Recovery

Good morning, bloggies! I am happy to report that my gallbladder-ectomy and no-more-babies procedures were a success. Surgeries went well on Thursday and by that afternoon I was home recovering comfortably. By today, I am feeling pretty much human and am perfecting the art of vegging quietly in front of the TV.

I am curious to hear from my WLS surgeon, who removed my gallbladder. I'm getting information second hand, but my mom said the surgeon removed scar tissue around my gallbladder - whatever he said led my mom to believe that I possibly didn't even need the gallbladder out, but they did it anyway. Ah well. My surgeon was totally gunning for that gallbladder - it might have been prudent to seek a second opinion on that one. But, as my surgeon had told me when I asked him whether it really needed to come out, "At least it will remove it from the equation." (See, I told you he was gunning for it.)

The ablation and tubal ligation also went well. If I am feeling any pain from either procedure, I am not aware of it. Mostly it's just the achy pain from the incision sites and general feeling of being hit by a very small truck in my mid-section. No complaints whatsoever. It is conceivable that I could be back at work today, but I am happy to have the opportunity to lay around and recuperate.

On Wednesday, I'm going back in for another iron IV infusion, which I will have done monthly for the foreseeable future. I've actually had fairly good success taking the iron pills lately, so I may increase my efforts to take those instead of do the IVs. Although the IVs are nice because it's over quickly, doesn't give you any constipation, and they wrap you in warm blankies like a spa visit. :)

After my WLS, I lost a lot of hair. People say this is the lingering after-effects of the general anesthesia, although I do not remember this side effect from any previous operations. At any rate, I'm hoping that's not the case, because my hair is mostly feeling back to normal after WLS, and I will mourn the loss of any future hair.

I had a nice recovery at home. Cappy stayed with me the night before the operation, which was nice for calming my nerves. I did get a little nervous this time! Not sure why. I've had many operations and I've endured them all nicely, with little side effects or lingering recoveries. He also stayed with me after the operation. On Thursday, I was feeling well enough (by Friday I felt pretty crappy when I woke up) to play a bit of a nursemaid prank on him. He came over after work, and I left the front door unlocked. I had set myself up on the couch, surrounded by bottles of pills, a heating pad, a hot water bottle, and a giant bucket with a hand towel over the edge. When he came in, I had the blankets tucked up to my neck and I wanly called to him that the door was open when he knocked.

He came in and saw all the implements of recovery, and gave a bit of a yuck-eye to the bucket before peeking in. I told him it was just a precaution, since I'd had uncontrolled vomiting all afternoon, but I was feeling a little bit better now. I told him I used the anti-nausea suppository prescribed to me (they really did!) and had my fingers crossed for good results. Ha! That will test any new relationship! He took it totally in stride, haha. Then, with great flourish, I whipped off my blankets to reveal my regular clothes and sat upright on the couch. I was fine. We had a good laugh, although I could see him mulling over exactly how stoned those pain meds had me, haha.

(Hrm, maybe it wasn't that funny. It was to me, at the time, anyway. Silly pain meds.)

I was hoping to wake up feeling as great on Friday, but I didn't. I was pretty sore, and awfully tired. I vegged, and on Saturday morning I felt good. I stopped taking the oxycodone, which was making my head very foggy and my vision weird. I felt like I was on pretty serious drugs, and surprisingly, I didn't like it. I switched over to vicodin, which kills the pain without making me feel loopy.

Sunday, some vicodin, mostly the mega-strength ibuprofen they prescribed. Today, no drugs, although I'll probably take some ibuprofen shortly, just to make sure I continue feeling good. And I'm heading back to bed very shortly, I'm in the middle of a good book and I want to read myself to sleep. :)

Whew - today, finally, I can poo! File that under "too much information." Every time I've had surgery, my intestines are on the slow side to wake up - all the doctors say so, haha. I think it was yesterday when I ate and felt like everything just sat in my stomach, immobilized, for hours. I will be happy to return to normal.

Alas, I'm going back to the drawing board on Cappy, I believe. That warrants its own post, perhaps another time. Such a wonderfully weird, sweet man. I absolutely adore him, but I am looking for a boyfriend, and heat, and new romance. With Cappy, although I just enjoy him so much - that is not what we share. He's depressed, I think. I am sure of it, actually. He's starting to see a counselor tomorrow. And I have been grappling with waiting it out because we do have a lot of chemistry, or cutting him loose and telling him to come back when he gets his head together. I'm afraid if we continue on like this, it's awfully hard for either of us to move forward, and decreases the likelihood of our relationship moving forward. I know, certainly, I will not date while I'm seeing him - he is a known quantity that I have *such* fun with, it's too tempting to spend all my time with him. And really - I don't know him well enough to justify spending all this time with him while he's feeling down. On the one hand, I think, "well, I don't have anything else going on," and on the other, I know the only reason I don't have anything else going on is because I'm spending all my time with him. The mask over his depression is slipping a bit and selfishly, I'm being subjected to more of the down mood than I have a tolerance for right now. It's a real balance between what you'd do for your friends and what you'd do for a lover...he is caught somewhere between that friend and lover classification, and with either, really, it's a bit too much, too soon, I think.

Super-selfishly, probably my favorite thing about seeing Cappy is cuddling with him at night. Oh my, have I ever missed having a man to hold me while I sleep, and he is quite masterful at it. That's what you really miss out on when you're single - sustained human contact. I could lay in bed and cuddle all day (and we did this weekend, haha). But however tempting it is...eh, it's probably best to give up this particular perk if I'm looking for love. And while I haven't ruled out that possibility between us...it's just not happening. Ah well.

My weight was back down to 151 the morning of the surgery, but has since been stuck at 154.6. I am peeved, especially since I'm not eating a darn thing. I know it's just after-effects of the surgery, maybe fluid retention, maybe 4+ pounds of poo stuck in my system, whatever. But it is vexing me, and I'm eager to see the scale start moving again.