought I was going to be prepared for the first poop after surgery. News flash, I wasn’t prepared. I decided to try to use the bathroom, and the pain was unbearable, the poo would push out and I’d suck it back in because I could not physically breath. It felt as painful as childbirth, but when you give birth you have no choice to push. This situation I could just stop pushing and I’d be back to square one. I thought it would be a good idea to take 30ml of Milk of Magnesia. I walked around the bathroom a bit and ended up back in bed trying to rest.
About an hour later, 2 am, I woke up to unbearable stomach pain. I had to get up, tried to poop again and nothing. I took another swig (I have no idea how much, this is where I went wrong) of Milk of Magnesia and walked around hunched over the bathroom, circle after circle. I sat at the toilet again, no movement, besides grunting and moving all about. For some reason, in my delusional mind, I took ANOTHER swig of Milk of Magnesia and repeated my circles, trying to get some movement.
Finally, it felt like something was happening so I sat on the toilet, again, praying to the poop gods to let it loose and they delivered. After my online reading, between paint grunts, on how to make pooping easiest after surgery, someone mentioned to lean back and I tried it. It did work but I was not prepared. Once the first little bit came out, it would not stop. I was peeing from my butt and I couldn’t stop. The waters began to rise, you know that feeling when you’ve plugged the toilet. Yeah, I plugged the toilet and I hadn’t even wiped yet.
When I got a break between shit bursts, I waddled, with my pajamas at my knees, through my bedroom, down the hall and into the other bathroom. I was in there at least another 20 minutes, finishing my movement and wiping. I do recommend some sort of flushable wipes. Reaching around is hard enough with the very little movement you have in your trunk.
Now the fun part, plunging the toilet at 3:30 am. I headed to the garage, shuffling down the stairs to grab the plunger. I made it back into the primary bathroom got to work. 45 minutes later and three YouTube videos on how to plunge the toilet, I learned there are multiple types of plungers and hot water is bad for your pipes. None of their tips and tricks worked on my toilet. I just went to bed and left it for my husband to deal with in the morning. Sorry Matt.
Matt managed to deal with the toilet but he could not figure out how I plugged it without the use of TP. Nor could I, luckily we moved on. And I felt fantastic the remainder of the day. I still had a stomach grumble but wasn’t shitting my pants. My best friend came over with dinner and hung out with me and the kids. I made it downstairs to sit on the couch and pain level was 3/10. I was feeling pretty good.
Day 4:
I ended up sleeping three, 3 hour stints going into day 4. Only waking up to use the bathroom. Some changes I noticed with my body
- My drains were not nearly as full. I had gone down from draining three or four times a day to the morning and right before bed
- The color of the drains have gone from red to pink and sometimes yellow, which is good
- I can stand up a bit straighter
- My walking has gone from a shuffle to walking. I can’t keep up with my two year old but I am able to walk faster than a sloth.
- My skin is so itchy, but I’m still numb. When you itch numb skin, nothing happens. I imagine it’s from the anesthesia from wearing off but no matter what the reason is, I am taking Benadryl every 5 hours.
At this point, I’m so ready to get the eff out of this bed and the house, when my mom invited me for lunch to visit family in town, I couldn’t say no. My husband dropped the kids and I off, I enjoyed some outside the house interaction and my husband went to the grocery store, alone. That’s always a nice thing. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. Leading up to this moment, I had been taking the Tramadol in the evening only. I however, took a Tramadol and took a nap.
Two hours later, I woke up and a went to visit a friend. It was 1 mile down the street, and I had planned to sit on the couch. Even after doing nothing at someone else’s house, I was hurting. My back hurt from being hunched over, my stomach hurt from trying to stand and my left lipo spot was shooting pain.
I had officially felt too good and did too much. I knew I was going to pay the price. I went to bed taking two Tramadol and hoping to feel better in the morning.
Day 4:
That was absolutely atrocious sleep. My husband was snoring for a solid 5 hours and I see why that is number one reason couples divorce. But that’s a post for another day.
