One week post surgery

It was oh so tempting to write post-partum there πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

I’m doing really well considering. If you had asked me last week if I’d be up and about daily (though in really short bursts) I would have tried to either smack or strangle you.

My pain levels are overall lower than they were – though by no means gone. As long as I wake up between 5-6am to take a pain pill I’m comfortable. I’m only on one Percocet at a time (plus the ibuprofen) so I think I’m doing really well.

Had a shower last night (first one since I got home, but I did have one in the hospital!) and it totally wiped me out.

I’m still crash-napping for an hour or so at a time, which is having a bit of an effect on my circadian rhythms, but honestly right now I think it’s the equivalent of “sleep when the baby sleeps”.

I’m eating proper food without issue, though my appetite is still greatly reduced (no bad thing) and prune juice is still very much my friend.

I’m walking much easier though sitting upright is still too uncomfortable after five minutes or so.

Physically getting up or lying down is the worst of it right now, that plus coughing or laughing.

Overall though, I’m recuperating rather well I feel.

Just wish I had the headspace to pick up my needles or hooks.

The first party

Yes, today #1 Son went to his first party stateside.

Overall experience? Meh *Gallic shrug*

If he were a standard child it probably would have been fine, but as he’s not? Not as well as I hoped, but better than I feared.

Nanny volunteered to take him, whilst daddy stayed with TT.


I don’t think either volunteer got an easy job there to be fair πŸ˜‚πŸ€£


He chose his own outfit:

So smart πŸ’•πŸ’•πŸ’•

Now it was one of these activity based ones – all the children taken into a room to rehearse to put on a play at the end for the grown ups.

Would anyone like to guess how this turned out?!?!

Anyone?

Suffice it to say, they left half an hour before the advertised end time, and Momma has had a G&T and a beer or two to calm her nerves!

Now he did have some measure of fun, but missed the cake (which he’s sore about) and didn’t eat the pizza they were serving. My own thinking is that he was over-stimulated (it was very loud) and felt out of control so he seized on one thing he could control – whether or not he ate.

But it’s ok. I sent a thank you email to the birthday girl’s mother, making it clear he had had fun (maybe I took a little creative licence) because I’m grateful he had the chance to have a normal experience.

Slow and steady. That’s how we roll.

And for cuteness, here is a montage of daddy and childer-beasts taken today

My cup runneth over tonight.

Angry mama bear is angry

I just had a call from the counselling centre where #1 Son is registered. His therapist quit. Effective immediately. With zero communication to clients.

I’m furious.

It explains so. much.

  • Why she cancelled last week’s appointment with less than two hour’s notice 😑🀬
  • Why she failed to reschedule it at all.
  • Why she never answered my email when I copied her in to one sent to his school guidance counsellor.
  • Why, despite promising me for over three weeks that she would do so, she has never followed up with the school.

I’m just speechless and furious.

I give major props to the counselling centre though. They stayed 100% professional. Although when I commented that “it made sense” a bit more came out when I read between the lines (see the above list).

They’ve gotten him in with a new therapist. Who specialises in kids with sensory and emotional issues, and is a music therapist.

I’m a bit anxious though, as it isn’t a proven to work with him technique. And he does have an issue with loud noise. But he needs to see someone, so we will give it a go.

It also throws a spanner in the works of the diagnosis procedure.

Argh.

In slightly lighter news, TT ate half an adult portion of yesterday’s vegetable lasagne – including picking out the courgettes and mushrooms to eat.

BREAKING NEWS:

Whilst writing this post, TT has done….

*drum roll please*

A wee wee on the toilet. Unprompted!!!

Much praise, dancing (though not by me) and chocolate have been administered.

I am tired now πŸ€£πŸ˜‚

Insert Clever Title Here

So, I have been home 24 hours.

Momma is amazing and is (as I hoped knew) whipping my children into shape. She brooks no crapulence* and the Tiny Tyrant doesn’t seem to have realised what has hit her!!!

(I’m not loving it at all oh no πŸ˜‚πŸ€£)

Things That Have Been Achieved:

  • She has sorted out my house – and I am so grateful. It’s hard to see the wood from the trees with small people underfoot. It wasn’t a mess when she arrived, but there is now significant organisation!
  • She has pushed the children’s respective bedtimes back by an hour – and they are not waking up earlier!!!!
  • TT’s tantrums and attempts at manipulating Mommy-Nanny (her name for my mom) are mostly met with a raised eyebrow or a laugh – and the affront is hilarious
  • #1 Son is eating new things! I cannot begin to describe the relief. Today as a “just got home from school” snack he ate three rounds of cheese spread and turkey ham sandwiches and then at dinner time ate: pasta (plain with some butter and grated cheese), cucumber, and chopped up frankfurters. Okay, he didn’t eat the carrot but we didn’t expect any so this is amazing!!! TT will eat regular food if she isn’t distracted, but this is such an amazing occurrence.

