One week after the operation

The first few days after the operation felt like a lifetime while I was struggling with the sickness caused by my bad reaction to the anaesthesia, morphine and pain medicine. I had never felt so sick and weak for so long.

This was largely due to the fact that I was constantly encouraged by doctors, nurses and patients to use the kindly supplied morphine button as often as they allowed it, which was every 5 minutes. With every press of the button a small dose of morphine was injected into my arm. So for the times on the day of the operation that I was awake, and during that night when I awoke, I pressed that button. On top of that I was given oral pain medication every 6 hours too. In hindsight it was obviously too much for my system to handle, and I probably didn't need that much as I wasn't in that much pain. The aim seemed to be to stop the pain from starting instead of relieving it as and when it started. My advice to anyone else would be to use it only when needed if your tolerance for pain is higher than that of sickness and nausea.

Thankfully exactly a week after the operation all the pain medication is out of my system, the sickness and nausea is completely gone, my appetite is back, and my digestion system is back to how it was before the operation.

I was told by my surgeon that the intestines don't like being touched or moved. They apparently react by going into a sleep mode. This coupled with the gasses created by the anaesthesia make for a very uncomfortable stomach, especially when you are forced to eat all your meals and drink as much fluid as possible. For this reason the doctors force you to get out of bed and start walking as soon as the next day after the operation. This helps the intestines move and re-align to a new comfortable position, and to kickstart it back into action. Mine wasn't so co-operative so I was given some laxatives, not great if you find it difficult to move anywhere fast, but it certainly brought some relief.

Now that the internals are working well again, I'm looking forward to the wounds healing so that I can have my movement and flexibility back to normal. I'm not allowed to bend down too far or lift anything heavier that 2kg for 4 weeks. I went for a few walks during the day but with Winter well and truly here and temperatures not much higher than freezing during the day, I decided to give the elliptical cross-trainer a go this morning. It went better than expected and I managed a whole 2 minutes all the while staying warm and comfortable inside.

I'm extremely grateful for making such a speedy recovery, it certainly helps to have a positive frame of mind and so much love and support. Thanks to each and every one of you.