Well, I am now 11 days post op following a somewhat involved abdominal surgery. I feel like a wimp!!! I was sure that I would be feeling much better by now, but I am not. :( Apparently there are some lessons that I needed to learn while "resting"!
First lesson: Don't expect to be super-woman in the healing process!! Apparently, healing is not something you get by your will. I have been lying around in this bed to allow my body to heal for 11 days. I expected to fully be up and about by week one. However, I seem to have forgotten that I really can't have someone cut me open and then expect me to be glued back together and I should be up and about on the next day!
Second lesson: Just because I take care of people who have had the same surgery, doesn't mean that I will heal faster!! It was helpful to know everything about the hospital stay....but the stay at home, that was something different!
Third lesson: Make sure the anesthesiologist really believes you when you say that you get sick easily with anesthesia and that you have trouble waking after anesthesia! My doctor seemed to think that he had everything under control as to how to best treat my anesthesia. Well, after hearing that my dad has trouble waking after anesthesia and my mom has difficulty with vomiting after anesthesia......I was doomed! Yes, I managed to get both of the difficulties and surprised the anesthesiologist at the same time! :)
Fourth lesson: Do not expect your brain to be able to understand and compute anything more than what is on the back of a cereal box in the first week following surgery! This was something I was completely unprepared for......I was in such a fog that I really couldn't read and comprehend anything in the first week!! Thankfully, that did get better this week. I was getting worried!
Fifth lesson: Give yourself the time to heal. I have been told by more than one person, to think about why the doctor suggests that you take 6 weeks off from work after such a surgery! I really thought I would have been down for about a week, but then able to move around and get on with my life. So far, that is proving to be false. There is a reason, and it is because I need the time to heal. Yes, I am getting it! :)
Sixth lesson: Those meal that ladies want to bring for you after your surgery are truly a blessing! I told one of the ladies that we had so much food, and I didn't want her going out of her way to bring us food when we had so much already. But, I also found that just getting the leftover food out for us to eat was overwhelming and exhausting!! So, we have taken all other offers!
Seventh lesson: You are not as independent as you like to think you are!! Unfortunately, it was 49 years into my lifetime and because of this surgery, that I am realizing that I really am not able to do EVERYTHING all by myself!! Oh, I am so prideful! But, this surgery took the ummph out of me and left me needing other people to help me with basic living!! Oh, boy, what a mess I am!!
Most of all, I have learned to be thankful for the little things in every day life. It has been a rough recovery so far and I hope that I am on the mend now, but certainly will still need God's help as I journey the rest of these days on this earth in this body!! Whoa I am not able to do it alone!! I thank God that He has placed caring people and different circumstances in my life to get me to this point. Oh, I hope that I never stop learning!! :)