Basically, as my Mothership has seen it all before and hasn’t lived with them, (and therefore beyond the SEN concerns with #1 Son) doesn’t have my “tried it, it won’t work” fears, we are losing nothing by trying. And really its mostly TT – #1 Son is a good boy at heart and not a demon wearing human skin πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

Today I have managed to get up and have a little wander four times. The remaining post-surgical wall has been breached** and I have only taken two doses of Motrin and one of Percocet (and if it continues this well, I have hopes of not finishing my Percocet prescription.)

I learned a lot from my laparoscopies, and the main thing was DON’T BLOODY OVERDO IT

So, as yet I have picked up nothing heavier than my phone, the 3DS or the Switch. I have attempted to knit/crochet through the power of my mind, but sadly my powers of telekinesis remain dormant.

I also have only napped in two 1-hour stretches as I want to sleep at night!

I received this beautiful bouquet from my in laws today:

Flowers

THANK YOU 😘😘😘😘😘

And my knitting group have banded together to bring me meals every so often over the next week or so – home cooked at that! Tonight’s was vegetarian lasagne and this confirmed carnivore thought it was delicious πŸ‘πŸ»

*My Daddy coined that term in a phone call earlier this week πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

**This is my polite way of indicating I managed a #2

Home again, home again

So, I have been discharged and am safely snuggled in my own bed.

I can’t say I’m 100% comfortable but I have 19/20 Percocet pills left (which I am only taking before attempting a stretch of sleep) and Motrin, which appears to simply be extra strong ibuprofen, so we have that too.

The kids were thrilled to see me 😊 well #1 Son has been asking what he can do to help me πŸ’•πŸ’• (I’ve told him that helping Nanny is best).

The beam I got from TT was worth it, though she soon stopped speaking to me when she realised I can’t pick her up.

Unimpressed toddler is unimpressed.

Today (Wednesday) marked 100 days at school for the year for #1 Son, which is apparently a thing to celebrate over here, so they were to go into school looking 100.

The facial expression seems apt, even though it was based on “not wanting to go to school because he wanted mommy”


Oh, and that TT had dared to start eating breakfast before him…


He wanted to visit today, but it was snowing heavily, an early release from school day, and I was being discharged anyway, so daddy distracted him with The Lego Batman Movie and brought me home.

Tackling those stairs was not fun, so I will not be booking my follow up early. (I need to see Dr. Witkowski on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week).

The cat has been the one to jump on my belly, and appears most affronted that she got almost flung across the room for that cuddle attempt.

I’m going to go to sleep now, adieu dear audience.

Day Two?

Or is it three? My counting might be off. This is certainly Day 3 in hospital. And I might just be going home today.

I’m a little apprehensive about that – but only because I’ve been liking having a motorised bed.

So, yesterday was spent in a fug of dozing, sipping liquids, attempting food, and having meds.

I’ve (at the nurse’s suggestion) cut back my Oxycodone to one 5mg tablet every four hours, which coupled with Tylenol every six is keeping me tolerably comfortable. And it means my prescription of Oxy will last a bit longer, giving me more time to heal.

As previously stated, this is not pain free. But it’s working. And I get to keep my support band thing thank the gods.

By my reckoning I am coming up to the 36 hours past where the belly tap should have worn off so this is a good sign.

The nurses here are amazing. No, really they are. I’m on the Mother and Baby ward and so I’m a little bit of an oddity and I’m being looked after so well.

Yesterday there was a really sweet High School student doing work shadowing, and she was so happy and bubbly. She was telling me all about how much she loves kids and the M&B ward. And we bonded over how we both swallow tablets


Sip of water, tablet in mouth, snap head back to swallow


Which apparently everyone in her family consider weird – so I’ve told her to say it’s the British way πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

So I think I was a bit of interest in her day. Overall I haven’t heard many babies, I think twice we’ve had “I am a new person and I am angry” levels of noise, and some of what sounded like hyped up older children visiting, but I’m in my own side room so I don’t disturb them and vice versa.

Food still isn’t interesting me much. I had a good breakfast yesterday:

I ate it all. I plan on re-ordering it today and hoping there’s tinned peaches today rather than the banana.

Lunch I think I was too optimistic – I ate my corn, half my chicken breast and my chocolate ice cream. Ignored my baked potato.

