Social Icons

Pages

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Rest, Recovery, and Rejoicing!

I apologize in advance for this rather late and lengthy update. I know that you all have diligently and fervently prayed us through my surgery and recovery. And for that, we are so completely grateful. There are no words to describe the peace that surrounded us throughout the whole process - a peace that undoubtedly came from the Great Physician. :-) Thank you doesn't even begin to describe!

Now for the details :-) ...

About a week prior to the day of surgery, people kept asking me how I was doing. I was happy to tell them that I was too busy to think about it - and therefore too busy to get overwhelmed or worried! Jamie and I had friends from Colorado staying with us from Fri-Tues, and my mom/sister came into town on Weds.... and surgery was Thursday! The one source of stress, however, was getting my act together at school for a sub while I was gone for potentially 4 weeks. God must have known that I needed extra time because 3 well-timed snow/cold days happened within the week of my procedure! :-)

The morning of my procedure, I woke up after a full night's sleep (miraculous blessing!), and was immediately hungry/thirsty. BUT alas, I had to wait. No food/drink past midnight to prepare for surgery. This is nothing short of cruel and unusual punishment for pregnant women. Holy shamoly I was so thirsty! On the way to the hospital, Jamie and I joked about whether or not I left all my shrapnel at home (they ask questions like that prior to surgery.... "do you have shrapnel of ANY KIND in your body, anywhere?"), and talked about baby names - incase the worst case scenario happened and we would have to name our child that day.

We checked into the hospital and was assigned a pre-op "room". I say "room" because it was more like part of a hallway separated by a hanging sheet.... but still. I changed into a HUGE "gown" in the shade of lovely mint green... and the most annoying socks I've ever worn in my life! A nurse from Labor and Delivery as well as my doctor came to listen to the baby's heartbeat (always fun to hear).  And then my favorite person came to take me away. He called himself a "bartender" because he mixed the cocktails. HA. He was the anesthesiologist. :-)
Pre-Op
No joke. I closed my eyes... and opened them in the recovery room.

After hearing a good strong heartbeat from the baby, they moved me to my room for the night. Once I was situated in my new bed, the nurses began to point out different buttons for raising/lowering the bed, how to operate the TV, and call the nurse for help. I laughed at them and said that currently I was blind as a bat and couldn't see what they were talking about! Thankfully my family came in shortly thereafter and Jamie handed me my glasses! :-)
Jello After Surgery - this pic was sent to the grandmas proving that I survived!
Throughout my stay, I got really good at rolling out of bed and not bending in my mid section... and thankfully had NO complications from the meds or surgery. I even ate Jimmy Johns for dinner on the same night! (Did I mention how preventing a pregnant lady from eating was cruel and unusual?!). The next morningr, I even tried conducting - and surprisingly had NO pain. Woohoo! My doc came to check on me the next morning and signed my discharge papers after being very pleased that I was already eating normally and walking laps around the hospital floor. :-) Baby was also doing very well!
The damage - minimal! About 5 hours after surgery.
I went home, took lots of naps, and ate some wonderful food prepared by my mom/sister and church friends. :-) My family went home a day early because I was doing so well - and didn't need as much help as we were originally thinking (we had planned for full surgery, stomach staples, hard recovery, etc).

This past week has been one of the weirdest in my life. People have been texting me to say "sit down" or "rest" or "stop trying to be superwoman". Jamie has been great. He's scolded me for getting up to get my own glass of water.... saying "that's my job!" So now I call to him from the living room couch, and he comes running from his office, interrupting his work, to get whatever I need. Even if it's "can you pull this table a little closer?" How on earth did I get to be so spoiled?! LOVE HIM.

All of my painstaking rest (got bored and stir crazy after about a day...) must have paid off. At my post-op appointment my doctor was very pleased with my progress and how well baby was doing (baby heartbeat was good and strong - 148).... and told me that I could start going back to my normal life and normal activities. YEAH!  She warned that I will get overly tired, but that I am in no risk/danger of tearing incisions or hurting myself. So excited to say that I'm back at work for half-days on Tues/Weds and then full-time on Thursday! Also, very excited to get back to the gym this week. I've been missing it a lot... and I think it will help me feel like I'm not ballooning out in size these days!

A lot of you have been asking to see "Baby Belly" pics... well I'm sorry to say that I don't really have much of a baby bell yet, but I promise another blog post soon with some pics we've taken along the way. :-)

Love to you all.

1 comment:

  1. Glad all went so well and happy to hear that you and baby are doing so well!

    ReplyDelete

 

Sample text

Sample Text

Sample Text