Monday 2nd March 2020

One whole week post op today...7 days behind me!

6.20am - Today I just want to keep sleeping,  I am so very drowsy.  It could be from the super duper pain med I had last night, well early hours of this morning.  Everything is feeling like a bit of an effort, but thats okay those days happen.  I'm gonna sloth on anyways...slowly but surely.

7.00am - Okay I need lots of I'm strong vibes as I just found out they are going to restitch my leg with me awake.  Hmmm maybe I'm not a big brave Maori warrior woman today but more of a worrier eeekk!

Video Diary Entry HERE

Before I go into more of what happened today, I need to back track and tell you what happened yesterday.  I know I posted yesterday but I forgot this bit.  In my defense all the days are so blurred its hard to know what happened when; good thing Ace told me I'd forgotten to put this in.  

Yesterday, I had the drain on the left hand side removed!  

I should have remembered because the nurse asked if I would like the boys to leave the room, and I was like "why? they've seen my boobs/foobs before!".  Besides that, they were watching youtube clips on their phones, so we all could of been doing crazy nudie dances and they wouldn't have noticed anyway!  Or, so I thought at the time, obviously they pay more attention than I realise.

It wasn't that bad of an experience, and no longer having it in and having to lug around the drainage tube was such a huge relief that it made up for the little bit of pain I felt anyway.  Mind you, the most painful part was cutting the stitch, the pulling out of the tube, was more a funky type feeling.  To anyone having it done, my advice is to take a deep big breath before they are about to pull, and breathe out as they pull. 

SSW = Shower, Soob, Walk

And now back to today and the reality that I am facing!

THIS is why I need stitches!

The nurses came in at around 9.00am, cleaned the area as best they could and then covered the leg with a steriled cloth until the doctor was available to come and do the stitches.

Before the doctor arrived however, I needed a loo stop (well several) and so they gave Mark some bandages to wrap around the sterile dressing.

10.45am - I'm still waiting for my leg to be stitched up.  The nurses have said that its 'op' day so it may be quite a while yet.

As much as Mark has been lighening the mood with his crazy antics...

My face in the next picture says it all really!

Not happy Jan!

Whilst waiting, team members from HITH (hospital in the home), Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Pharmacy all popped by to discuss dischage. Mind you, none of them could answer when I was heading home.

HITH - organised for nurses to come to our home every day to clean wounds / change dressings, and check drainage tubes.

Occupational Therapy - organised an over the toilet chair, a shower chair, and a grabber thingy.

Physiotherapy - organised crutches and suggested a wheel chair which we initially hired through USF chemist, and then were blessed that a friend lent us one.

Pharmacy - organised all my drugs and looked into wheher any would interact with my herbal supplements, of which he said they would not.

7.20pm - I JUST got stitched up, in the literal sense - FINALLY!  They gave me a little pain pill about 30 minutes before hand, and Mark held my hand and talked non stop about nothing, during the proceedure SO it wasn't too bad.  But, I'm glad that it is over and done with!  The waiting and anticipating was the worst part I think, maybe!

Dan, checked out my foobs whilst he was here...not the first time either, hey Mark LOL!

Looking much better!

As I drift off to sleep I can easily say that today has been my most painful day, physically, mentally, and emotionally thus far.  

But, I got through, and even found several moments where I smiled; even if just at my husbands stoopidity...I love that crazy man so much!

It won't be the last of hard days as this journey is far from over.  But when another shows up I know I will get through that one too, although I may need someone to wipe my tears, hold my hand, and remind me of the warrior within.

P.S.  Mark posted the following...

(Mark here #7)

Yes, she has done that which needed to be done! However, the girl will not be coming home today.  There have been a couple of complications that have put the brakes on heading home. A few stitches in one leg have come adrift and need to be re-stitched. Of course, my beautiful bride doesn't wish to be awake whilst this is being done but realistically does not have a choice.  We do have our little moments of fun, though! Today, I needed to help with changing a leg dressing. With much delight at scaring the metaphoric crap out of her (she's already done the literal type on her own, did you know that?!), I threw on some plastic gloves and told her to "assume the position "!!  They do say, "laughter is the best medicine". Being married to me, my darling Denigirl will be 100% healthy in no time!!

That look though LOL

(Mark here #8)
**Go grab a coffee!!**

Okay, so today was a high pain, high stress day!! The girl had a section of stitches come adrift and it needed to be redone. I made a bold (yet feeble!) attempt to re bandage her leg. I have been advised that I probably would be better suited to something NOT related to the medical world!! After hours of waiting, not knowing when it was going to be done, Drs rocked up around 7pm. Although she was concerned about there being excruciating pain, I distracted her with stoopid faces, ridiculous banter about her air bed (I have sooo many issues with it's quality, size, color...I digress!) and a hand to squeeze. My hand. My right hand. One of my absolute favorite hands...do all of y'all know my beautiful bride is a massage therapist? Did you know she has surprisingly strong hands? I knew. Sorta. Now I know, completely! The only thing I can be grateful for, is that the building we were in is full of medical professionals!! It HAS been advised that I do not have a broken hand!!  Well, I need to head off to bed. We have another big day tomorrow. Drs have hinted at a definite possibility of a firm maybe that the girl could be allowed to come home!!

P.S. I don't need to keep my hand bandaged, but my gorgeous girl sure is one tough cookie!!

Gosh he makes me laugh!