Today's Bible Reading- 1 Chronicles Chapters 1-4.
May's Memory Verse- 1 Thessalonians 5: 18-22.
Good morning, my friends. I hope you're well. Our forecast for today: 69°, overcast, 17% chance of rain, winds from the east northeast at 6-11 miles per hour, and humidity is sitting at 86%.
Let me go potty and refill my coffee cup and I'll give you and update on things.
Okay. First things first. How are you? It's been a minute since I wrote.
Second: my surgery experience and how I'm doing. Well, I went in with a specific thought of how it would go, and it's not been anything like I expected. I made the mistake of watching some videos of people who have had their gallbladders removed, and I thought I knew what was coming. Nope. Instead, what I've learned is that every person has their own experience.
I'll tell you mine. Thursday morning, May 2, 2024, I got up and got dressed. My surgery check-in was scheduled for 3:00 in the afternoon, so I had plenty of time. About 8:45ish in the morning, the surgery center calls. Can I be there at 11:00 in the morning? Yes. I'd just had a glass of water, so I asked if that was okay. Yes, but don't drink anything else. Okay.
I get to the hospital, check in, and they get me into a room to change and get settled. Mom was with me the whole time. The anesthesiologist checks in on me and asks some questions. The surgeon checks in and tells me what they'll be doing. I think around 1:00, the surgical nurses came in. I already had an iv in for hydration, and they went ahead and started some meds to help my body relax and start the process of winding down. It wasn't anesthesia. I need to make that clear.
We roll into the operating room, which took probably 30 seconds. They literally rolled me out of the room, down the hall a few paces, rolled through double doors and then turned into the operating room, which was freezing. They told me that I needed to slide over onto the operating table. I sat up, felt a little dizzy. Asked if that was normal. They said yes, the meds are kicking in. Okay. I said I needed some help sliding onto the table because I was very dizzy. Okay. The last thing I remember was reaching out to touch the table so I could start sliding over. Everything went black.
The next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and it was almost 5:00 in the afternoon. I was in recovery. It was a huge room. I was the only patient in there. There was one nurse attending to me. Once I was awake enough, she got me up to the room where my mom was waiting. Everything is a little fuzzy, but the nurses helped me dress, got me in a chair, wheeled me downstairs and helped me get in the car. Mom drove home. I was in and out for that.
I was pretty woozy the rest of Thursday and Friday. I didn't eat much. I did have to use pain meds until Monday. I kept trying to go further than what my body could handle. I thought I'd try sleeping in my own bed on Thursday night. No go. I was howling in pain. I didn't try on Friday. I tried on Saturday. No go. Still too much pain. It hurt to lie down. I ended up sleeping in the recliner until Tuesday. Tuesday night, May 7, I finally got to sleep in my own bed. Wednesday night, we had terrible storms and I was up half the night. We had straight line winds. There was a tornado warning.
My bandages were supposed to fall off after a few days, but they're still on. They seem to have bonded to my skin. I think they have stitches covered by steri-strips, then gauze on top of those with bandages on top of that. A couple of my incisions had some decent amount of bleeding post surgery. I have four incisions. I've been washing with antibacterial soap. I'll continue that until everything is healed up. Then I'll go back to my regular body wash, which is meant for sensitive skin.
I can't wear leggings just yet, which is about 95% of my pants. I tried yesterday but the incision that's at my belly button became very painful. I ended up switching to pajama shorts. I've been using an ice pack at night, which helps me sleep. It's not really for pain, although I do get a little discomfort. It's more for temperature regulation. So I can stay cool at night. Pain level is probably a 0.5 on a scale of 1-10. I only get twinges if I move too quickly, sneeze, or twist more than I should.
This past Saturday was really the first time I felt comfortable to try eating at a normal appetite level. I had two slices of pizza. Mom's been cooking and it's been delicious. I just have been afraid to eat. I didn't want to get nauseous. I took a nausea pill once and it didn't seem to agree with me. My face got flushed, my nose turned red like a cherry, and I was sweating. My face got super flushed with the pain meds, too. My mom thought I had a fever and she checked my temperature. Normal. She couldn't figure out why my face was so flushed. Then the next time I took pain meds, she saw the flush come back.
I'm still in recovery mode. I didn't move around much yesterday. The first few days, I had a sore throat and was coughing up goop. That was from the air tube they stuck down my throat. I'm comfortable to walk around the house without a cane, but if I go outside to walk around, I take a cane with me. This past Saturday I drove for the first time. Mom and I had ordered groceries for pickup on Friday, but when we went out to the car, it was deader than a doornail. I had to call the grocery store and have them hold on to the order until Saturday.
Saturday I wore myself out. I didn't get out of the car except once. I drove to pick up Mom's meds, picked up some donuts for Sunday, took Mom to get her glasses, went to the health food store to get more protein powder (that's when I got out), then drove to pick up the groceries. By the time we got home, I was so worn out. Also, I was a little car sick the entire time I was driving. Not sure why.
Yesterday, I was in the chair all day. I didn't move much. Pop made dinner.
Enough about my recovery though. I have garden updates! We have blueberries! Pop picked some off one of the bushes yesterday. They're delicious. Also, we have radishes! The fertilizer I put in the garden bed really helped out. We have bunches of radishes. I tried one out. It was delicious. Spicy, though! I didn't realize radishes were spicy. The tomatoes have sprouted and are doing well. The cukes are good, the melons and squash are doing well. I'm pleased overall. The Lord has really blessed our little garden patch.
Today, my goal is to get outside and walk around. I was pretty depressed yesterday. Mom watched some movies with me. She told me I needed to move around, but I was too worn out. I'm still kind of tired this morning, but I'm going to make a smoothie and get outside. Maybe walk down to the garden patch and check things out. The rain storm last week flooded the tomato side of the garden patch and I was worried that my tomato plants and cukes had been washed away, but they are okay. Really popping in there.
Oh! I do have some sad news. We lost a pleco. Mom and I went out to the fish tank to feed them, and we found a pleco on the greenhouse floor. Looks like it had accidentally jumped over the tank wall and landed on the floor. Poor thing. Then Thelma killed a chickadee. That was sad. Gracie has been mouse hunting in the house.
I would like to ask for prayers. Prayers that I'll heal and that these bandages would fall off when they're supposed to. Prayers that I wouldn't be stressed out. I'm in the Lord's hands. He knows precisely how things are going to turn out. I have a tendency to forget that, though.
This was a long post, I know, but I had a lot to yak about. Love you all and until next time, stay safe my friends. ❤
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