Second Laparoscopy: Day 15 post-op
I went to bed around 2am and slept til 11am today, but suffered for it. I’ve only been able to sleep a maximum of 8 hours before the trunk of my body really starts to hurt. I try to roll over on my left side, but it’s painful after a few minutes. It’s still not possible to lay on my right side.
My husband and I lolled about the house and ate breakfast at noon. We waited to hear back from friends who might want to go to the movies with us. It didn’t work out for friends to join us, so we went on our own to see TRON: Legacy. It was the first time I chanced going to the movies post-op. It worked out – the chairs were as uncomfortable as they usually are for me, but all the sitting did not aggravate my tender belly button further than it has already been.
TRON by the way was pretty neat. I had no great expectations for the dialogue or plot, so I sat back and enjoyed the pretty – in 3D even.
When we got home, I had just enough time to clean up a bit before friends were to arrive, because we were going to do even more sitting and watching of movies. My husband had to go feed and water a friend’s cats, so I cleaned up papers and small boxes and crap from the living room, and got out the vacuum. I had not attempted vacuuming until now, so I gave it a whirl. It was a bit tough to maneuver the vacuum. I had to squat down and hunch forward a bit, and really use my arm muscles to push the damned thing around. This is an upright HEPA vacuum – it’s not like some big old fashioned monstrosity, and yet it was nearly too much for me to handle at 15 days post-op. But I did it.
Shortly afterward, our friends began arriving. We ordered Indian food, my husband returned home right after the food arrived, and we started the movie of the night: The Abyss.
All of us have seen it. Some of us (like myself) have not seen it in many years. The dialogue is hilarious but the imagery is still pretty cool, and all that underwater filming – wow. Some of us had to remember not to hold our breath (including me).
Shortly after the movie began, I started having pelvic cramps. I went to the bathroom and discovered thick mucous and dirty bloody discharge. It smelled foul. The discharge is normal but the foul smell set off alarm bells for me. I took 600mg ibuprofen and put a heating pad on my pelvis, then on my back, and finished watching the movie.
Diet today consisted of gluten-free pancakes and decaf coffee at breakfast time, along with a Boost drink. I had popcorn and some white chocolate at the movie theatre, and for dinner, I ate Saag Paneer with some rice. I drank some sparkling apple juice, and then some blood orange soda. I’ve not been taking in enough water for the past two days.
After The Abyss finished and we saw our friends off, I looked back through my diary for “coffee ground” debris and found that 61 days post-op, that’s when the inner scabs sloughed off and came out. After reading that diary entry, my memory of the debris came back, and it did not match what I saw tonight. But I don’t see any of my old diary entries detailing mucous discharge or a foul smell post-op.
I told my husband about it and took my temperature. It’s normal. I’m not feeling dizzy or nauseous, and I do not have a headache. So we’ll see what the rest of the night and into the morning brings.
Firsts for Day 15 post-op:
- Vacuumed the house.
- I am walking at a faster pace each day, but still not back to my normal.
Limitations:
- Stair climbing is still painful on the pelvis and knees, though I did make a point to climb up and down the stairs twice again today.
- Laying on my sides is still painful.
- Laying on my stomach is still not an option for me just yet.
- Haven’t tried driving a car, still feel I’m not ready.
Complications:
- Discharge and foul odor.
- I slipped coming down the stairs to the house we live in, because it had just started sprinkling outside again. I caught myself, but I worried that I might have stretched or pulled something a bit too much inside.