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Feeling better
Yesterday I woke up at 5am and was sure I’d need a nap by midday. That never happened although there was a period of time where I felt pretty sleepy. I got into bed and read a book, certain that I would relax into some sort of slumber. But I remained quite awake. The upshot is I don’t need endless amounts of sleep any more. Maybe my body is rebelling against too much sleep. I did begin to worry, though, that I would find it hard to get to sleep last night. Fortunately, I suddenly found myself ready to go to sleep, right at that moment. This was just after 10pm. I did manage to take care of a couple things but went to sleep within minutes of climbing into bed. This morning I woke around 6am and still felt tired but couldn’t sleep. Once my bladder kicked in, that was the end of sleep.
I’m pretty sure I’ve turned a corner in my recovery. I think I started feeling physically better a couple days ago but the “blues’ that struck me from Monday couldn’t quite be shaken. I don’t think I’m quite there yet but I think getting myself out of the house and doing normal things might shake the last of that. Yesterday I peeled back the dressing on the last incision and it seems to be healing fine although I can see that one leaving more of a scar than the others. I replaced the dressing and might take it off in a day or so when I feel more assured it won’t drive me batty due to the discomfort.
So the next part of this recovery process is likely to avoid overdoing things. I am feeling better but I’m not yet 100%.
Ironically, I’m suddenly feeling really sleepy again. Â Might just take my book back to bed and see if I can squeeze a bit more sleep in.
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Update
It’s now 7 .5 days since my surgery and I’m still recovering. Fortunately pain hasn’t been a problem at any point. I stopped taking the Tramadol on Saturday and was perfectly fine on just the Panadol. I’m not sure I even needed the Panadol, aside from the first day or so I was home. I did continue to take that until Sunday but not on as regular a schedule. I find it amazing to have had major abdominal surgery and have so little pain afterwards.
The worst thing so far has been the tiredness. Until yesterday, I had been needing two or more naps every day. I managed to get through yesterday without a nap but was past ready to crash when I finally got to bed after 11pm last night. Unfortunately my bladder woke me at 5 am  (as it has several times now) and I simply couldn’t get back to sleep. So I am almost certain to need a top-up today. I’m thinking seriously about taking a walk around the block this afternoon in hopes to getting some energy back. It’s a bit like when I’ve slacked off on exercise for way too long and just need to jolt my body out of the lethargy.
I think Monday was possibly the low point of my recovery. I think the post-surgery blues had set in and I was feeling close to tears much of the day, for no reason I could fathom. That feeling isn’t totally gone now but is much less intense than Monday. Â I did sleep a lot that but when I was awake I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. I eventually settled into finishing a book I’d started back in November then left sitting on the shelf for several weeks. It’s soon due back to the library so I guess that was productive. There were also other issues, mostly digestive, that made me feel like I’d had a bit of a setback at this point. The digestive problems didn’t continue yesterday so I’m hoping that was just a temporary obstacle in recovery.
Monday I finally braved removal of the dressings for three of the four incisions. I was expecting a bit of ugliness but none looked particularly noteworthy at all. The belly button incision is a bit more obvious if I look at it but due to its location, it’s the least visible. One just under my breastbone looks like a mere scratch although the skin feels a bit irregular. The other open looks like a bit more than a scratch and that is the one that has been uncomfortable since removing the dressing. Every time I moved, it felt like it was being pulled around and sometimes it felt like it was going to open. It’s location below my breast and near the lung area is more prone to be moved about that the other one so I’m sure this is normal. That has improved but it’s still distracting me. I haven’t removed the dressing for the fourth incision because the nurse said to wait until it looks “tatty’ and it doesn’t even though it’s been five days now. That’s where the drain was and I suspect it will be more bothersome than the one next to it has been.
I’m now looking forward to that magical two week mark where I supposedly will be mostly back to normal. I do have a ban on heavy lifting until six weeks but I don’t think that would be an issue anyway. I’m really glad this surgery is now available laparascopically and has such a reduced recovery time. I can’t imagine having several more weeks of this to look forward to.
