Review

I feel great. My stomach still feels very very tight and I believe I might be getting some of my feeling back in certain areas. I do feel those 'electric' pains and freak out! I hope that is a good sign meaning my nerves are connecting back. I went to my 2 week post op appt in hopes to have my drain removed. I am still draining approximately 50cc in a full 24hr period. Dr. Lehocky said he could remove it but if the fluid accumulates in my belly, he'd have to extrude it with a needle every few days. I opted to keep the drain in at least until next week. I only have 1 opportunity to recover and I didnt want to cut any corners and risk any complications that I could have prevented myself. So here I am, with my drain in STILL... aghh.. I've gotten pretty good at hiding it in my clothes. What I do is wrap the drain around my waist line and tuck the bulb into my sports bra and I make sure to always have on my compression garment.

Left the house for the first time today since surgery! And boy did it feel good. A quick trip to grab breakfast and a drive around town make me feel so much better overall. I made sure to not over exert myself and was very careful since I still have my drain in but I think it actually made me feel better sooner! I've been in my compression garment at all times (other than showering). It definitely took some thinking and creativity to hide my drain under my clothes but I got the job done!!

I went to my follow up appt and was told I had to keep my drain in. It was still draining quite a bit of fluid and the fluid was still very dark. I started to have this annoying cough which killed me everytime and caused so much pain in my abdomen that it burned. I tried my best to keep myself from coughing but when I did, I would produce alot of mucus. I ready pneumonia is a big concern after surgery but didn't have any other symptoms. Dr. Lehocky came in, said everything looked great and scheduled me for another follow up within a week. The next day I had a low grade fever, (between 99.9 - 100.8). Then in the afternoon I started feeling body chills constantly into the evening. I was concerned and called the 24 hr phone number to ask if I should be concerned. I thought this was a number where a nurse would answer a question but it was a call answering service that called Dr. Lehocky to speak to me. I was sooooooo relieved to speak to him rather than a nurse for some odd reason. He was very detailed in his conversation with me and asked me to call him first thing the next morning if I wasn't feeling any better. The next morning, I had the same symptoms and called again. He quickly called in some antibiotics to my pharmacy to rule out an infection and gave me his phone number to call him directly if things changed. Talk about making me feel at ease! Its only been 8 days since my surgery but my experience has so far been great!