DIEP Recovery, Day 4

I'm on the road to recovery!  I spend most of my time in the lift recliner that I rented for a month from a medical supply company.  Sometimes I sit on the living room couch with a wedge pillow behind me.  Keeping a bent angle 24/7 is wreaking havoc on my back.  Try walking hunched over for an hour and you'll see what I mean.  The walker helps because I can lean on it and relieve my back muscles.  Claire decorated my walker as soon as I got home.  


I'm like a one-woman 4th of July parade.  My parade route runs from the recliner, through the living room, around the kitchen island, to the front door, and sometimes around the patio.  I have to carry my Prevana abdominal wound vac on a lanyard around my shoulder, like the world's ugliest purse.  It applies negative pressure to help my incision heal.  Claire says it makes a "tooting" sound.  Every once in awhile, it wakes me up with a loud beeping noise when it needs to be plugged in and charged.  You can't tell, but in the picture above, the charger is dragging behind me because I accidentally ripped it out of the wall when I stood up.  I also have three other surgical drains that I carry around in my robe pockets.  Jeff and I were already familiar with "stripping the drains" from my last surgery.  Jeff has a spreadsheet going for drain output and medications.   

I stopped Ibuprofren after the bleeding incident, and then I was just on Tylenol and Gabapentin for nerve pain.  I found myself awake at 5am and too uncomfortable to sleep until my Tylenol dose at 6am.  I broke down this afternoon and took an Oxycodone.  Then I watched cute dog videos with Julia for an hour.  While I was still feeling the effects of the Oxy, I even took a shower!  I'm so productive today!
    
I think Jeff is jealous of me living in a chair, but I still feel stressed when I hear the kids whining or melting down.  I'll yell, "What's going on?  Don't make me get up and hobble out there!"  It's hard for me to not be in control, but my mom is doing a fabulous job.  She's an abysmal cook, but yesterday she made me salmon with lentils and kale!  (I shout directions down the hallway.)  She's certainly giving it 110%.  I have a Taboo buzzer that I use when I need something or when I just want to annoy someone.  My Dad takes the girls outside and even lets them drag him on the trampoline.  Jeff took Julia kayaking even though he hates the outdoors.  Everyone is pitching in.      

My friends sent me these beautiful flowers, and Claire and Julia decorated a pillow for me.  


I'm feeling loved.  But make no mistake, Jeff and Julia still roll their eyes when I ask them to get me a glass of water, and then Claire gets upset because she wanted to carry it, and then it spills, and then Julia starts yelling, and Claire starts crying, and Jeff starts cursing.  But, you know, still loved.  💗  



Comments

  1. Glad to hear you're doing well and that you didn't bleed out. That last paragraph is pure gold btw. I literally lol'd.

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