Janet

[lelc2002@yahoo]

hang in there!

hang in there Janet!
I remember being in my bedroom for days & days. I just was most comfortable there & had dinners there for quite a while. Little by little you will be up more & more but in the beginning you need lots of rest/sleep. Your body has been through a huge trauma and needs lots of time to repair....
I think it was by 2 mos or so that I would walk downstairs & plop into a chair there, enjoying the flowers & birds. It brought my spirits up!
You'll get there, Lynne

[CStadler]

So sorry to hear of the continuing nausea. I found for me it was the drugs and when they reduced them from Hydromorphone to Oxycodone I did much better. I lost so much weight from not eating. Please be careful. I found fresh fruit salad went down the best. Good luck we all are thinking about you, hopefully this passes soon!!

[Janet]

home (again)

Reason you haven't heard from me in a month is that I was hospitalized AGAIN....locally. My February of vomiting was finally traced to a very large paraespohageal (??) hernia. I had been told several years ago that I had a large hernia where my stomach was pushing thru the diaphragm into the chest cavity, but was told to not worry about it. Of all the pre-op tests and exams, no one ever said to follow up on this, and I completely forgot about it except to mention it to Dr. B., who said he didn't think there was any relationship. I do not know if there was a correlation to the spine surgery, but what is done is done and I now have 5 little laparoscopic scars on my midriff. I had gotten extremely weak from not keeping any foods down, my potassium levels were way low and I was feeling awful ... I went by ambulance to a local hospital, where G-I docs and surgeons were very thorough in diagnosing the problem. I was there from 3/1 to 3/9 just having tests, and on 3/10 they did a 4 hour surgery to get my stomach where it belongs. NOT RECOMMENDED to have 2 major surgeries 10 weeks apart, but I had to have this done as there was a risk of very serious complications and it was not going to get better on its own.

Anyway, I was discharged Thursday night and am now at home, resting. I am very tired. Interestingly, I kind of forgot about my back surgery while dealing with the stomach problem. My back is healing well, the huge hump is gone (there does remain some curve). I am getting around my house OK, can prepare a few cold meals; have someone coming in most days to help. Yesterday was the 1st time in a while that I ate real food: cottage cheese, banana, hot cereal.... I am still in shock that I've had 2 major surgeries since Xmas - but I do believe I had had excellent docs, and now I can start dreaming about new summer clothes that show off my new shape - BTW, I lost almost 35 pounds since 12/26. My body is mostly loose flab now, so I have to give priority to toning exercises.

More later on - gotta take nap. Love and hugs to all of you for your fabulous support and encouragement... couldn't have done it without.

Janet

[Susie*Bee]

Long distance hugs for you, Janet. I'm so sorry you have had such problems! At least it is now behind you and you are back home, recuperating. It was great of you to let us know what's happened. Rest up -- and here's to a very quick and complete recovery, with no more surprises!!!

[Singer]

Holy moly Janet, you've really been through it, haven't you. I'm a little miffed at Boachie's people for not catching it right after you had the surgery when you weren't recovering well. I think that's the danger of highly specialized doctors and surgeons -- they are so overly focused on their one area and simply don't take the whole person into account. Thank goodness you fixed this problem and now you can really start to get better.

love,
Chris