All in a week

I was hoping to be much more consistent with writing my posts now that I have had my surgery however I think I underestimated the impact that the surgery and the medications would have on my ability to concentrate. I cannot believe that it has been a week since I had the PAO surgery. Although at times while lying in the hospital bed in pain it felt like time was going backwards, the past week has gone by very fast and to be truthful I cant quite remember all of it!! Each day seemed to merge with the one before and time was measured by the frequency of specialist and nurse visits into my room rather than days and hours.

I know I have mentioned in previous posts about my fascination and astonishment with general anaesthetic, however I now have higher regard for the power that all "drugs" play on the mind and body especially in regards to their role following surgery. I am not one to take pills willy-nilly, however I do believe that they play a vital role when used correctly. Too often, as a physiotherapist I would see patients come to an appointment in a lot of pain and being scared to move due to this pain all because they don't like to expose their body to drugs. Unfortunately as a result they are further behind in their rehabilitation. While in hospital I made the decision to be guided by my medical team as they clearly knew a lot more about what was going on, plus after surgery who has the energy to make an informed decision about every detail. At times I do remember thinking to myself "I have no idea what I am taking or why I am taking this" as I was swallowing the tablets that the nurse handed to me. Usually being a bit of a control freak and needing to know every detail before making a decision I like to think that when in hospital and in the hands of professionals it is complete trust rather than personal negligence and lack of care.

My pain was always well controlled as I was progressed from the epidural delivery of Pethidine to oral forms of different analgesia. I was also required to take aspirin daily to reduce the chance of post operative clotting, and anti-inflammatory medications to help reduce the swelling from the trauma involved during surgery. The unfortunate part about any drug is the unwanted side effects that are often associated. Try to imagine yourself just having had major surgery where your pelvis had been cut and fixed with 4 large screws trying to sit down on a toilet. It simply is not an easy task to perform. Although you may not want to be too graphic when visualising this, you must admit that even the mechanics of sitting on a chair requires a lot from the hip joint, and this is without even going into the complex positioning needed to get the bowel in its ideal position to open effectively. Then to further complicate the issue, surgery also goes hand in hand with:

* Pain medications -  the primary reason for constipation following surgery 

* General anaesthetic - not only does it put you to sleep for surgery, but it in effect "paralyses" the muscles including those in the intestines which are needed to push food along the intestinal tract.

* Inactivity - getting up and walking are usually one of the triggers for bowel movement

* Changes to food and drink for surgery - fasting prior to surgery alters your body's normal routine of elimination and lack of fluid in the body results in hard dry stools.

So without going into too much detail I was also given medications to help relieve the pressure, allowing me to once again think about the many other aspects of my life rather than having to focus on the everything toileting and finally being able to give the nurse the answer she wanted to hear when she asked the daily question "Have you opened you bowels today?"

While studying to become a physiotherapist I undertook subjects in cardiothoracic physiotherapy, leaning about the increased risks of getting a chest infection or pneumonia after surgery due to the lack of things such as deep breathing, movement and the body's natural mechanics to prevent infection such as movement of cilia (little hairs that bring up "gunk" from the lungs).  Never working in a hospital I thought that the knowledge I had gained from these subjects was never going to be much use, but in the past week I was proved wrong. Without being told I was able to complete deep breathing exercises and coughing to help reduce the build up of sputum. The first time I coughed I let out a sigh.. the pain radiated from the left lower stomach down to my left knee. This did make me a little scared to cough again, however when I was prepared - slight curl forwards, hand over the scar to support the left hip and lower abdomen, then the cough caused only a small amount of bearable pain. Being a bit squeamish with phlegm I was not too impressed with the large amounts of sputum which I could move after only a small time between deep breathing exercises.

I am glad that I have not been actively posting on here for the past week is because most of what I did write and save before publishing does not make much sense now when I read through it. The drugs that I was needing to take while in hospital were great for the pain however they played a role in changing the way my brain was able to work. I can now appreciate why people get addicted to these types of drugs. One afternoon while lying alone in my hospital room all of a sudden I felt as if my body was moving, almost like I was floating through the air. As silly as it may sound I was determined that what I felt was real and I think at the time I would have argued my case if anyone told me that I had not been flying around the hospital.  The only way I can describe the feeling was as if I had experienced an hallucination. This did frighten me enough to ask my nurse if I could possibly try to reduce the amount of strong medications that I was taking and see if my pain would still be controlled on less mind-altering drugs. The past few days I have felt like myself again, however I have been experiencing what I imagine to be withdrawal symptoms. Theses include vivid nightmares and night sweats as my body got used to not having the strong drugs in my system.

I was given the all clear yesterday from my team in hospital and was discharged. Oh how nice it feels to be home. The next time I go to hospital I am not going to forget to take my own pillow!! It is great to be able to spend time with my beautiful husband and my jessie - dog.

Over the past week I have been blessed to receive many messages of support from friends and family, and I had many loved ones make the effort to come and visit me in hospital. I was spoilt with gifts of flowers, lots of chocolate (especially for easter), and things to keep me occupied including magazines. It does make me feel very special when I think how people were willing to make time in their hectic lives to think about me and or visit me in hospital, even just to sit there and keep me company. Yes it would be nice to be rich, travel the world and have nice things, but at the end of the day I realise that the important things in life are good health and having people in my life to share my journey with.