Saturday, August 21, 2010

Status Report

It's been awhile since my last status report, mostly because there's not much to report. 

When I had my post-op appointment with the surgeon, she reminded me that despite the fact that the laparoscopic openings make it look like minor surgery, it's actually major surgery. My liver, she said, has burns on the entire underside from the cauterization that need to heal, as well as various other parts that got moved or injured during the surgery. Apparently my theory that the insides heal faster than outsides was totally wrong. And, she says, it normally takes about six weeks for everything to heal.

Of course, my PCP reminded me yesterday that I'm never a "typical" patient, so it won't be surprising if it takes a little while longer for me to get back to my normal. 

In the meantime, I'm not really getting out of the house, especially not under my own steam, with the exception of just a few acupuncture appointments and doctor appointments. I'm taking more pain meds than I'd like to be (but still well within the max dosages I'm allowed), but I'm hoping that once I'm over the gallbladder surgery entirely that I'll be able to get down to lower pain med usage. 

Other than that, I'm just watching DVDs from the library and keeping an eye on our two relatively new aquaria. 

I hope all of you are doing well. Apologies to those whom I owe email or even regular mail. I'm far behind on those things these days and can't seem to get caught up. :-/

2 comments:

SharonMV said...

How are you Aviva? I hope your recovery is progressing well.

Sharon

Aviva said...

Aw, thanks for asking, Sharon!

I'm coming along. It's not as quick and easy as I'd like, but I always buy into the overly optimistic estimates for recovery and then am surprised when I don't heal as quickly as I think I should. :-)

At 4.5 weeks post-op, I still have more going on that I blame on the gallbladder surgery, but to be honest, I'm not even sure anymore if that's accurate. Everything always sort of blends in ...

But I'm doing better, thank you! Hope you're having a good week, too!!