Body Lift Surgery- Day 3

Read Day 1
Read Day 2

Thursday 8th November 2012

Today the mean nurses told me they were going to take away my morphine pump. I really don't think that is necessary! Apparently they are going to move me onto panadol and endone (oxycodone) if needed to control the pain. Hmmm, if I am in hospital I am pretty sure I require something much stronger than panadol for pain relief!

Not only that, but my surgeon came in and said that I can now have three out of my four drains removed. Now that would sound like a good thing, but I recall reading on another blog that this was an unpleasant experience. I can tell it isn't going to be good when the nurse generously offers me a last pump of morphine before they do it...

Now in fairness, removing the drains wasn't a painful experience, just incredibly gross. The drain tubes are in various positions in my back, stomach and sides. The nurse has to pull them out through my side so you can feel it being pulled out through your body. One of my tubes got stuck and the nurse had to give it a good tug. Oh god, I am dry retching just thinking about it.

Since they had to take my compression garment off to pull out the drain tubes they decide to give me a sponge bath too. This was great because I am sick of my own stench, but a sponge bath... I thought that only happened in porn! It was good to get cleaned up because I still had blood and god knows what on me from surgery, but there is a certain lack of dignity involved when someone else is washing your lady parts. Especially when the nurse comments on how many stretch marks I have on my stomach... ah, thanks...???

The nurses decide to get me to try and sit up on the side of the bed today. It seems impossible in my head that I could move my sliced and diced body so much as I have a constant fear I am going to split my stitches. The nurses assure me that it is pretty much impossible to split my stitches and they help me to sit up. I find that I have a really good range of flexibility and movement and so I go one better and stand up. The nurses seem terrified I am going to faint or collapse from so much movement, but it actually feels great to be moving about more. I think I secretly just want to impress the nurses and retain my place as their star patient!

By the afternoon I am really starting to feel quite nauseous and dizzy. I am not sure exactly why, but I am guessing it might be from the endone they gave me earlier today for the first time. I am trying to lay down and rest but every time I close my eyes the room starts spinning and I have scary hallucinations about people being in my hospital room. I am definitely feeling a bit off today and I am not sure if it is the new medication or just overall lack of sleep and exhaustion from the surgery.

Now one of the positives I must mention about my hospital is the food. I can't believe I am saying this, but the food is seriously impressive. I get to choose from a full hot and continental breakfast and then a gourmet three course lunch and dinner. Not only that, but they bring a coffee cart around six times a day for lattes, hot chocolates etc and snacks. I have been so excited by the menus they bring around each day that I have been snapping pictures and talking about them to anyone who will listen.

Lunch menu

Dinner menu

The nurse asks me if I want to try getting up to a chair in my room for dinner tonight. It sounds like a great idea to me because I am sick of trying to eat while lying on my back! It feels amazing to sit up like a normal person and eat my dinner tonight. I don't have a great appetite from all the nausea I have had today but I did eat the chicken and mango asian salad and it was delicious. Lucky AJ was there to finish the rest of my dinner for me!

Me thinking I am hot shit sitting up in a big girls chair

When I stand up to get back in bed AJ takes a quick snap of my back for me because i haven't seen what I look like from the back at all yet. Ignoring all the blood and swelling, I am stoked with how my body is shaping up after surgery.

I settle back into bed for the night and decide not to take any endone because I think it is making me feel quite sick. I take some panadol every few hours, as the nurses insist that I try stay on top of the pain so it doesn't get too extreme. The pain level has been a consisten 4/10, with a high level of discomfort. I would prefer to be back on the morphine to knock the pain out, but I am coping reasonably well with the panadol for now.

I had hoped for a sleeping tablet tonight to help me get some much-needed sleep, but a mis-communication between me-nurse-surgeon has meant that I don't have any prescribed for me. So it is another sleepless night for me. Lucky for me I have a friend in her third trimester of pregnancy who also isn't sleeping so I have an email buddy to keep me entertained into the wee hours.

Day 4 to come...