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Further observations on surgery
Most of this post was written not long after the previous one but I wanted to see if anything else came to mind before posting. I ended up doing almost a full rewrite after a a note I’d added using the WordPress app on my ipod completely messed up the formatting and I couldn’t be bothered trying to work out how to fix it. Funnily enough, I ended up with a shorter post despite elaborating on the note I’d added.********************************************************************************************************************************Some time during my first night I realized my eyes had become very dry and asked the nurse if it was possible to get some tear replacement drops. Apparently this wasn’t possible, either because it was middle of the night or some other reason. Â Or maybe she didn’t quite understand the problem. She did offer to bring some saline-soaked gauze to put on my eyes to help soothe them and then forgot until morning. While that was helpful, I had more relief when the Scientist brought my drops from home.****************************************************************I’m wondering why my drain wasn’t removed until the day I left hospital. I’d been told it was due to be removed the day after surgery but it wasn’t until the second morning it was finally done. The only reason I can come up with is that the plan was changed when I required the second catheter for my bladder. While my second night’s sleep was a huge improvement over the first, I think I’d have slept even better without the extra tube keeping me on my back.****************************************************************The nurses seemed to have varied ideas of appropriate sites for doing the heparin injection. The first ones were done on the front of each leg. The third one said stomach was better and it did seem to have little bruising. But then another nurse thought it was better on the fatty outside part of the upper thigh. Due to timing, she did two of the injections and I found when I was home there was still quite a bit of bruising there. That was more uncomfortable than the big bruise on the front of one of my legs since I sleep most of the night.A cholangiogram was done during surgery to visualise the bile ducts and the film and report were left for me in the room on day two. When I looked at the report later, I found it showed an area of the common bile duct which had underfilled with contrast. It also showed some mild narrowing of the duct but it went on to say there was free drainage to the duodenum. I plan to ask the surgeon about this at my follow up. Meanwhile, my understanding of this is that a stone was either still there during surgery or had recently been there but possibly had passed out of the duct. From what I’ve read, stones in the common bile duct are uncommon so I wonder if this is the same area that showed evidence of a stone back in November when I had my last attack or if there was a second stone. I stopped having pains after any food in early December so presumed the stone had passed. But I started having some mild pains again a few days before my surgery.****************************************************************I was really happy with the bedside manner of pretty much everyone who looked after me in the hospital. This includes the surgeon, anaesthetist, all the nurses and other staff. It would seem that at least one of them might have been having a bad day but either this wasn’t the case or it was covered up well. I don’t know if the fact this was a private hospital had any bearing or not.****************************************************************After I’d had my surgery and was back at my room, I got the guide to having laparascopic gallbaldder removal. I knew I’d be getting something since the nurse who’d spoken to me by phone told me she’d put information about what to expect at discharge in my file. But the guide should have been given to me before surgery since half of it was related to the the pre-surgery period. While most of it wasn’t of much consequence in the end, it might have been nice to know exactly what to take with me to the hospital. A minor thing was the need of a pen to fill out menu cards while there. It happens I did have a pen with me but only because I planned to work on puzzles while there. More important was the information advising me to take deep breaths after surgery to prevent clots occurring in my lungs. While I was told by the nurse ahead of time to make sure I moved my toes/feet around to keep circulation in my legs, this wasn’t discussed at any point, before or after surgery. Deep breathing really hurt and made me cough so I tended to avoid it. But I’d have made an effort had I known this was expected. I plan to provide some feedback on this since it could be important for some patients. Ironically, the foot/toe movement probably was less of an issue due to the dvt prevention treatment I had over the first night.***************************************************************When I first woke up in recovery, I am almost certain I woke from a dream and remember being a bit surprised by that. I haven’t had that feeling when I’ve had general anaesthesia in the past and I really thought that the type of unconsciousness would have ruled out any type of REM sleep. Either that or I moved into that stage of sleep after the GA was removed but before I regained consciousness. -
A long and rambling account about my gallbladder surgery
Note: This is quite long and rambling with more detail than would interest most people. It’s mostly for my own recollections since I realise most of the details will fade from my memory in no time at all.
