back from my surgery

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I got home today after having my tumours removed. I am okay for

about 2 hours after taking my pain meds, then it starts to hurt. The

two abdominal tumours were removed from my abdominal wall, leaving a

5 inch hole, which they screwed mesh into my pubic bone to protect

my insides..bonus was I got a slight tummy tuck. The tumour on my

sternum..I thought it was only a couple of centimetres big, as that

is what it felt like, but in fact was the size of a baseball..am

wondering if this was the cause of a lot of my residual pain after

they fixed the pancreatic stricture...guess I'll find out once all

the surgery pain has gone. They also had to fill that baseball size

hole in my chest with mesh.

I have to say that having been off all pain meds for 4 months helped

me so much with my pain management this surgery round. I did wake up

crying and screaming from the initial pain, but once they got me to

shut up and relax...they gave me more dilaudid and it worked, the

lifted me from the hospital gurney to my bed and it didn't hurt..I

apologized for being a big baby, but the surgeon stated that even a

person with no previous drug use would have been inthe same

situation..is just a very painful surgery to get under control. Once

back in my room, they had me on a PCA of dilaudid which would

deliver .1mg every 6 minutes...I was so proud of myself..by 9am

Friday morning (surgery was 8am Thursday morning) I had only used

5.9mg of dilaudid, then I kept it to 1.9mg the next day, then 1.3mg,

then only .4mg..and took it away from me on Monday morning first

thing. My pain is being well managed with 5/325 percocet which

surprised me...but I still don't want to have to go through

withdrawal for that if I can help it. But I am NOT going to suffer

unnecessarily for that reason mind you.

I just feel so proud of myself and unreal that I have come out of

this surgery feeling really good. I do have a JP drain in until

Friday and infection is a huge concern, as I had a fever with no

explanation for 3 days, and don't want to inherit another one. If it

gets into the mesh, I'm in big trouble...I go back to the surgeon on

Friday morning to have the drain pulled (whether or not the fluids

have decreased), unfortunately they keep increasing with today being

the worst in volume since my surgery.

I best be taking some pain relief and settling myself into a

comfortable position..and worry in the morning how I'm going to get

out of bed. Got stuck on the bed earlier, and my 2 year old was at

my side " take arm mummy, take my arm " bless her little heart..and I

did *LOL*..but it didn't work

Take care everyone,