Week 3 Recovery

Well this week hasn't been that much different to last week, although I now know my limitations and have resigned myself to a lot of bed rest in order to be able to function.

I have been lucky in that I have had a steady stream of visitors, meaning I haven't been going insane with boredom.  My daily routine is: get up with Tom, have breakfast together, do reading etc etc.  Matt takes him to school, I lie down, until someone visits.  Go down stairs, have a chat with whoever turns up for an hour or so, have lunch (soup) and then go for a lie down.  Get up in time to do the afternoon school run, do school run and then make dinner (very simple), spend time with Tom, have dinner, put Tom to bed and then collapse on sofa downstairs.

It's not the most exciting of routines, but it seems to be working at the moment.  Some days I'm more tired than others - for no particular reason.  I have made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of painkillers I'm taking this week.  I'm down to either one or two lots a day depending on how much it is hurting.  The scar is fine (apart from the bottom bit which tugs and stiffens up a bit) it's my internal tummy that hurts - especially the left side away from the scar, something definitely happened to it during the operation - not sure what!

My eating has got better and appetite has increased.  The problem is that anything solid hurts.  About 15 minutes after eating something I get a pain that takes my breath away for a minute or two and then I'm ok again.  It sorts of puts you off eating anything big.  Luckily because I am so dormant during the day I don't need to eat much to keep going.  One good thing is that my bowel movements have finally become normal this week - so my stomach is functioning properly.

My sleeping isn't particularly great - but then my tummy hurts so how am I supposed sleep through that?  I did manage to get a couple nights of 6 hours sleep, but have gone back to 4 hours again.  As I'm not that active during the day, it doesn't really matter - although I have found myself to get a little irritable with Tom first thing in the morning which isn't good.

Everyone keeps telling me how well I'm looking - but I think most of that is the fact I have lost so much weight as everyone keeps calling me 'Skinny Minnie'.  I'm also wearing very different clothes to normal: leggings and tunics with no buttons / zips etc  as apposed to big baggy jeans and t-shirts so people are seeing my legs for the first time ever!  I've lost a stone since we got back from Japan - must be the fastest weight loss I've ever experienced!

Self injecting is getting tedious now as well.  I will keep going to the end, but it is hard.  The actual piercing of the skin and plunging of the needle into it isn't the problem - that doesn't hurt although it does take some courage, it's when I push the liquid into my body - that bit really stings, and it stings for a good 10 minutes, it's the knowledge of that which makes it difficult.  Also, I managed to hit a blood vessel the other day and got quite a bit of blood and therefore I now have a big bruise in the injection area which doesn't make it any better or easier - should you inject in a bruised area or not?

Everyone keeps asking me if I know what is next etc or what my diagnosis is? My appointment is next Thursday 1.30pm, until then I am completely clueless.  It could be that the cysts were harmless and now everything has been cut out will stop replicating.  Or it could be that the cysts were cancerous.  The fact he left some cysts in around my liver makes it harder - will they need to come out at some stage?  If so, does that mean another operation?  I looked up the location of a liver today - it is much higher than I thought - so if it is an operation - it will be another scar I think.  I guess the best to hope for is that they decide to monitor my cysts from time to time to check they aren't doing anything bad and leave me alone for a while.  It will be a nervous wait for the appointment on Thursday - but hopefully we will finally have some answers which will be good, one way or the other  - at least we will know what we are dealing with.

It's certainly healing

I am still getting lots of cards and presents, can't quite believe how many people have been in touch - I see everything as early birthday gifts, I am very touched by everyone's thoughts.

I am slightly frustrated in that I don't feel anymore recovered this week than last week.  I still get tired very quickly, still not walking huge distances, still spending a lot of time in bed.  Next week will be week 4, if I am to be 95% recovered at the end of week 6 (which is what he said) surely the recovery process should start speeding up?

Oh and here's my scar this week - less scabby than last week, but still not pretty!

Oh and how is this for weird?  Ever since I gave birth to Tom I have had a craving for bubbles to quench my thirst.  If a drink didn't have bubbles, it was pretty much useless.  I therefore spent all my time drinking litres and litres of sparkling water and diet coke - those being the only two bubbly drinks I liked with no calories.  Since having the op, I no longer have a craving for bubbles, I can take them or leave them.  I ordered my usual 8 litres of sparkling water on the Asda shop when I got back from hospital and they are still here, I don't wish for it.  I'm still on the diet coke - but that is more to do with keeping headaches at bay (over-reaction some might say) and because it has some taste - I certainly don't guzzle it like I did beforehand.  I'm back to drinking Ribena and being perfectly happy with it - whilst before I had Ribena only when we had run out of bubbles.  Maybe my cysts were full of sparkling water - that would be a good outcome!