I’m still feeling pretty tired but I’m going to get started anyway before I forget too many details. Surgery had been scheduled for Tuesday with admission at 7am. For weeks it seemed the surgery was very far off. Then last week I had a series of phone calls to discuss my upcoming surgery. It started to feel a bit more real by this point. The first call was from the surgeon’s office to advise my admission had been changed from 7am to 11am. I was kind of pleased with this change since it meant I wouldn’t have to leave nearly as early to arrive on time.
Later, I had three separate interviews by phone:
- The admissions office-verifying details and insurance information. Also advising where I needed to go for admissions upon arrival. An “appointment” was made for the nurse to contact me on Saturday to discuss the medical side of things
- The anaesthetist- the usual discussion required before anaesthesia. He asked about any conditions I had and discussed medications I am taking. Somehow I forgot to mention that I have diabetes but didn’t realise this until a couple days later.  He advised my surgery would probably be around 2pm and told me I could eat a light breakfast before 7am.
- The nurse-She covered several details but mostly wanted to discuss my preparations for surgery and the hospital stay. She also suggested I arrive half an hour early as I had blood tests and a cardiogram before surgery.  I found it interesting that she called me on a Saturday instead of a weekday.
I didn’t really start getting properly nervous until the night before surgery. My biggest worry was that it could turn into open surgery even though I had no reason to believe this was likely. I have been a bit concerned all along that surgery might trigger more autoimmune problems as happened after my wisdom teeth removal several years ago but that’s not really something that could ever be predicted so I didn’t let that overshadow the need for surgery. Anyway, I was nervous enough the night before that I took a sleeping pill to make sure I got some rest overnight.
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Surgery
Just a quickie post to say I had my gallbladder surgery on Tuesday and was home yesterday. All is well but I’m feeling pretty tired so will write more about the experience later.
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Walking
My gallstones have forced me to improve my eating habits and I’ve managed to lose three kilograms in two weeks. I’ve just started seeing my clothes becoming looser on me and I’m hoping to get back into the size 14 clothes I bought a couple of years ago. I’ve been a lot slower to get going with any exercise program. I was going to do some exercise using the Wii and one of our programs but the Wii fit board was out of power and by the time that was sorted out, it was close to dinner time. After dinner I went out for a walk instead.
Walking really is the best exercise for me but I do have one tiny problem. I go out and I find myself wandering along and it’s well over an hour later that I find my way back home. By this time it’s usually dark or nearly so. My feet are sore and it will put me off walking for several days. Tonight I started out like usual with no particular route in mind. But at some point I decided where I was headed and which route I would take to return. There was a slight temptation to keep going further but I managed to stick to my plan once it was made. It probably helped that I had some upper abdominal pains starting around the time I might have strayed. The last thing I needed was to be stuck a long walk from home with severe pains. Anyway, I made it home just under an hour from when I left, which was just about right. And happily, my blood glucose level was a fairly low 4.7 when I checked it two hours after my meal. All in all it was a successful walk.
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More about my gallstones
After I saw my doctor following my emergency department visit and ultrasound, I was left with a few questions. When I had my blood test, I made another appointment but couldn’t get in again until yesterday. So I left a message querying the comments on my bladder in the event that any follow up was needed. I was called back by the office and told the doctor thought it was likely related to dehydration. She did order a renal ultrasound to check that out, which I had on Wednesday. This ultrasound went quite quickly, which was a good thing since I had to drink a liter of water over an hour beforehand. I did find it curious, though, when the sonographer asked if I was still menstruating and where I was in my cycle. It turns out she had done several images showing my uterus and ovaries before looking at the bladder. I was able to make contact with the specialist’s office on Monday and have an appointment for the 1st of December.
