the great illness of 06

The Quick Road to Recovery

I think I might be part super hero. I’m almost healed from my surgery already. Or maybe it’s just a really easy surgery. I was so worried that I would be doubled over in pain for days. I thought for sure I’d be in bed for a week. I was freaking out about taking pain killers and drugging Baby Bug through my breast milk. I even asked the anesthesiologist if I could skip the pain killers and he shook his head, no. “No way,” he said. “You’re going to need those pain killers for a good while.” And he looked like he meant business. He was wielding the long sharp needles after all. I figured he knew his stuff.

But he was wrong! Ha! Ha hah! I haven’t taken a single pain pill! Toby picked up my months worth prescription of vicodin and I’m not going to take one pill! I hardly hurt at all. You know how they have that zero-to-ten pain scale where ten is the pain of having a baby and zero is no pain at all? Well, I barely got up to a three. A measly three! Nothing that three advil won’t take care of in a jiffy.

I admit I’m uncomfortable though. My right shoulder hurts sometimes (a strange side effect they told me might happen.). My back aches because I’m using different muscles to avoid using my abdominal muscles and I don’t feel like I can take a deep breath properly. It’s the breathing that’s bothering me the most but it’s not really painful. Just annoying. Oh yeah, and I can’t laugh. So don’t send me any joke emails. Cause I won’t read them. Of course Toby has been making me laugh all day which is fun but hurts.

I gave myself quite a scare in the shower this morning. I was trying to wash all the orange iodine off my body parts (that stuff won’t come off) and I inadvertently let some water splash on my bandages. You’re not really supposed to get them really wet but I was a bit careless. Well, suddenly blood started oozing out and down my abdomen. Blood! My insides are coming out!!!! Oh no! I’m never going to heal! I thought. I was so scared that I quick hopped out of the shower and never completely washed the shampoo out of my hair. I’ve been walking around all day with half washed hair. It’s not a look I’m proud of.

So anyway, unless I’m jinxing myself by being so proud of the lack of pain, I think I’m doing fine. Finey fine fine. Isn’t it weird that you can take a body part out and everything seems to continue to work? In fact I’ve eaten some foods with fat in them today and nothing sent me to the bathroom. I had a bagel with cream cheese this morning (CREAM CHEESE!!) and house special chicken from Pick-Up-Stix (CHICKEN WITH FAT!!!) this afternoon. Those aren’t exactly fat free healthy meals. But nothing happened. I’m good as new. This is really really strange. I’m just waiting for the pipes to work and I end up in the bathroom hating life.

I’m just really really thankful that everything is working out. Maybe it’s all the well wishers from this blog. Maybe you guys are magic. I think that’s it. So you deserve a big fat THANK YOU. I really needed to get better quick and all your comments and good thoughts and prayers worked. So far so good. And it’s a good thing too because you all know what it’s like to take care of a nine month old. My mom left today and I’m going to miss her.

28 Comments

  • kate

    remember if you need anything we are just a skip and a jump away! baby bug
    looks so adorable. i think she and my little rascal would have a good
    time together getting into things! if she needs a playmate so you can
    put your feet up – you know our # . xo kate

  • Gramma

    Do take it easy Josephine. In other words, hurry up and rest, rest, rest. That way you will heal better faster. Remember, I love you whole bunches. Do not try to pick up baby bug. That will really stretch too much.

  • Marissa

    Hooray – glad you are healing well. It’s probably your new mommy super powers that are making you feel so good.

  • Nila

    You must be part super hero. Maybe your like the cheerleader from Heroes.
    What mom doesn’t have superpowers anyway.

    So glad your healing. Take care, rest up, and let the healing continue.

  • BeachMama

    So happy to hear you are feeling great! Thankfully you are on the road to quick recovery, if you haven’t needed any vicodin yet, you shouldn’t need any now.

    Funny about the shower, I was told to shower right away, they put some kind of liquid bandage over my stiches and they never leaked. And yes, they all told me I would need the drugs, but didn’t.

  • Lauren

    can i have the vicodin?

    joking!!

    glad you got all that over with and are healing now …

    i almost didn’t recognize bb .. she’s such a big girl now!

