Saturday, April 5, 2008

Let out and home plans

The doctor cut me loose yesterday afternoon. Everything is functioning well and no complications, so no need to keep me locked up. Of course the condition of my release is that I again stay in town for a few days post-op. Okay, no biggie. We're going to stay until Monday evening. We're gonna catch a flight from Pittsburgh to Philly for about 100 bucks a piece. Very inexpensive considering direct flights out of Cleveland are $500+ each... It's about a 2 hour car ride to Pittsburgh, straight line on highways so it should make for a comfortable ride. I'm a bit sore, but my pain meds are helping me. I didn't anticipate this much discomfort with this surgery. The anesthesiologist told me that GI patients consistently have more pain with surgery as the number of surgeries increases. More so than with any other type of surgery. I assume it has something to do with the neuro-receptors in the gut that cause this. I am slow walking and get intense pain when getting up from a sitting position. It goes away rather quickly after I get up, though. I am eating well. Just gotta keep my diet simple and well-cooked. No fresh fruits (except bananas) or veggies for a few weeks until the inflammation in my GI tract decreases. I have been instructed to eat only foods that can be chewed to a "mashed potato" consistency for the next 6 weeks. After that I can add in some other foods and see how well tolerated they are. I can eat ice cream with no problem. I have a pint of Edy's cookie dough in my room that I'm going to enjoy before bed :-).