So yesterday I saw my doctor and my bladder was just fine, which is what the songrapher had told me. That is kind of interesting, too, because the sonographer usually makes no comments about results. My follow-up liver function test still showed some abnormal results although they were much better than at the time of my last gallstone attack.  I asked her about the particularly high enzyme (GGT) and  she said it was indicative of biliary tract obstruction. And apparently the twinges of pain after eating are consistent with the same problem and maybe are not so imagined as I thought they might be. I did some reading online about this and found it’s a potentially dangerous situation because full obstruction could occur. I’m going to presume that I only have a partial obstruction since I’ve not had severe symptoms since my hospital visit. I’ve been eating very small, very low-fat meals over the past couple of weeks which is hopefully helping me get into better eating habits. I’m hoping the changes will reduce the chance of another attack although my doctor has said it’s very likely another one will occur despite best efforts.
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How to lose weight quickly
One evening in early September I ate a few too many starchy foods and was uncomfortably full. That feeling eased somewhat and much later I had a snack. Within half an hour I was in serious pain and felt nauseous. I could’t get comfortable and continually changed positions for the next two hours while wishing I could throw up to ease the nausea. After two hours I got my wish and the pain subsided. I had another episode three weeks ago that started in late afternoon, got worse quickly but subsided enough that I decided to proceed with the usual Wednesday evening activity that took me away from home. I was okay for most of the time I was out but the pain returned and by the time I got home I was in unbearable pain. I then spent the next hour or two in pretty much the same way as the episode in September. At the time I fully intended to see my doctor at the earliest convenience. That never happened but when I was finished with my final assignment last week, I had full intentions (for this week) of making that appointment and organising a mammogram.
So Sunday afternoon I had gone out with the Scientist to our local markets so he could get a Greek yoghurt. I’d eaten a store bought, fancy yoghurt a bit earlier and he craved one too. I think I was fine when we left but by the time we got there (just a few minutes alter), I was getting a somewhat familiar feeling and by the time he’d ordered I was in a lot of pain. He rushed me back home and I was in enough pain that he asked if I wanted to go to the hospital or call an ambulance. I couldn’t imagine sitting in the car for the twenty minute ride and I debated for a short while before agreeing to the ambulance. I’d gone really pale and clammy by this point. We waited and waited while I kept moving around. I did find one position that seemed to work for a bit longer than anything else so kept trying that. I started to feel a bit better. The ambulance didn’t come and I finally decided I could sit in the car. So the Scientist cancelled the ambulance and drove me to the emergency department.
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Teeth
I stopped in to the local medical center to pick up a prescription for the Scientist and decided it might be good to make a dental appointment. I think it’s probably been a year and a half since I was last there but I have simply procrastinated about it. I had a lecture about getting regular dental care when I was in the immunology clinic last month and I’ve even had some problems with a couple of teeth where food was getting stuck and causing pain. Anyway, it turned out there had been a late cancellation so I was offered an appointment within half an hour and took it.
I never used to mind getting my teeth cleaned. But the newer equipment always hurts and sometimes causes pain. I survived that ordeal and had x-rays done before the dentist came in. The good news is I had no new cavities and the calculus build-up was limited to the areas between my teeth. The bad news was that two of my fillings have decayed and will have to be replaced. This is exactly where I’ve had trouble with my teeth. Apparently it’s partially caused by my Sjögren’s syndrome because I sometimes don’t have enough saliva. Not sure exactly how that works. He has also recommended that I get amalgam fillings because they don’t decay so easily. I’m almost certain the current fillings have only been in less than five years…possibly less. I go back in two weeks to spend an hour in the chair having that fun. I must admit it will be good to be able to return to once-a-day flossing once this is done.
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Spring has sprung
I think spring has finally arrived. Usually we get quite a bit of warm weather, even in August. But this year it’s been mostly mild days and very cool/cold nights. This week seems to have heralded warmer weather. I’m sure it will be hot and dry before we know it. Actually, it’s already dry here so it just needs the warmer temperatures.
