Recovery has been tougher than I anticipated. Since going into surgery almost two weeks ago, I have spent very little time off the couch. I expected to be back at work this past Monday but instead showed up for the first 15 minutes of each day to load files on to my flash drive to work on from home. Even then it was a challenge to turn on the laptop; all I really wanted to do was take another Tramadol and rest.
The surgery was mostly uneventful. My doctor did a thorough search while I was under and found four instances of VIN. One was stage 1, two were stage two, and the other was borderline 2/3. My doctor was particularly aggressive in treating the borderline lesion and requested further pathology, too. We received the good news this past Tuesday that it had not progressed to 3 and the treatment received in surgery should be sufficient.
My doctor also found a skin tag while I was under (appearing compliments of the vaginal birth of Little K) and called my husband from the OR to discuss removal. After a brief discussion the decision was made to remove the excess skin.
I was lucky to have my mom come in for the surgery. There’s just something about having my mom with me that makes me feel better! We all napped on and off Wednesday afternoon (boo – 5:30 AM arrival for surgery!) and then slept in a bit Thursday morning. Then it was mom and I on the couches while R worked upstairs. Mom kept my in heavy doses of Motrin, Tramadoll, pepcid, Tylenol, and colace, not to mention packages of frozen peas; rinse and repeat. We traded between talking, napping, and watching Rick Steves’ Travel in Europe dvds.
My first real journey off the couch was on Sunday when we took mom to the airport. At this point, we didn’t know whether or not additional surgery would be needed. If so, we would be seeing mom back with us in nine days. I hit the couch and frozen peas again as soon as we got home.
I attempted to go to work on Monday with the plan of staying until noon only to arrive close to tears from the pain of driving myself to work. I was heading back home 15 minutes later.
I attended my post-op appointment Tuesday morning to review the pathology and check my healing. We got the good news that the borderline lesion had not progressed to severe and that additional surgery was not needed at this time! I also received direction not to sit up for more than 15 minutes at a time. By the time I got back home, I had been upright for over two hours. Back to the couch! Luckily Wednesday was a holiday; I did attempt a brief outing with R and then went back to the couch. Thursday was drop in at work and then couch. Friday was the same.
We took a quick grocery trip on Saturday; church and lunch on Sunday. Now it’s Monday again and I’m back at work. My energy is much higher than it was last week and I’m off the hard drugs. Just ibuprofen for me! I’m hoping to make it through the day.
So there’s an update for you.
How are things in your world?
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