Making it through

So today is the first day that I felt like even approaching the laptop to add to this blog. It's too bad because I had some really good thoughts over the past few days. Like a list of lies they tell you at the hospital. Lie #1: Stool softener will only soften your stool. Or a list of important things you learn the name of while in the hospital. Item #1: That yellow thing that looks like a pamper that they put on your bed under your derriere is called a "yellow chuck."

I am post op Day 7. Hard to believe it's been that many days. Today's accomplishment is being able to bend down - or rather squat down - to pick up something from the floor. I can also get up and down from the toilet more easily. I've decided I don't like percocet - it completely slows me down and puts me to sleep. So I'm doing half tablets now.

Ok. So I'm tired now. More later!

Blood and Catheters

So today I learned that my blood work came back OK and I'm all set for surgery next Wednesday. And then I asked the nurse one more little question: Is there anything that I haven't asked about that I should know? Or that you would tell a relative if she were having this surgery? And she says, Well, did they tell you that you probably will have a catheter for the first day after surgery? What?! So I've heard the term and have some sense of what it means, but I thought I'd wikipedia it anyway. "In medicine a catheter is a tube that can be inserted into a body cavity, duct or vessel. Catheters thereby allow drainage, injection of fluids or access by surgical instruments." The nurse claims I'll just have 3 little holes or pin pricks and it takes 3 seconds to pull out. The only good thing I can figure about this is that when I wake up in the recovery room, I won't be sitting on a bed pan and have to go through that whole deal.