Chapter 6: Recovery

Here's some good news before I get into my recovery update: I ovulated last night and it didn't hurt! I definitely felt it but it wasn't the usual stabbing pain and nausea that I'm used to! I'm cautiously optimistic that this surgery worked!

It took me way longer to write this blog post than I expected... which leads me to my first observation about recovery- it took way more out of me than I expected. I expected pain, but what I didn't expect was the other things that went along with surgical recovery- difficultly sleeping, difficulty concentrating on mundane tasks, fatigue and vaginal bleeding. This post will address the physical aspects of recovery, because the emotional ones have been so varied that it needs its own post.

The first real taste of pain I experienced was about 4 hours after I returned home from the hospital. I had a prescription for oxycodone that I tried to use as sparingly as possible, but I found it necessary to survive in relative comfort the 2 days. I alternated between that every 4 hours an 3 ibuprofen every 6. The nurse warned me that this can be a very constipating cocktail, but I never had an issue.

The pain was mostly managed between these steps and icing for 20 minutes every hour for the first few days. Things like getting out of bed, standing up from a seated position, sneezing, using the bathroom and coughing all hurt a lot. Another thing I wasn't expecting was throat pain from being intubated. I drank a lot of herbal tea and it helped.

One thing my friend and the nurses warned me about was shoulder pain from the gas they used to expand my abdomen. I luckily never experienced it. I'm very grateful because I've heard it's awful. A few times it hurt to breathe but I found that bending over as much as I could without hurting my incisions helped.

The thing that most caught me by surprise was how tired and unable to concentrate I've been. I assumed that I'd just binge watch TV and read. It's been a lot more difficult to do that than expected. For the first few days the longest thing I could concentrate on were YouTube videos (Thanks to the Try Guys and Tim Tracker for the entertainment). It's starting to go away, but I definitely have room for improvement.

Monday was 5 days post op and I decided that I could drive 20 minutes to my local Wegmans, Corelife Eatery and Joann Fabrics. I was very wrong. I did everything just fine but then felt like death for the rest of the day. I've been taking it easy since then and I'm so glad my first day back to work is not until next Wednesday.

Today is 7 days post op and I'm still tired but healing well. My incisions itch more than they hurt and I can sleep on my stomach again. I haven't needed the oxys since Sunday. Right now I just need to be patient with myself and my healing.