  • Alissa

    Take your Gramma’s advice – she sounds like a wise lady. Glad you are feeling better. Your BB is a real cutie!

  • jP

    You must have picked that shirt because it looks just like a Lumpy Cat.
    Glad you are feeling better. I make the best gravy and hope I can make it at our Thanksgiving dinner. You will lick your plate clean.
    I will be the Auntie without a toddler. Yea!! I get to hold all the babies. j

  • ms. sizzle

    my insides are coming out! ha ha. that was funny. i know you can’t laugh so i will laugh for you. though it was probably scary at the time… i’m just glad you are recovering so quickly! go you!

  • Heidi

    Excellent news! I’m glad everything went so smoothly, and you can indulge a bit. Plus, it was really good timing with Thanksgiving coming up. Yee Haw! No worries about passing up the potatoes, and the pumpkin pie, and the….

  • Amy

    so glad to hear you are so much better. and you can EAT! b/c honestly…baby bug looks like she is sooo active you don’t have a chance to recover. she is adorable.

  • aunt kathy

    I’m so glad you’re feeling better! I too am an advocate of using as little pain medication as possible (if any!) when nursing a baby. I wouldn’t even take a tylenol while expecting. My doctor wanted to put me on antibiotics when I had a sinus infection. I threw the presciption away.

    Bug is getting so cute! (more like “continuing to be cute”) Her hair is coming in blond, isn’t it? I thought, for sure she would have dark hair! Maybe it’s the eyes. Blond hair and brown eyes? Striking.

    Holding a pillow to you tummy while coughing and laughing helps a lot. It was a life saver for me after my C-sections.

  • Jennifer

    I’m so so happy to hear how well you’re doing. Yippeee!!! If you need some company I’m completely free tomorrow and the active 4 year old will be with grandma so I would be much more mellow company :P I love these pictures of Baby Bug. She looks happy that her Mama is doing so well.

  • JennB

    I’m so very glad to hear that you’re feeling better…. you make sure to take good care of yourself so that you can take care of that little Baby Bug. she is getting SO BIG!!! Take care of yourself, Jo….

  • Gramma

    We’re having spaghetti tonight…certainly not the kind your mom swiggles together, but close. What do you do when you find your garlic has molded blue and lumpy? Why, use garlic salt, of course. Guess I’ll have to temper this little addition with a bit of sugar mixed with cinnamon. Hope it works. Also hope that baby bug warms up to her other aunties right off. It would be a shame to go all that distance and have her be strange. If you have an opportunity, pop in to see Margaret B. and give her a hug for me. If no opportunity, it’s all right. I’m beginning to realize, those of us over 80 sure need those warm fuzzies. Please continue to behave and heal well quickly to get ready for your trip up north.

  • whoorl

    i’m so glad you are feeling better!! please take it easy over the next couple of days…if i see you walking around the neighborhood, i’ll throw you over my shoulder and put you back in bed where you belong. :)

  • Daisy Mae

    Hurray, real food and no pain!!! Isn’t it great! Yeah, that gallbladder surgery is a piece of cake nowdays. Back when I had it when I was 22 (we won’t say how long ago that was) they cut you from stem to stern and I had a tube down my throat for 2 days. I couldn’t talk because of the tube so I used sign language and said “I want to die”. I did that for 3 days. The cut me from my breasts to just below my navel. Why couldn’t I have wait 15 years longer to have my gallbladder out! And aren’t you glad I didn’t tell you that story BEFORE your surgery?

    I’m so glad you are feeling so much better. And better yet I am glad the surgery worked. Don’t overdo kiddo!

  • Carrie

    Yay! I’m so glad you are healing so well. I think my docs did something wrong when they took mine out b/c I was in serious pain for a month (the whole reason I was terrified of a c-section, but the c-section didn’t require pain meds after the second day for me). That shoulder pain is weird, isn’t it? I’m also so glad to hear that this seems to have solved your problem.

  • Liz

    Now you’re SUPER-Secret Agent Josephine!

    Glad you’re doing so well..don’t over do it tho!

    Gotta love the tupperware cabinet..I was just thinking I had to set up one for my little Boo Boo.