Friday, July 18, 2014

Recovery...

I have been blessed to have so much support in the last week and a half since my surgery, and literally could not have done this without friends and family helping out, and I am so thankful. I wanted to write a little bit about the experience while it is still fresh in my memory, just so I have it for future reference.

This is my first experience having surgery. All day before and especially the morning of were just miserable with anxiety. I was surprised in the whole triage and pre-op process how much I could hear other people's conversations. And over and over, every patient talked about how nervous they were. I guess it is just scary to be that much out of control of your own body.

The surgery went smoothly, but due to an equipment malfunction, I was under anesthesia twice as long as they anticipated. my surgery was at 7, I was starting to wake up in recovery around noon, saw Brian and my dad briefly around 1pm, an was up in my room by 4. I did not anticipate how awful that first day would be. I didn't eat any solid food until late that night, didn't get out of bed at all until the next morning, and that was with assistance. I was discharged at 4pm on the 2nd day, and ouch...that was a rough ride home.

The first week was just one step at a time...every day was a little bit better - at first I was in bed all day except for a one-hour trip downstairs. The next day, able to sit up in bed and come down twice. The next day, eating full meals and just taking two naps. The next day, just one nap. By day 5, I was able to get dressed, go to church and drive home. 

This second week, I'm feeling fairly normal, just tired and sore. The hardest part is realizing that I need to take it easy. The house is still bustling around me, and my mother-in-law is here this week to help, especially with Anna. But she really needs help, and I just cannot sit on the couch all day and watch her do it alone, so I do what I can. And after a few hours, my body hits a wall and I need to stop. But I'm figuring out how much I can do. Kathy has been a God send this week, and I literally couldn't have done it without her.

Poor Anna. Actually Anna is fine, I am the one having a hard time not picking her up. She falls down and is crying and I just want to scoop her up. I feel like I miss her and I'm afraid that she will feel rejected or something. But she really seems to be fine and happy, loving the extra daddy and grandma time. Four more weeks. 

This week has also been VBS. We go to this fabulous program that is a little bit of a drive from us, but the kids love it, it is so well done, and we knows lots of families who go there, so there are lots of friends for the kids. But Katy has been having a hard time lately again, so I ended up being a classroom assistant 3/5 days in order to help her "conquer" VBS with success. That really wore me out, both physically and emotionally. But it's done. (Had I known this was going to be the case, I wouldn't have done this one week after surgery, I THOUGHT I was going to relieve our workload a bit by dropping 3 kids off for a couple of hours everyday.)

But the weather has been gorgeous, the kids have lots of neighbors outside playing, and friends have been bringing loads of food. Now starts the countdown to Luke's surgery: 6 days. I really look forward to mid-August when all of this recovery is behind us.


1 comment:

Kelsey said...

Emily! I'm sorry to have been so out of the loop and glad to hear that you seem to be recovering well. By the time I'm leaving this comment maybe most of your restrictions are almost lifted. I'm thinking of you!