Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Well, I can tell I'm not near up to speed. Keep skipping over and forgetting things. Guess you'll have that. :) Since the choice to move ahead with reconstruction was such a tough one I decided that once I made that decision I had to be happy with it and do everything I could to remain positive.  As mentioned before keeping busy through this entire journey has been key for me. Sitting around feeling sorry for myself was not part of my agenda. Thank goodness I love my kids and love nothing more than being involved in all their activities. That helped a lot but so did a few other things.

Anyone that knows me knows I am a compulsive house cleaner. Of course that was part of my pre -surgery prep...getting to the fall cleaning I wanted done and doing some fall decorating. But somewhere in the mix I firmly believe every woman needs some pampering.  Some of my girlfriends really wanted to do a girls night out. That would have been awesome but unfortunately pneumonia crossed that off the list. I wasn't willing to give up any of Brody's soccer games to go out with the girls because I knew I'd miss several after surgery. In fact it's about killed me that he joined football late in the season as he was recruited. We thought this was all to break him in for next year but then injuries among the other kickers occurred and Brody was thrown into his new roll. I have yet to see him play and it's killing me!!! Oh well I did at least get to see him on the Friday Night Frenzy on the news! Brad has been making it to all the soccer and football games so far so at least that helps.

Although there are so many things to do I did take an afternoon for some self pampering.On Wednesday before surgery I went to get my hair done and then got a pedicure!  It was absolutely heavenly. I would strongly suggest to anyone faced with health problems or simply challenges in their lives to splurge!  Spend that extra $25 even though you feel you shouldn't and do something for yourself. Better yet suggest to a spouse they give their loved one a gift certificate or treat them to dinner out. Everyone needs some relaxing down time before the stressful event. Heaven knows it will be awhile before life is back to normal. Recovery is a long road and no matter how uncomplicated it is never a cake walk.

Sunday I just wasn't feeling great. Had a low grade temp off and on during the evening. I did call the surgeons office Monday just to let them know that although I am aware low grade temps are normal for a lot of people after surgery they are not normal for me. I'm hoping it's related to the thick throat and draianage I was having leading up to and just after surgery. Everything looked fine-incisions, drain sites, and drainage. The doctor wasn't in anyway so staying with the plan to see him today, Tuesday, as scheduled. Then last night I woke up just before 3AM. I managed to make my way to the bathroom but was in excruciating pain. I struggled to get back to bed feeling dizzy and breaking into a huge hot flash and overwhelming nausea.  I haven't started those just yet so that was outta nowhere. I had to wake Brad to help me. What a horrible feeling!!! I wasn't short of breath but it hurt even to breathe at first.   I haven't even felt that bad waking up from surgery, even this time when I felt so not normal. He grabbed a cold wash cloth which settled the overheating. After a bit we made our way to the kitchen and I tried some Sprite and crackers and eventually something for pain. Had the symptoms not settled quickly I was going to head for the ER. Some of those symptoms can signal a blood clot that has traveled to the lung (pulmonary embolus) and of course the nurse in me set my wheels turning. However re positioning and the cold cloth helped a ton! He helped me to the Lazy Boy. Fortunately all that didn't last real long and I fell fast asleep. Even to me that was frightening. The only thing I can possibly conclude is I slept in the wrong position. I can only sleep on my back due to the drains in my outer chest and the pain of the expanders in my chest. I caught myself the other night dozing off with my arms above my head-not a good plan. I am thinking maybe while I slept I had my arms above my head stretching those freshly relocated muscles. OMG I hope whatever it was that it never happens again. I have been taking very few pain pills and sticking with the Tylenol and Motrin as much as possible due to the constipation and fleeting nausea. I took something last night but think I just grabbed Tylenol. Whatever it did the trick.

Have been pretty much wiped out so far today. Took forever to shower and had to nap between that and washing my hair. Now regrouping so I can head to a late Dr. appt. and feeling a little bit better.