Three Months Post Op

 

As I've mentioned before I hadn't planned on making anymore posts until the New Year, but someone told me I have a lot of silent readers following my journey and genuinely want to know how I'm doing. I am three months post op and although I'm still focusing on healing and not overdoing it, I'm amazed at the things I've been able to do. They might not be exactly what you think, it's actually stuff like being able to get my daughters dressed to go outside and jump in muddy puddles. It's things like I never thought I would actually enjoy cleaning the kitchen. It's things like my husband saying you better stop, I could get used to this as I'm cooking another meal for my family. Yes, this has been a very slow and long recovery and I'm not out of the woods for complications yet, but each week I can feel my body getting stronger and improving.

 

I am keeping up with a post of more specific details on a recovery timeline, but for update purposes, those who are about to have surgery, just had it, or curious about my health this far along, here's the big ones:

• I can still eat and drink without pain
• All my nausea, vomiting, and early satiety / constant fullness feeling is gone
  
• My digestion is working incredibly (that first month was a big transition period)
• I can eat more of the healthy foods I used to not tolerate (I've had a lot of people ask if I can do gluten and dairy now and I would say I can without reactions like I used to have, but honestly I want to keep as much inflammation down as possible and continue to with my chronic illnesses so it won't ever be a staple in my diet)
• Bloating and swelling has disappeared
  
• I do not have any abdominal/pelvic pain
• My bladder/urinary issues continue to be resolved
• I haven't had another kidney stone since surgery (even when I was still only drinking and eating a small amount right after surgery until the first 4-6 weeks)
  
• My blood pressure is better than its ever been
• I haven't noticed my chest pain, palpitations, or any of the attacks I used to experience
• Even just taking deep breaths are not a struggle 

*It's incredible what proper blood flow to your brain, heart, and other organs can do and I think not many doctors fully understand all the symptoms that can be impacted from it, let alone how severe and debilitating the pain can be.

 

 

Shortly after my surgery when my abdominal and pelvic pain were gone, my leg numbness was also gone. Instead of the numbness though, I now have pretty severe leg pain. Before surgery I had a previous diagnosis of chronic venous insufficiency in my legs and reflux in most of my veins. I've been waiting until the 6 month mark to see how they feel because that's up until some patients still experienced a lot of pain that finally went away at that time. So for now I've been rocking my compression socks and if my legs don't improve after adding strength and physical activity back in, I will get my vascular surgeon in Houston to treat them. This is something I've noticed with some others that did have compression surgery. I'm not quite sure if it was going years without fixing the compressions that created the damage or if it's just because of my connective tissue disorder.

 

Although my POTS has improved, I don't know if it's because of my legs, but I do still have it. I know a lot of people hope after the compression surgeries that it'll completely resolve. I am looking forward to seeing if I can also improve it with my physical therapist and exercise physiologist when I start back on my POTS exercise program. Still have a little bit of a harder time during menstrual cycles where my body seems to try to do what it used to and I'll have more pressure, leg pain, and fatigue, but then after a day it's like it figures out it's been fixed and improves. Each one has gotten a little better since surgery and I've heard from friends that will continue to happen and continue progressing.

 

 

Why I still have to be cautious until 6 months or longer is that the fibrous tissue needs to secure my two grafts in place (pictures above - don't they look like little caterpillars?) and I don't want to do anything that could move the grafts or create extra scar tissue before then. Also being aware that I'm more at risk for hernias or bowel obstructions because of my EDS so watching for those. I've had great advice that I'm not in the clear until my scar turns white because that's when internally I'm healed. My scar has finally flattened though! My incision was actually something I was a little worried about before surgery because of it's length and that my previous smaller laparoscopic hysterectomy scars became keloid. I had even showed my husband and family my friend's scar to prepare them, but I think everyone has been pleasantly surprised (myself included) how well it's looked even the first time I got to take a look under the bandage. It gets me every time that my youngest wants to check on it daily and rub cream on it and my oldest has said multiple times she wish she had a scar like me. I'm so proud they see it as "so cool" and be accustomed to never seeing something like that as a negative or that it'll affect how they look.

 

I did just start physical therapy for some extra feedback and guidance to see when I should start slowly introducing small, very gentle stretches and exercises. My PT reinforced that the biggest thing is listening to my body and reminding me how important resting is for this major surgery (even when it comes to standing, walking, and bending). These past 3 months I've had to repeat to myself that my body was in a bad way for a lot of years so it's going to take some time to adjust to working correctly and I want to give myself the best chance at healing correctly. And the fact that I had 5 compressions fixed in one surgery means having a random pain here and there the first year is perfectly normal and not to fear (another post to come on that topic).  People that have asked me personally how I am doing since I had surgery, I usually have responded that I do have times I have to rest more than others because I end up overdoing it, BUT it's only because I'm feeling so well :)