Fainting

Not me. I did not faint, but I will get there.

Today I am Post-op + 8 days. I am surprised by many things. Let me think. I am surprised by the pain. Or should I say lack of pain. ok true, I am a firm believer in chemicals. Living by modern chemical science, whatever. But I have been told that this was the holy mother of God painful surgery that would have me crunched over in pain and doubt. It has just really not been there. The worst has been the JP drain sites and Doc Hollins removed two of the drains today. The incision just has not been that bad. At worst, the incision site has been a 3-4 on a scale of 10, and that was after 10 hours with no pain meds, 1 hour in the car, no breakfast and a tough night sleeping.

The reasons the JP drain sites hurt, again is not really the drain itself, but the sutures holding the drain in place. If the drains move and pulls, or there is oozing from around the drain and the oozing hardens into my and pubies. Yes I said oozing and pubis and all of my kids on facebook are a little grossed out right now, then I get really painful localized pinching and pulling around the drain site. (Note to self - recommend Brazillian Wax prior to surgery to all those contemplating) The good thing about the JP drains is that there are two less right now. The drainage was less than 15 cc for the last 24 hours for 2 of the 3 drains, and actually was for the last 2 days. Doc said he normally does not remove so early, but he is keeping one in and I am healing up great. He expects to see that one remaining drain keep draining at 30-40 cc per day for a few days. When that one gets to less than 20, (expect next week) he will pull it, Yay - no more robo hoses protruding from my body.

Doc also pulled the steri-strips off the major incision today. Looks great, pretty symmetrical and is healing up great. I am down about 9 pounds from before the surgery which is kind of cool.

I am surprised by the amount of bruising. On both of my hips I have bruises 6 or so inches above and below the incision. Doc did some lipo at the hips and it is really bruised, as is my nether regions. The bruising is is heavy black and blue and starting to get some beautiful sunflower yellow out of it. Yuck. There also seems to be some potential pooling of fluids on my left side above the major incision, we need to keep an eye on, but Doc is not worried.

Doc re-prescribed more chemicals, yay, and all in all I am feeling pretty good. Oh yeah, the fainting part. Doc had a young Kid "Shadowing" him today. Probably a 19 year old college student. Bad Shirt, Bad Tie, Cheap Shoes. I believe he was trying to determine if he wanted to go to Med School or not. So Doc stood me up, took off the steri-strips and decided to to remove two of the drains. All was well. So Doc snipped the sutures, and proceeded to remove the drain, which was really kind of cool. About 8 or so inches of tygone tubing in me being pulled out slowly. There was a bit of blood, and I looked over at the young shadow, and said "Cool"! I turned back to Doc and we heard a crumple in the corner. The Young Shadow fainted. Poor kid. He was all embarrassed, and apologizing. Doc told him to stay on the ground, proceeded to remove the other drain and clean me up. Poor Kid. Maybe there is a future in Auto-Mechanics! Funny funny stuff!

Be well all and I will keep you updated.