I ended up “waking up” about 7, kicking my husband out, taking a Tramadol and going back to sleep for another hour and half. When I finally did get out of bed, I was able to shower but I clearly went backwards. I had to use the shower chair again, although it was for the best. We changed the sheets and I washed my garments.
I have now been wearing a tank top underneath my binder in the hopes to ease the itching. It hasn’t worked, I’m still itchy, taking Benadryl. I ended up being out of my bra and binder for two hours or so and it was glorious. For my skin to be free. Not having the binder on gives me a bit of a “naked” feeling, like my insides might spill out.
Other than being sore, my back and sides hurting, my shooting lipo spot and itching, some other very random things have occurred. My incision spots get dry leading to my tank top or binder getting stuck to them. , Having to slowly tear off the fabric is painful. My skin is dry, my face, specifically my nose, my ears and around my ears. This is new to me, my mom says it’s from the anesthesia continuing to wear off but I haven’t looked that up. My drain ports are getting real itchy and the tubes are starting to coagulated blood, but I can’t move it down. Slowly, the fluid is turning yellow again and leaking into the bulbs. Finally, the absolute worst, my incisions have dressing on them. It looks like some sort of surgical tape that is starting to fall off. Which is getting stuck between my clothing and is uncomfortable.
I haven’t left bed much, I’ve been chugging water and rotating between Tylenol and Advil regularly. I hope to wake up feeling good tomorrow, and also get these drains out at my follow up. Fingers crossed.
To think I thought I’d be back to work in a day, very unrealistic of me.
Day 6
I finally got the two top drains out. My first follow up, my doctor checked the output, it was about 15 ml per empty, roughly 11 hours between. It was amazing, in my head I thought the drains had maybe 2/3 inches inside, no. Closer to 16 inches is what she pulled out, to my surprise, it did not hurt. The rest of my body is sore but looked good. I was told to cut any lifting scare tape so it didn’t itch and to keep on with the healing. I did get a new binder, down two sizes.
Later in the day we had a funeral and celebration of life. I was sore, tired and honestly I had nothing to wear. I looked ridiculous and it is making me dread having to get ready for work next week.
Day 8
After the funeral and an 8 hour outing, I’ve been laying in bed. Yesterday, I was in bed all day. Exhausted. Today, I woke up and my eyes burned of exhaustion. I even took a 40 minute nap. I have no idea how, in just a few days, I’m supposed to be at work for 9 hours a day plus a commute.
My healing, I feel has slowed drastically. It’s only day 8 so, that’s a little dramatic. Now that my upper drains are out, my lower ones are starting to fill again. With them being full, that means they will not come out in two days. Which means I have many more days from my possible pull out, 13 days from right now almost 2 weeks. Like I’ve told my mother, I will rip them out myself before they are in that long. My right drain insertion point in particular hurts at any leg crease. No more sitting in chairs and the skin around the insertion point has become raw from the stitches.
I will say, with this being an issue, this is probably the most annoying of the process. My bellybutton is a bit strange, it seems to have a bit of puss (sorry) but appears to go away after a shower. I am standing up a bit straighter and I feel good in the morning when I first get my binder off. As the day goes on, and I eat very little, I become a can of biscuits. Ready to burst at the seams. It is physically painful to get “full”. One night after I ate dinner, I cried from the feeling of my skin felt it could not physically stretch any more and my stitches were going to burst open. Luckily, that didn’t happen but felt like it could.
I will say, I am not seeing the end result. While not having a muffin top is nice, I can’t imagine how my stomach will look. It’s not looking too good right now. My boobs, I am hoping to come around to them. My initial thought was I loved them, and I loved the size. My husband has not come around to them being so small but the problem is, they are getting smaller. Which is ironic that I’m unhappy at the size, since going to this size is why my surgery lasted so long. Anyways, I started 8 days ago in an XL bra with a size Large bra I purchased not even close to fitting. It could barely get the bra to my nipples, fully stretched. Today, I tried that bra on and it zipped with ease. This is concerning, how much smaller will they get?
I know that my body will continue to change and reduce in size, less bloating blah blah. But mentally, it is a bit difficult to see how this is all going to heal. Especially with the sight of my nipples, they look like they went through the food processor. But it will be okay, I’m sure of it. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.