On a Liquid Diet, But Healing:
(stomach pics below)
This week has been interesting and challenging. I had surgery on Tuesday to finally surgically fix my stomach tube hole. I updated everyone on Tuesday afternoon after I had woken up (that's when I wrote the last blog post which is below), but here is a better update. I haven't posted since then because " I went Silent for Cystic Fibrosis" and participated in a 65 hours challenge to stay unplugged from social media. It was sooo tough not logging onto facebook or tweeting anything in the last two days. I was healing and unable to do a lot, so going online would have helped time fly by, so it was bad timing. But now that the 65 hours is over I want to make sure to catch everyone up!
After surgery on Tuesday I was admitted overnight, just to make sure everything was going well. They started giving me Diluadid for the pain (it wasn't too bad if comparing to my triple hernia surgery), but they wanted me to not hold back my coughs and wanted me to be able to walk around, so they encouraged me to take the pain meds. I took a couple doses of the pain med but I was too extrememly itchy and knew I was allergic. They took me off the pain meds for the night and gave me benadryl instead. That cleared everything up. I was wondering why they tried a new pain med with me. I have a severe allergy to morphine (my organs shut down and I go into anaphylactic shock), but I'm just glad it was a mild allergy like the antibiotics I'm allergic to instead. The next morning I was put on the pain med I normally take and told I needed to keep down the liquid diet in order to go home.
I ate some broth and jello for breakfast and lunch and was glad I was told I could go home by 4pm on Wednesday. The surgeon came in and explained that overall everything went really well. They had cut out some of the scar tissue, in order to make sure it could be surgically closed. Scar tissue had formed around the hole, which is why it was leaking and wasn't ever going to heal. They had originally planned on a 2 inch vertical scar, but once in the Operation Room, they realized my stomach was too close to my ribcage. The incision had to be slanted instead, but it looks good. I've been keeping an eye on it since Wednesday and I'm very pleased how well it is healing. Sorry if you are squeamish, but I've had other people ask for pictures.
So here is what the hole actually looked like (yep, like a bullet hole) and then here it is now with the incision.
And you can see some of my scars from other surgeries too!
So far healing wise it all is going very well. The surgeon/ docs want me to take the pain meds as long as my cough is causing my ribcage to bump into my stomach. It is important for me not to hold back my coughs in fear of it hurting. This would only cause my lungs to get junky and there would be whole lot of other problems.
So I'm taking the pain meds after nebulizers, when I'm coughing more, or if I am walking/moving around a lot. Obviously, since I have severe allergies I'm not the biggest fan of staying on pain meds more than 1 day. But I'm also not a big fan of No Food either.
Since my actual stomach organ was stitched up and is a little delicate, I've been instructed to only be on a liquid diet through Saturday. Today is friday, I've had nothing but juice, water, broth, and jello since monday evening. I'm VERY excited for Sunday, where I get to add some mashed potatoes, cream based soups, and other soft foods. I've been without food for medical reasons for longer than a week when I was younger, but it doesn't mean I deal with it any better. I've been cranky today, luckily Andrew has been working all day, so he doesn't have to deal with me. Haha, although he's just so sweet all the time, its hard to be cranky towards him. He's already planning what meals to make... Can't wait til I cant EAT!
So other than my incision changing direction, being on liquids still, and my minor snag with the pain med allergy, I can't beleive how well this is going! Fastest healing from surgery Ever! Tomorrow, I'm even going to sit with mom at her craft show all day. :-)
I'm looking forward to a future without a stomach hole leaking, laying on my stomach again, and getting back to working out!
(stomach pics below)
This week has been interesting and challenging. I had surgery on Tuesday to finally surgically fix my stomach tube hole. I updated everyone on Tuesday afternoon after I had woken up (that's when I wrote the last blog post which is below), but here is a better update. I haven't posted since then because " I went Silent for Cystic Fibrosis" and participated in a 65 hours challenge to stay unplugged from social media. It was sooo tough not logging onto facebook or tweeting anything in the last two days. I was healing and unable to do a lot, so going online would have helped time fly by, so it was bad timing. But now that the 65 hours is over I want to make sure to catch everyone up!After surgery on Tuesday I was admitted overnight, just to make sure everything was going well. They started giving me Diluadid for the pain (it wasn't too bad if comparing to my triple hernia surgery), but they wanted me to not hold back my coughs and wanted me to be able to walk around, so they encouraged me to take the pain meds. I took a couple doses of the pain med but I was too extrememly itchy and knew I was allergic. They took me off the pain meds for the night and gave me benadryl instead. That cleared everything up. I was wondering why they tried a new pain med with me. I have a severe allergy to morphine (my organs shut down and I go into anaphylactic shock), but I'm just glad it was a mild allergy like the antibiotics I'm allergic to instead. The next morning I was put on the pain med I normally take and told I needed to keep down the liquid diet in order to go home.
I ate some broth and jello for breakfast and lunch and was glad I was told I could go home by 4pm on Wednesday. The surgeon came in and explained that overall everything went really well. They had cut out some of the scar tissue, in order to make sure it could be surgically closed. Scar tissue had formed around the hole, which is why it was leaking and wasn't ever going to heal. They had originally planned on a 2 inch vertical scar, but once in the Operation Room, they realized my stomach was too close to my ribcage. The incision had to be slanted instead, but it looks good. I've been keeping an eye on it since Wednesday and I'm very pleased how well it is healing. Sorry if you are squeamish, but I've had other people ask for pictures.
So here is what the hole actually looked like (yep, like a bullet hole) and then here it is now with the incision.
And you can see some of my scars from other surgeries too!
So far healing wise it all is going very well. The surgeon/ docs want me to take the pain meds as long as my cough is causing my ribcage to bump into my stomach. It is important for me not to hold back my coughs in fear of it hurting. This would only cause my lungs to get junky and there would be whole lot of other problems.
So I'm taking the pain meds after nebulizers, when I'm coughing more, or if I am walking/moving around a lot. Obviously, since I have severe allergies I'm not the biggest fan of staying on pain meds more than 1 day. But I'm also not a big fan of No Food either.
Since my actual stomach organ was stitched up and is a little delicate, I've been instructed to only be on a liquid diet through Saturday. Today is friday, I've had nothing but juice, water, broth, and jello since monday evening. I'm VERY excited for Sunday, where I get to add some mashed potatoes, cream based soups, and other soft foods. I've been without food for medical reasons for longer than a week when I was younger, but it doesn't mean I deal with it any better. I've been cranky today, luckily Andrew has been working all day, so he doesn't have to deal with me. Haha, although he's just so sweet all the time, its hard to be cranky towards him. He's already planning what meals to make... Can't wait til I cant EAT!
So other than my incision changing direction, being on liquids still, and my minor snag with the pain med allergy, I can't beleive how well this is going! Fastest healing from surgery Ever! Tomorrow, I'm even going to sit with mom at her craft show all day. :-)
I'm looking forward to a future without a stomach hole leaking, laying on my stomach again, and getting back to working out!
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