Three Steps Forward, One Step Back

The past couple days since I last wrote have been filled with lots of tiny little "progresses" and one minor set-back.

First, I am now finally eating again. Who knew that the body could go for 6 days with no food and not even feel hungry! I am not joking -- I did not eat one single bite of food from last Wednesday at midnight until yesterday afternoon. I have obviously been on an IV to prevent dehydration but the doctor confirmed that there were no calories in it, just water and some electrolytes. I joked with my doctor that, before this, the mere mention of the word "diet" would have given me immediate and severe hunger pains, but I guess the whole game changes when you've had abdominal surgery. I think that it has taken my colon this long to just come out of surgery-induced shock. Anyway, I am now eating tiny, simple foods and so far so good in terms of no nausea, severe stomach cramps or vomiting (which is what the doctors are keeping an eye out for).

Secondly, I am able to get up and walk my laps around the halls with a bit more ease. The stomach pains where I have all of my various abdominal incisions (as it turns out, there are actually SEVEN!) don't hurt quite as much and so I have progressed from caterpillar status to something more like a slower-than-average turtle. But I am not complaining -- progress is progress!

Third, I am a day away from being able to be removed from my IV. Basically, once I have mastered the art of eating real food I can also transition to pain meds taken by mouth. And once I am able to do that, there is no need for me to be hooked up to an IV any more. So hopefully everything stays on track on that front and I'll be a "free" woman tomorrow.

So those are the "three steps forward" ... the "one step back" happened yesterday when the doctor thought that I was finally ready to be done with my catheter and so had it removed. Unfortunately, my poor body rebelled; apparently, peeing in a toilet rather than laying leisurely in my bed and peeing into a tube was too much to handle. And so every time I tried to pee, nothing came out. And yet I could feel my bladder getting fuller and fuller. It finally got to the point that my bladder got so full it was pushing upwards onto all of my very sore and tender internal organs and causing me excrutiating pain and so the nurse put the catheter back in. I think that it was a great call seeing as almost a LITER of pee poured out of me. Yikes!! I told the nurse that I think having a liter of pee in my bladder would have been painful even without surgery!! I'll try again tomorrow to be sans-catheter, since this is obviously a hurdle that I need to clear before I can be sent home. Hopefully, things will go better.

Overall, though, I am feeling better and slowly getting my strength back. The thought of going home is less and less daunting with each passing day. If all goes as planned, I think that they will discharge me on Friday.

That's all for now...I need to head back to my room and lay down again. Thanks for all of your prayers and emails and loving thoughts! :)