So much better. Things have returned to near normal, outside of being rather less motivated to get out and actually do things. Last weekend I did get out for a couple walks down in the woods, each just under two miles long. Almost all the critters are laying low. I was surprised Sunday by an owl flying by silently less than 20 feet away. That's always a thrill.
My belly is doing fine. I saw the surgeon on Thursday for removal of the staples. I was concerned; how could that be done without pain involved? It turns out it can. Picture a normal paper staple. Now envision it made of heavier wire holding 1/8" of paper together. Got the shape in mind? That's about what skin staples look like. Removal turns out to be a cinch. The doctor uses a tool which folds the exposed flat part at the midpoint making the prongs point vertically rather than horizontally -- the removed staples looked a bit like capital Ms. A quick pull and it's out. Without pain. The whole process was complete in less than two minutes.
The surgeon is still puzzled by my case. He is unable to rationalize what he (and others) saw on the CAT scan and what he found, or didn't, inside my belly. He seems apologetic, but feels that someone would have had to go in at some point to look for the cause of the pain that brought me in. I asked about the Chron's disease handout I got from the ward RN at discharge. He is better than 90% sure I don't have Chron's. There was some inflammation of the intestinal wall (he believes it was viral). The source is unknown.
A few people have asked about unnecessary surgery, maybe thinking I should sue. Had I gone in with belly pain and come out minus a hand, I probably would. In the immediate circumstances, the surgeon acted in good faith and did no lasting harm. A suit from me is not in his future.
Besides the walks I mentioned, Fran and I have been to the Aurora Senior Center's exercise room to work out on the machines twice this week. I scaled back my normal routine -- lighter resistance, fewer reps -- and found that only bicep curls cause belly discomfort. Needless to say, I'm staying away from crunches for the time being. The surgeon has said no heavy lifting (20 lbs is heavy?) for four to six weeks so I'll be taking it easy for a while.
I have dropped about 10 pounds since going into the hospital due, I'm sure, to elimination of beer from my diet. Losing 10 more would be nice. I'm not sure it's possible by lack of beer alone. Glucose levels have stabilized a bit, but insulin intake hasn't dropped as I thought it would in the beerless environment. I'd been led to believe that the wild fluctuations I've been living with were due to beer, even though intake was a near-constant. A couple more weeks of near normality will tell all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I didn't see this when it was first posted! glad the healing is going well and that you're feeling better. Be careful exercising, I notice a lot of core (abs/sides/back) stuff going on when doing any kind of upper body work - although it's more noticable now when I'm trying to increase the weight. Pay attention to when the body starts saying, "don't do that".
I'm sure since your body is spending a lot of energy healing, its use of energy will be skewed for a while.
It sucks that the surgery was not totally necessary, but it sounds like it was done for good reason, and it's also good that you still have all your working gut! Yay! Recovering from having a section removed would take longer.
Glad to hear that you are doing well and are hitting the trails again.
I have similar views on suing. There is just too much of it going on in America and the lawyers are the ones getting rich from it. I don’t know why there isn’t a review board that would have to clear cases before they even get to court. I feel that suing a doctor or hospital for getting a hangnail 4 days after any procedure (saw that one in the papers a year ago) just shows how out of whack our court system has become. We have too many lawyers and not enough eunuchs in America and I would like to see the numbers reversed.
About beer . . . I’ve been drinking Miller lite for many years now because it had only 4 g of carbs per can, which is many less then the non-alcohol beers, go figure. Drinking it really helps keep my blood sugars down as opposed to “whole” beer, and I still get a buzz.
Keep healthy.
Post a Comment