Post-op

I have to say that the hospital stay was overall a good experience, the staff was wonderful. But, I was glad to be out of there and when I got out I went to my brother's house to stay until I could take care of myself. Over the years I have become a very independant person, so calling on someone to help me along physically was uncompforable and felt really wierd. I had a visiting nurse as well, she was a great help mainly to help me stay on the positive side about my restrictions for eating and what I could do physically. It was a rough week and I won't go into detail about it, it wasn't all peaches and cream. I enjoyed the walks that I took both by myself and with my brother and sister-in-law. I had locked myself in the house for so long I forgot about how nice it is to take a walk early in the morning. Dispite the chill in the air, the birds were churping and that made it nice. And then ,of course, learning of my brother's general take on his surroundings was fun. He and his wife walk almost every day and they have nicknames for the neighbors was hilarious. My stomach muscles got a work out.

Ovderall, staying with my brother and his wife was a comforting experience but meal time was torchure. The smells of goulash and being stuck slurping on strained mushroom soup is depressing as hell. There was no way that I could escape it, and hey, they got to eat too.

By Sunday the only thing that was keeping me from going home was the fact that I couldn't reach my feet to put my socks on without straining a mucsle. I told them I wanted to go home and I needed an idea to help me find a way to get my socks on by myself. I was aware of sock-putter- oners that you could buy in catalogs that I had recieved, but, I didn't have time to wait for one in the mail. On Monday night I showed my brother a picture of on of these contraptions and he went into his garage and brought a thing he made to clean the gutters on his house. We stretched my sock onto the thing, I set it on the floor and slid my foot into the sock and it went on all the way...so now I have the "Sock-O-Matic" and I'm going home! *Laughter* I went home on Tuesday night. I had intentions of sleeping in my bed but my stomach muscles weren't quite up to it. I slept in my old recliner, but I was home.



Well, I have been through surgery on February 13th. I am now a week and a half post-op. While I was in the hospital, immediately after the surgery, I was on what is known as 'phase 1' diet. Which is basically ice chips, popsicles, and jello. And 5 days after my surgery I graduated to "phase 2"diet, which is protein shakes, cream soup (strained), jello, pudding, popsicles, skim milk, and lots of water. I look forward to "phase 3", I'll be able to have pureed foods, maybe even some cottage cheese and refried beans. That will make the "protein game" much easier. I still require 60 grams of protein a day, this will promote healing of my little stomach or "pouch". It's not been easy, it's not like I'm not in the mood to eat anything, it's just that what is on the menu is blah and uninteresting. At this point I am mainly eating because I have to. But, I know there are better days ahead and that's what keeps me going.