Back from surgery
Jul. 22nd, 2014 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crafty_packratI had my surgery yesterday (thanks, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fabrisse for sitting with me beforehand), and stayed the night at meri_oddities because even with outpatient surgery, one really shouldn't be alone the first 24 hrs afterwards.
I had a laproscopic hysterectomy due to uterine fibroids that were approximately the size of my fist and were causing menorrhagia and anemia. The surgery itself was fine, but it turns out when your discharge papers include 'muscle aches' as part of the side effects, what that actually means is muscle spasms.
About two hours after I was discharged, I couldn't put any weight on my right shoulder, and by 6pm, when I was trying to get ready for bed, I realized I couldn't lay down because I from the point of my shoulder down through my right lats to my waist would seize up if I tilted enough to slump against pillows, never mind lay flat.
I'm talking so painful that I couldn't do more than pant and whine (and curse, because omg!OW!). I did contact the on-call doctor at my gynecologists' office. It turns out that since they pumped CO2 into my pelvic cavity for the laproscopic surgery, I was getting the muscle spasms from that. The solution was to take a hot shower for as long as I could stand it without getting dizzy, pile pillows on the bed to make an inclined surface to rest on, use a heating pad to loosen my muscles, and take Percocet at 4 hr intervals instead of the 6 hour interval listed on the label.
By about 2 am I could lay flat, and this morning I managed to take a shower and dress myself. I'm going to be very cautious about lifting anything with my right arm for the next few days, but hopefully it won't be a problem by the end of the week.
And maybe I'll actually be hungry soon, since I've eaten two pudding cups and two cups of yogurt, but the attempt at soup and soft bread I had to give up on after only a few spoonfuls. Ginger ale seems to help, or at least has calories -- I can get a 32 oz glass of water down, but it takes a couple of hours... and a straw, since my neck is still stiff.
Anyway, I seem to be on the mend, and hope to be up to light socializing soon.
fabrisse for sitting with me beforehand), and stayed the night at meri_oddities because even with outpatient surgery, one really shouldn't be alone the first 24 hrs afterwards.I had a laproscopic hysterectomy due to uterine fibroids that were approximately the size of my fist and were causing menorrhagia and anemia. The surgery itself was fine, but it turns out when your discharge papers include 'muscle aches' as part of the side effects, what that actually means is muscle spasms.
About two hours after I was discharged, I couldn't put any weight on my right shoulder, and by 6pm, when I was trying to get ready for bed, I realized I couldn't lay down because I from the point of my shoulder down through my right lats to my waist would seize up if I tilted enough to slump against pillows, never mind lay flat.
I'm talking so painful that I couldn't do more than pant and whine (and curse, because omg!OW!). I did contact the on-call doctor at my gynecologists' office. It turns out that since they pumped CO2 into my pelvic cavity for the laproscopic surgery, I was getting the muscle spasms from that. The solution was to take a hot shower for as long as I could stand it without getting dizzy, pile pillows on the bed to make an inclined surface to rest on, use a heating pad to loosen my muscles, and take Percocet at 4 hr intervals instead of the 6 hour interval listed on the label.
By about 2 am I could lay flat, and this morning I managed to take a shower and dress myself. I'm going to be very cautious about lifting anything with my right arm for the next few days, but hopefully it won't be a problem by the end of the week.
And maybe I'll actually be hungry soon, since I've eaten two pudding cups and two cups of yogurt, but the attempt at soup and soft bread I had to give up on after only a few spoonfuls. Ginger ale seems to help, or at least has calories -- I can get a 32 oz glass of water down, but it takes a couple of hours... and a straw, since my neck is still stiff.
Anyway, I seem to be on the mend, and hope to be up to light socializing soon.