I noted the seasonal change when I went out in the night to pull something off the clothes line last week and it wasn’t even damp. We don’t have a dryer so winters can be a bit tricky when it’s cold and humid much of the time. Days aren’t so bad if the sun is out but drying clothes at nights is nearly impossible in the winter. I usually have clothes draped all over the house on the worst nights.
Another sign of the season is pollen. It’s showing up everywhere and our whole family has hayfever in one form or another. I’m not sure if it’s related to the season but my eyes have become incredibly dry. My Sjögren’s syndrome does give me a lot of dry eye problems and I use artificial tears like Refresh as needed. Usually, I can get away with one application a day and sometimes I just never get around to using them and get used to slightly dry eyes. In the past week I’ve found I absolutely have to use drops at least three times a day, especially when I wake up in the morning. I literally cannot see clearly some mornings until I’ve used them.
A rather exciting sign of spring is the re-emergence of leaves on our grape vine. We planted it last year and not much happened with it. At the end of the season, the leaves fell off and we weren’t sure if it was alive or dead. But little green leaves have come out all over the plant so we are looking forward to watching it grow this year. We will need to find some sort of support for it to grow this year. The garden arch we installed last year was very cheap and every time we had really strong winds it fell over. The passionfruit vine is still attached to what’s left of the arch and is looking quite decent but hasn’t started flowering yet. I seem to recall it flowering around this time last year so it should be too long now.
The bees are buzzing everywhere in our garden. We have a grevillea bush outside our laundry room door and every time I got out there is a loud hum from the bush which is currently in full bloom. The bottlebrush plants are all starting to bloom and will soon be heavy with flowers. It will be quite a sight to see the branches laden down with red flowers that resemble a bottlebrush.
The Scientist and I planted some native shrubs along the back wall of the house about a month ago. Previously I had planted tomatoes, lettuce, bell peppers and basil there. The only things that have ever really grown well there are the cherry tomatoes from last year (which were fruiting right through winter) and basil which grew like a weed there a few years ago. The cherry tomato plant only had a tiny bit of green left by winter’s end so I pulled it out. Our plan is to do a raised garden for the veggies this year. I’m hoping to do a no-dig garden in hopes of having more optimal soil than our usual sandy soil is for growing veggies.
I had a great disappointment a few weeks ago when I pulled out the beets we planted in May and discovered they hadn’t grown any beets. They looked perfectly fine other than the missing veggies. I put them back in the ground and will wait and see if they will grow in a few months. I planted some rainbow chard and after a slow start, that seems to have taken off a bit. I haven’t harvested yet but might give it a try some time soon. And some spinach I planted was nearly eaten by creatures during the winter but one planted remained in a rather shabby state. It has started to grow a bit more during the last couple of weeks so maybe it will be okay for a spring vegetable. I also planted out some oregano and mint in May and both are starting to take off. I hear that mint can be a bit of a weed but I think we’ll be able to make good use of it should that happen. The habanero chilli I planted last summer is looking very good right now and surely will start flowering in a few weeks. I’m feeling uncertain about some of the other chillies. The jalapeño is dead and the Thai chillies aren’t looking that well. The others seem like they might be okay in a few weeks. There is also a cherry tomato plant that has survived two winters along our back fence. The healthy part of the vine is a couple feet from where the plant is rooted. Near the roots it looks to be nearly dead.  There are Asian red mustard plants growing wild from seeds that fell from last year’s plant, more or less in our footpath. We haven’t removed them but they really aren’t in an ideal location.
I just about forgot to mention that a rather horticulturally-minded friend has given me seeds to plant a climbing plant called Kennedia nigricans, which is a native in our area. I’m really hoping a few of the seeds take off so that we can have an easy-to-grow climbing plant to cover some of the fence.
I’m looking forward to opening windows over the next few days with temperatures expected to rise several degrees. That is assuming we don’t get smoke drifting from any fires in the area. We already had a period of smokiness in the house today when I left open sliding glass doors at the back part of the house.