Post-Op Days 3 & 4

Here, I’m continuing catching up by recapping the days following my appendectomy at 22 weeks pregnant. My appendix had ruptured, which is STILL causing all sorts of fun complications. See post-op days 1 & 2 (Friday night and Saturday). Here are Sunday and Monday!

SUNDAY
Saturday night into Sunday was just about as terrible as the night before. I started to feel like I would never catch up on sleep. In the middle of the night, though, they started to get concerned about my pain ratings and decided to bump up the dose of my Dilaudid pump. I could still only hit it every six minutes, but it was more medication each time.

I was told by the surgical resident rounding at the wee hours of the morning that I could now graduate to solid food. Basically anything I wanted, but he recommended starting slow. I was cool with that, given that I couldn’t imagine eating 90% of the things on the hospital’s menu. I ordered several random things, in the hopes that I’d be able to sample and figure out what exactly I could actually eat. A piece of dry wheat toast. A side of peanut butter. A blueberry muffin. A cup of applesauce. A cup of fresh grapes.

Michael and Nora came up pretty early in the morning again. This time, Michael brought her breakfast, so she chowed down on a blueberry muffin AND half a bagel while she was here. I was jealous. While they ate their delicious treats, I started in on my toast. It was not appetizing, so I only ate about half of it. Then I ate the applesauce and a couple of grapes, but none of it was going down easily. I didn’t force anything else.

A little while later, while Michael and Nora were still there, the surgical attending (the doctor who performed my surgery) and two of his residents came in to examine me. During the exam, he asked the question that I’ve now become all too familiar with: “Have you passed gas yet?” These people are obsessed with passing gas. Since I hadn’t, he said that I shouldn’t be eating any solids. Um, oops. I told him I already had—but very little—and he told me fine, but no more. So, back to the “clears” diet I went.

Nora was also there when I had to get up to go to the bathroom and do one of my walks, so my little helper came along for the (slow, not-at-all-fun) ride.

I was in a decent amount of pain through the day. In the late afternoon, they decided to switch me over to oral pain meds—Percocet. They said that although it is slower to take effect, they’ve found that it generally ends up helping more with this post-surgical type of pain. I took it, and agreed that yes, it did help with the pain more… but it also made me feel quite sick.

Visitors? My mom again, and my brother, Tyler, and Marie and Bryce.

OH! I almost forgot about the highlight of my day: A SHOWER. I hadn’t showered since Thursday morning, so it felt like heaven. Nevermind that my mom had to help me. She actually had to shave my legs for me, you guys. Moms are amazing like that. I kept thinking, Hell, I’d do this for Nora. So as a mama, I understand now. :) Being showered for the first time in 3.5 days felt pretty incredible. Clean hair? Ahhhhh.

By the end of the day, I was really feeling wiped. The combination of lack of sleep, plus the drowsiness/loopiness/sickness caused by the Percocet was a lot to handle. And although it still took me quite some time to fall asleep, once I did? I SLEPT. I SLEPT, people. Now, you must understand my standards were low. I got an hour and a half stretch at first, then a couple of similar stretches afterward, and it was glorious.

MONDAY
Although Monday started off decently, things seemed to go downhill throughout the day. I kept feeling a little worse, a little worse, a little worse. And now it wasn’t even my incision/appendix pain necessarily. It was lightheadedness, dizziness, nausea. I was also feeling increasing pressure in my abdomen. And you should see how big it is. It looks like the baby has grown exponentially in a few short days, but really it’s excess gas build-up that my body still will not let go of.

This was the first “work day,” so Michael got Nora up and took her back to daycare to return to her routine, and did a few hours of work himself before coming up to the hospital. Meanwhile I slept in… because I was finally able to get comfortable enough to sleep more than 5-20 minute stretches! Michael came up to hang out with me for a few hours in the afternoon, and by the time he left I was really feeling it.

One of the residents came in to talk to me about my condition, and she suspected that the sickening feelings I was experiencing had to do with the switch to Percocet. In other words, they were drug side effects. She suggested that, if I could, I should try to go longer between doses and see if that helped my symptoms at all.

All day, I kept trying to keep up with my fluids. Juice, water, etc. I was trying to drink them, but they kept causing me discomfort in the form of heartburn/reflux. It wasn’t even worth it.

Two highlights of the day were that I received a bed upgrade. Instead of the standard hospital gurney-type mattress, I now have an air mattress. It’s still firm—don’t think it’s something crazy comfortable!—but it is more supportive and contours to the body so that there are less painful pressure points put on the areas I’m forced to rest on. I also received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from work.

Michael brought Nora up to the hospital for another visit, during dinner. They ate spaghetti while I sat here in my misery. I’m not even hungry, and was experiencing awful reflux/heartburn at the time, but still… I can’t wait to be able to eat (and enjoy it) again.

My mom showed up a while later with Minute Maid popsicles–some of my favorite–and Nora was happy to sit and enjoy one with her mama. I couldn’t even finish mine (Nora was happy to help), and I was feeling lousier and lousier. Not good.

Late on Monday night, a resident came to see me and examine me. Knowing that cutting back on the oral pain meds did nothing for improvement of my symptoms—in fact, I just kept getting worse—she determined that my symptoms are actually being caused by the inactivity in my intestines. In other words, it all comes back to gas. Until I can get things moving in my abdomen, I’m not going anywhere. It could be a long haul.

Basically, when the intestines are manipulated in any way, they are sensitive to it. So during abdominal surgeries, it’s not uncommon for intestines to “shut down” afterward. What I’m experiencing now is a bowel obstruction—but without a physical obstruction. The doctors call it an “ileus,” and it just means that my intestines are (temporarily) paralyzed. They are not working.

The new instructions as of 11 p.m. last night? I’m back to NPO—I can have nothing by mouth except a very limited amount of ice chips. I’m back to being hooked up to the IV 24 hours a day, receiving fluids that way. The hope is that by giving my intestines another period of “complete rest,” it might finally decide to start its job again.

Fingers crossed. And praying for… gas.