Post-op:I'm just curious..........

[lelc2002@yahoo]

Another question for post-op: what did you do the most of in your early recover? Read(or was that uncomfortable) watch TV, knit? sleep??? Pick things up with your grabber?? Did you start something new? hobby? etc/ from all of this...........thks Ly

[bbest]

Lynne -

I am also curious to know how folks pass the time. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself as much as possible and want to know everything there is to know.

Brandi

[LindaRacine]

Hi...

For the first 4-5 weeks, I found that I couldn't do much of anything because I just didn't have any concentration. I sort of mindlessly watched TV (luckily it was during the Olympics), and slept a lot.

Regards,
Linda

[Pips]

I have been watching TV a lot and reading quite a bit. Recently I have been doing some tapestry work but couldn't cope with that to start with.

Linda is right about concentration levels. I think the trick is not to worry about it. To start with time really passes quite quickly between TV and dozing....

[JoAnn5]

Same with me. I couldn't concentrate to read or even to draw. If i listened to music, i preferred instrumentals with no words to try to figure out. The tv got on my nerves, esp if it was a Jerry Springer yelling match...lol. or anything that was stressful... i remember once that everyone else had left the room, i couldn't get up or reach the remote and some terrible movie came on that was action / suspense.... i was crying like an idiot and covering my eyes and ears... dark days, those.... But the good thing is they don't last !!... Plan on sleeping a lot.. and try to set up your 'station' by a window where you can look at the birds, trees, etc.

[cwhite]

Passing the time - well reading was out of the question for me as I couldn't concentrate very well, however I was able to get through a trashy romance novel, go figure! ;-)

The main things I did, other than sleep, was to Walk, walk walk! Having a treadmill close by made it easy, even if I only could walk for 15minutes, it still helped pass the time and I really believe that is what helped with my recovery. Another thing I was able to do was get caught up on all my photo-albums, I had a great time doing that and even got to be pretty good at it too! I got addicted to digital albums and making a photo DVD of my wedding. I honestly would be online for hours doing these albums. If interested, I used picaboo.com for the album, and PRO Show software for my DVD. It was nice seeing something accomplished and tangible as a result of my surgery.

My 3-month post op is on Thursday, in hind sight - time really has gone by fast! Good luck!

Carrie

[Gail]

Hello Ly,

Let's see. About the first three weeks was spent trying to get my bowels to move normal again. It was pretty uneventful, spent time eating every imaginable food that is suppose to help your bowels move, swallowing laxatives, trying enemas all the while sitting on the toliet in the dark for about a week with a power outage.

Soon after my surgery the Iraq war started. I watched this war almost non-stop. I watched all the embedded journalist give their accounts of the day, listened to all the generals speak each morning, pentagon reports in the afternoon, etc. I was totally absorbed with the news of the war. If anyone needed to know the latest news about the war I knew. Watching a lot of TV is unlike me....I love to listen to music and I watch very little TV...but I have to admit I got hooked. I had big plans to play my mandolin a lot during recovery...never had the desire to hang it around my neck and play.

I also walked each day on my treadmill, folded clothes, walked around with a long handled duster dusting my furniture, a few areas in my home are hardwood floors so I dust mopped them(no vacuuming of carpets). I would just search for little small things I could do. Any little thing I could find to do made me feel so good and encouraged me. Bathing, drying my hair, dressing and putting on corsett and applying makeup took longer than I would have liked, but it eventually got easier. I don't remember doing anything much for the first three weeks.

After surgery, get your journal out and for the first week or so jot down every single thing you can't do. Examples wrote in mine (can't reach up to get hangers in closet, can't reach around to flush toliet...must get up, turn around half squat and reach to flush, can't tie my shoes...you get the picture.
But here is the FUN part...during your recovery keep adding to your Can't Do List but also keep going back and placing check marks beside the items you are now able to do. That my friend, is how you will know where you've been and how far you have come. Your journal will serve to encourage you.

The valley's will help you appreciate the mountain tops and will give you a new perspective on life. Best Wishes to you.

Kindest regards,
Gail

[katblack]

The first few weeks I just slept and ate and sat in the recliner watching movies or reading books if I could concentrate long enough.
There are days I still can't lounge through a two hours movie but then I have days when I can stay sitting for 6-7 hours without a problem.

Get stuff you love to do, knit, read, movies, magazines and set up a station at waist level or slightly higher. You won't be able to bend down to get stuff off of low tables.

Magazines were great because it didn't require much attention...lol Read a page and no memory retention required

Always make sure when your helper returns to work and you spend your first days alone, that the remotes to everything are easily accessible as well as the phone in case it rings or you need help.

And you know that by the time you have your surgery, I should be better so anytime you want to chat or whatever and feel like talking, I'll turn on a messenger program if you have one, and we can chat. You won't be completely alone.
Message forums will help get you through too.

[Shari]

Hi Lynne,

Like everyone else I found it very hard to concentrate. The case of the missing Natalie Holloway in Aruba kept me focused. Then the hurricanes in the south was next. I found that I couldn't read, or do any of my hobbies. I watched TV more than I ever have in my life. But the strange thing about it was, that I could only watch the news or game shows. Before, that my television choices consisted of the Discovery Channel, History Channel, A & E, etc.

Shari

[ozwaldo]

I had my laptop on a table suspended over my bed, add to that a wireless keyboard and mouse and I found the easiest thing to do was to surf the net.

Reading would have been good, but I found I wasn't strong enough to hold it over my head for long periods of time to read.

Listening to music was something I did a fair bit, and watching TV (after I'd bought a small LCD screen which I mounted above my bed, couldn't crank my neck up enough to see the normal tv).

Oli

[JoAnn5]

One of the channels i really enjoyed watching on tv during this time was the Discovery Health Channel.... Plastic surgeries and baby deliveries...lol... one of my sons who stayed with me during the day was talking about it just recently. He said he'd learned all there was to know about 'birthin' babies' and he thought he could do face lifts now too just from watching those with me so much...lol.

[sweetness514]

Always the same routine...Read, watch movies I wanted to see for a long time, eat like a horse since I was hungry and weak, listen to new CDs, sit and watch outside, and walk every single day helps a lot. Magazines that are about nothing like USweekly are light and don't require much concentration After a wahile I made lists and started doing more, and yes putting a check mark next to things I did is so gratifying.

[lelc2002@yahoo]

wow! sweetness--- you are the first one I heard that said they really ate well!!!! guess it depends on the pain meds & all??? ly

[sweetness514]

To tell you the truth, in the hospital I had no appetite, but as soon as I got home all three times, I was very hungry even if I did get nautious and had to eat bit by bit, my body was anemic, had lost weight and I needed nourishment.

[Gail]

I had a good appetite, especially after I got over the constipation. Before surgery I never ate Breakfast. The morning after my surgery I started crying when I found out I was going to have to wait for breakfast...I felt like I had been starved. Despite my appetitie I continued to loose weight. I guess my body was working so hard to repair itself and needed the extra nourishment.

Kindest Regards,
Gail