So for dinner I just went with chicken noodle soup and the ice cream. I’m keeping well hydrated with ice water and apple juice and nibbling on graham crackers so I’m not worried.

And it’s not like I couldn’t afford to lose a few pounds πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

TMI ALERT


I still haven’t pooped though. But considering how little I’m eating overall I’m not too worried yet.


I went for a short walk yesterday which is great progress. Getting up and down still hurts like anything, but moving around is beginning to become easier.

Okay, time to order food, as I actually feel hungry πŸ™€

Day One Post-Op

Well, it went as well as could be expected πŸ™‚

It’s 3am but I can’t sleep so I thought I might as well post an update.

This is me waiting to go down to surgery. Please note the fetching hospital gown.

I was in theatre for roughly four hours – which was longer than they expected. I’ve briefly seen my surgeon (I was very out of it) and he confirmed that going through my belly was the correct thing to do – apparently there were many adhesions.

I am not shocked by this.

They didn’t initially give me a support band, and I was in a lot of pain – it’s been a long time since I cried from it, but they gave me a belly block and my band and that helps. I was then moved up to a room on the antenatal ward – all gynae-related surgeries are up here.


The irony of this is not lost on me πŸ˜‚πŸ€£


Pain free is sadly not an option. They started me off on Percocet 6 hourly but that was not doing it for me, so they’ve split it out into Oxycodone and Tylenol. I’ve just had my Tylenol so am staying awake for the next 20 min so they can do my obs then hopefully I can get some more sleep.

I’m doing better than I expected though. I’ve been up and about – briefly shuffled to the bathroom and back. They will be trying that again in a couple of hours.

I’ve been drinking so well that they’ve unhooked my IV fluids – though it’s still in my wrist. On my dominant hand. Goddamn bad veins!

I ate some dinner:

I had a nibble of the toast (too much for me) but I did eat all my raspberry ice.

I dislike saltines intensely, but my lovely night shift nurse has found me Graham crackers which are infinitely preferable. Also iced apple juice.

They are planning on removing my catheter soon!!!

Coughing hurts like a bitch and it’s amazing how much you use your abdomen.

My middle shift nurse thinks I’ll be home by Thursday. Which is good. Hopefully I will see my doctor man tomorrow and he can give more concrete information.

Mom is holding down the fort (thanks Momma!) and the hus-creature will be staying with me here and utilising hospital wi-Fi to do some work tomorrow and Wednesday.

He’s not staying with me overnight because we both feel the kidlets need to see at least one parent (and poor mom needs a break!)

She sent me a picture of #1 Son being a ninja πŸ’•πŸ’•πŸ’•

We’ve decided not to bring the kids to visit because I’m in too much pain and the risk of them clambering over me is too high. Also, I don’t want to scare them.

I’m missing them like crazy though.

Right, now I shall attempt more sleep. I might be allowed a shower tomorrow!!!

Operation is go

I am sorry, dear audience, for my very quiet week. My momma arrived on Thursday and I have been enjoying her company before I become neither use nor ornament.

She’s lovely and offered to babysit on Saturday night so that the hus-creature and I could have one last date night. We went to a lovely Brazilian BBQ place πŸ’•

My starter from the Salad Bar πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

When I asked for rare steak when they brought the skewer to the table:

The kids have been really lovely. #1 Son had a bit of a bad week last week, but he is aware I am having surgery and I think he’s worried. He’s loving having Nanny here though.

TT isn’t having as much fun. It’s obvious how much she’s become a Mommy’s Girl since the move. But it seems that while I’m not around she’s happy to be with Nanny, so we are less worried about the next few days.

So I’ve been awake since 04:45. It is now 06:01 and I’m sitting in the Surgical Admittance area after filling in all the paperwork, waiting to be taken down. They think it will be closer to 06:30 than not.

I’m remarkably calm. I want this. I need this. This is the best thing for me. I just would love a drink! Also, I’m not entirely sure how I am to produce a urine sample given I’ve eaten or drunk nothing since midnight.

The hus-creature is much less zen. The poor boy is very worried – so any good thoughts that could be sent his way would be much appreciated.

I shall sign off now.

SEE YOU ALL ON THE OTHER SIDE

Burns Night

So on Saturday, the hus-creature and I went out for a pre-op last hurrah which co-incided with his office’s idea of going to a Burns Night bash.

So out we went.

You cannot say that The Haven didn’t make an effort.

Included in the meal was a nip of a very glorious whisky:

The Bruichladdich Octomore

Yes, that’s dollars a shot! It retails at over $150 a bottle. And it’s peated. But honestly, it was glorious.

