Going home

Stayed by myself at the hospital 2nd night and was able to get 2 good chunks of sleep. I had to beg the nurse 'Chi' that I will not need an IV until I am discharged so she took off the bundle of tubes sticking out from my hand. Phew.. that is a relief with tubes sticking out of everywhere I looked like a 'Borg' ! Now I only have the 4 tubes sticking out for the drains which are neatly tucked in my fuel belt ( Jackson Pratt drains are their names just learned )

And ! I was able to sweet talk them into NOT checking me every 4 hours.. yey ! Irony of the hospital is that you are there to recover get rest but they just do not leave you alone .. doing a perfect time in barging in when you are in the sweetest part of your sleep/dream leaving you to struggle to get back to where you peacefully were before they came and poked/prodded and squeezed you.

But of course this did not stop the resident to do a 'rise and shine' at 7 o'clock just at the peak of the percoset affect.

Was discharged and deemed good to go by Dr. Pope. I tried asking him about some herbal supplements, topical medications that would help me recover faster with less scarring but was not humored :o(. ( arnica montana, Vitamin K - Mephyton, Novagel silicone sheet ) After Arnica he said that he lost me.

Had my first outside challenge.. the seatbelt. Put the top part behind me, I should sit in the back for a while I guess unless I want to risk having seatbelt crush and displace my new whoopie cushions ( expanders) that are trying to make themselves at home in my chest.

Came home and shortly after had a 'friendly takeover' of the house by my DH ( Desperate Housewives) friends loaded with flowers,balloons and food. I was kind of spaced out with the Percoset and could not participate in the bustling conversation that much but was very glad that they came over and for the sunshine they brought into the house !

Took a short nap and then was up for the rest of the day.

Got my Arnica montana and Vitamin-K from chamberlains ( my daughter brought them ) and started my GNC multivitamin and 1000 mg vitamin C to aid the healing process.

My body is feeling like it is split in half, I feel like someone took a beating at my torso ( well duhhh !! ) but my legs are strong and restless fidgeting while I am sitting down almost asking me ' Come on when are we gonna get moving again ? ' I did feel general fatigue towards the end of the day. I am trying really hard to follow the restrictions of not lifting more than 5 pounds but it feels so awkward that I have to call someone to carry a bag to the room so I can empty it, or ask for someone to give me a plate from one of the higher shelves.

My left side is incredibly tense. I had to take conscious effort to do some deep breathing relaxation to release the tension, but it came back again quickly. It is almost that side is freaked out, whyI wonder. Sat on the patio while it was raining and listened to some good music and released it while doing some deep breathing and directing a virtual light to the tense area. Felt a little better. There seems to be a sharp pain on my sternum too.

Fred helped me take a shower and change the gauze, everytime I looked in the mirror I felt woozy and had the claustrauphobic urge to yank the drains and the bandage off. I am not a wuss but this really is a weird sensation although I had looked at the before/after/during pictures of this procedure before maybe even too many times.

Tomorrow Monday will be the 3rd day after the operation and I am planning to start weaning myself off the pain medication ( percosed) and transition to Tylenol.