day 6 post surgery not so good/ crying rant

cww71964 said:

My puffiness has really gone
My puffiness has really gone down in the last few days. My back hurts a bit. I think in my case it is from not walking straight up, sort of stooped over because of my incision. It is getting better as I have been concentrating on keeping my back straight. Hang in there Girly.

Texas_wedge said:

Your long, happy future
Amber, you asked "Does everyone have such a roller coaster of emotions?" Yes, most of us do. Back-ache - understandable. Puffiness - I was in for 6 days and hardly ate at all but came out so puffed up - I was 8 lbs heavier than when I went in. Now, after seven and a half weeks I'm about 7 lbs lighter than when I went in and feeling fine.

My op. was on 5th December and I won't have full detail of my path. report until 9th Feb. (I'm in the UK). I've had some of the good news and some of the other kind already but not the whole picture so it's not easy to avoid worrying. You're not having long to wait and I'm sure yours will be all good news - it is so far from what you've told us.

Trust the judgment of your doctors and the old iceman, who's seen it all.

A word of advice, though. You say you're planning to rest more. Resting is essential and do make sure you get enough. However, some (gentle and careful) exercise will help you a lot. Gentle daily exercise will improve your mood, help you not to worry as much and help with the back pain and the sleeping. The best thing for you right now will probably be slow and careful walking, gradually increasing as the days and weeks roll by.

Iceman was telling it true when he said "In a few weeks you will be laughing about todays discomforts."

Get those pillows sorted out and remember you've got a very long and, I hope, happy life ahead.

braswelm said:

Listen to the Iceman
Amber and Wayne,
Really, listen to anything the iceman tells you, he has been around here for years.
Once you get past the first couple of weeks, it really does improve quickly.
I had surgery on 11/23, and basically can do anything now that I was doing before surgery.
Just take it easy the first 4-6 weeks and you'll be fine.
Mike

Texas_wedge said:

Hypertension
Wayne, I hope you're quickly through the worst of it. As iceman always says, it gets steadily, and surprisingly quickly, better after the nasty early days.

I'm very interested in the subject of blood pressure so I wonder if you could tell me what yours has been and how it has been measured, who by and how often? Have you had any ambulatory recordings? Everything here is anonymous but I'll quite understand if you don't want to say or just can't be bothered, with much more important things going on! However, if you care to share that info. I'd be grateful.

Jamie1.3cm said:

First days at home
I do remember only sleeping in 2-4 hour segments, being awake for 20 min to an hour, and then back to sleeping 2-4 hrs. And moving from one thing to other helped my back: bed, chair, couch, bed, chair, couch. Use a shower chair if you're uncomfortable standing for too long in the shower. Do get in some walks.

Don't forget that there IS such a thing as post-surgical depression. It's the effects of the anesthesia and pain meds. It will pass. Drink lots of water to flush your system.

I got my pathology back in about 4 days. You should also have a follow up with your surgeon about 10 days after surgery. He/She can then check out the swelling.

Your tumor was small enough to not be a big risk for metastasis. On an intellectual level, we understand that. But on an emotional level, I know it's hard to feel secure.

Keep posting. Keep a journal. Some day long in the future, you'll find these days hard to remember.

Jamie1.3cm said:

no appetite
Snydergirl, loss of appetite is also related to pain meds. Is he still on the pain meds? If he's passing gas, then he doesn't have a blockage, which is the main worry post-surgery. I do remember the good day/bad day weeks. And remember you can always call your surgeon/urologist if you're worried about too much pain. Mine was open surgery, and I was still on pain meds at 5 weeks. But it was sliced abdominals that were most painful for me, not my back.

Texas_wedge said:

Hypertension and Texas
Wayne, that IS pretty borderline. LIke you, I've always exercised plenty and am never ill and also like you got the lowdown after a CT for blood in urine which was initially expected to be an infection, then a kidney stone.

In my pre-op assessment my systolic was in the 160s which disturbed me. However that was after driving for about 45 minutes and walking 1/2 mile to the clinic. Then the nurse said maybe my high reading was due to her. I'm terribly naive and hastily said I was sure it wasn't - thinking she meant that she'd not taken the reading correctly - only when I got home did I realise how ungallant my remark was. Still, I guess it's a stock line which others have also not got at the time. I was borderline for surgery at that level but the lesion was 8cm and I was judged exceptionally fit so they reckoned it was best to go ahead. By the way, how are you doing now, a couple of weeks post-op? Well I hope - being fit will have helped you to cope and to pick up quicker.

BP monitoring is a pretty inexact art and so reaching dependable conclusions is difficult. Like you, I wondered whether the cancer might account for higher BP and I think the jury is still out on that one - we are all so different which makes it trickier to know.

I'm guessing you're not a golfer. I've never been further south than NY (apart from southern Turkey and South Africa). I was born and bred in north London and have lived most of my life in Scotland. It's 11 a.m. here and brilliantly sunny but the water I put out for the birds yesterday is still frozen solid. This climate suits me fine - I had very red hair and corresponding skin. If we don't get snow meantime, I'll likely play golf in shirtsleeves tomorrow. So Texas would probably kill me (even though my BP would probably fall in the heat!).

"Texas wedge" is a golfing term due to a Texan Ben Hogan (arguably the greatest golfer of all time and certainly in the top handful). It refers to using your putter from the sort of distance at which you would normally use the kind of short iron club called a wedge. It's a speciality of mine - in the right circumstances I'll putt from anything up to about 110 yards.

So, it's fun and amuses me that people address me as Texas or Tex as I sit in this frozen landscape!

Jamie1.3cm said:

no appetite
Snydergirl, loss of appetite is also related to pain meds. Is he still on the pain meds? If he's passing gas, then he doesn't have a blockage, which is the main worry post-surgery. I do remember the good day/bad day weeks. And remember you can always call your surgeon/urologist if you're worried about too much pain. Mine was open surgery, and I was still on pain meds at 5 weeks. But it was sliced abdominals that were most painful for me, not my back.