This was my tipple for the evening:

It is a Sherlock Holmes:

Basically a posh Hot Toddy, but it was delicious. Normally when cocktails are an option I mix and match to switch it up, but this was so good I didn’t bother.

I got my nails done πŸ’—

<<<<< apparently I can keep for surgery (in six days πŸ™€πŸ™€πŸ™€)

It was a lovely evening. We didn’t get home til 01:30 though as we were apparently on the last train home so we were stuck waiting stationary for over half an hour for the last trains on other lines. Such fun!

Our sitter was amazing though bless her – kept her informed and paid her a “we are sorry the travel time sucked” bonus.

Then on Sunday I got my hair redone. This is the first time since we moved.

So a lot needed bleaching:

(Please note that the original blue still won’t die!!!)

The reaction of the kids was hilarious too. #1 Son loved it.

You are blonde like me mummy.

TT? Oh no. She hated it. Would not come near me at all. Ran into her room, glowered at me, shook her head, stayed with daddy. The lot really.

Even when it was finished she spurned me πŸ€£πŸ˜‚

However the following morning she came wandering in, looked at me and said:

Mommy beautiful head

And touched it, so I am now apparently forgiven. Interestingly, #1 Son is/was most annoyed that I didn’t keep the blonde. And did not accept the explanation that it didn’t suit me πŸ˜‚πŸ€£πŸ‘πŸ»

Lab work woes

So. I had a letter confirming my surgery, which told me I was to toddle up for a pre-operative assessment any time between 22/01/2018 and 03/02/2018.

Please note that: Any time between those dates. There was apparently no need to book an appointment.

I could even go up on a Saturday. Well, although that seemed more convenient, meaning the hus-creature wouldn’t have to work from home, we decided it was most sensible to go up on a weekday.

So, here I am. I was educating my Lyft driver on some fundamental differences in the health care systems between the UK and the USA. He pulled some WTF faces when I explained about waiting lists, but did concede that you know, not going bankrupt was a nice perk.

Also maternity leave. Honestly my heart breaks for the few pregnant women of my acquaintance out here.

So? Do we think it’s gone/going well?

Ahahahahahahahahahaha.

Surely, surely madam you jest?

Well, I got there at 08:10, not bad I thought, since on weekdays they open at 07:00.

First thing I had to remember is that for Americans the First Floor is what I, as a Brit, consider to be the Ground Floor. So I got a little flustered trying to find the First Floor lab. Still, the lovely receptionist sent me to the Registrar to do paperwork.

But hang on, I was told I didn’t need to make an appointment. That I just walked in.

Nope. And that wasn’t the first piece of misinformation.

So I’m sitting waiting and get called.


As I was, the lovely J called to let me know that #1 Son had had a full meltdown in the car over not being able to get out and play.

Well kiddo if you’re going to keep running into school at the wrong times, we have to adjust to fit.

I am expecting a bad day now 😰


First, they couldn’t find my surgery in the system!!!!

So that right there wasn’t good. However, once they checked the spelling of my surname, and got the correct date of the operation in, there it was!!!

And then there was nothing in the system about my pre-operative testing. The lovely registrar (thank you Mary, you were a saint!) was trying her best to find it.

So they try to ring my doctor. Well it was only 08:25 by this point, so they weren’t open.

With many apologies, they send me back to the waiting area.


It’s more than okay. I’m used to any kind of medical related appointment running at least 40+ minutes over. I had brought my knitting and snacks.


The poor staff were amazed that I wasn’t kicking off about this. But see, what does that achieve? You get a black mark against you, which will affect the level of service you receive, and you just make someone else’s life even fricking harder.

I also heard a more higher up person mutter that my particular doctor’s office is apparently known for screwing with the paperwork. They had tried entering a span of dates, including the ones on my letter, but they hadn’t worked.

It turns out that when the provisional hysterectomy was agreed back in December (the 12th for anyone who is interested) the paperwork was inputted into the system and dated for 20th December.

So no wonder they couldn’t find it!


By this point I highly feared for anyone attempting to take my blood pressure!


So off I toddled to the lab, armed with fresh paperwork, labels and renewed hope singing in my heart.

And actually, it wasn’t too bad. I was waiting less than 5 minutes. Then the two phlebotomists fought over who got to stick me because they loved my accent.

I warned them about my (notoriously) bad veins, but she stuck me and got two vials of the stuff first try!!!

So then off I trotted home to relieve the hus-creature (as he was distracting the Tiny Tyrant) and send him off to the office, with a sore arm, but I’m pleased it’s done.