Home sweet home

It's nice to be home to recover, although there is a lot more noise here than at the hospital as the kids are in various stages of upset as they head to bed... some gave me sweet kisses good night they passed by me on their way to bed, and others are in loud mourning (sackcloth and ashes are coming soon, I think) over the loss of their Lego structures that had to be put away as they are being bodily removed to bed....

.... aaah, yes.  With all the sadness that was present on that hospital floor, very little of it had to do with Legos.  It's a different world here! :-) 

I am slowly making progress and seeing hope for healing.  My first night and morning in the hospital were great and I was feeling really wonderful (for having just had a major 3 hour surgery!).  By the time I went to bed on Thursday night (my first night home), I was in a lot of pain from the leftover gas from the insufflation during surgery.  My shoulders, front and back of my neck, chest and upper back were all sore and crackly- I felt like I was made of bubble wrap (I'm not as much fun to pop- although if I could have, I would have!).  I decided to dose up on the Percocet and try to get a good night's sleep.  This was a great plan, until I got to our bed and tried to figure out how I was going to lay down!  My poor husband spent a good 10 minutes with me and all the pillows in our house trying to figure out how to get me into bed and in a position that I didn't feel like I was dying.

I felt like the worst patient I've ever had.... after getting it all arranged and laying back, "No, I'm sorry.  I don't think this will work."  Try again, and again... "Do you think you could move this one pillow up just a bit?  Okay, over here more.  No, down... no back up just an inch....  Okay, how about a bigger pillow under my knees?  Hot pack here, ice pack here..."

Oh, the drama.
Finally, success. (and then Aaron got into bed and the whole thing tilted!)

And what great success it was!  I did not move a single muscle the entire rest of the night and did not wake up at all until the alarm went off the next morning.  I have not slept that well for weeks!!!  In fact, I still felt in such a comfy position when I woke up, that I took another Percocet and decided to take advantage of it (who knows, if I moved, maybe I'd never be this comfortable again in my life?) and go back to sleep.  I did that very well, and didn't get up until 1 pm that afternoon.. :-)

When I finally got up, much of the shoulder gas pain seemed to have dissipated, and I think it's mostly all gone by now.  Now that pain is resolving, I feel much more comfortable and able to sleep in more positions, which was very helpful last night.  Bed looked a little more normal and less like a pillow museum when I went to sleep.

I've been able to rest and take it easy thanks to Aaron and my mom and sister who are helping out this week.  It's such a blessing to be able to sleep and rest as needed, and have them jump in to help with the kids.  Of course, the kids are loving all the attention and time with Gramma and Aunt Amy. :-)  Gramma is home now, hopefully to recover quickly from the cold that the kids gifted her with, and Amy will be here until Wednesday.

I made it out into the wide world today to celebrate a precious little friend's first birthday.  Although not far (I trekked all the way across the street) I did get out of my pajama pants to attend!  Yes, I put on other pants before I left- that was more the accomplishment that taking off my pajama pants. :-)  Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Thanks again so much for your support, comments and well wishes.  I am feeling so incredibly thankful for how well surgery went, and so thankful that I made the choices I did for this surgery. Looking at the pictures of the organs she removed, I can truly tell you that I feel nothing but relief that they are gone!  So many adhesions, multiple endometriomas on both ovaries... it was just a mess and I feel that my body is healthier to have that all out!  Now, the sight of my "swelly belly" would beg to differ with the idea that anything was removed- it looks more like several water balloon artilleries were placed there for storage. My surgeon assures me that she really did take it all out, though, even though that page of photos showing it all cleaned up was accidentally deleted during surgery.  Hmmm.... sound suspicious to anyone else? :-)