12 days post-op

I'm 12 days post-op today... I'm so proud of myself for getting this far, but boy has it been a struggle to get this far, just 12 days I know! When they tell you recovery is one of the hardest things you'll go through, it truly is!

Looking back at my days in the hospital, I'm totally shocked at how much of a breeze it was for me & how well I did.. The pain meds & epidural totally helped with that 100% no doubt, but God helped me get through those days just a little easier. I remember the majority of my time in the hospital, where I have some friends who have expressed they didn't remember much of their time in the hospital, or especially the time in the ICU..; the first few days were extremely difficult pain wise, trying to get the pain pump meds corrected, as well as getting the epidural meds correct.. None of my pain meds were really working right that first night, so I was pretty miserable, getting minimal relief in the beginning... Once things got adjusted I was good to go for a few days.. 

When my surgeon told my family how my pancreas looked(diseased, hardened, inflammed & fibrous) I was shocked to hear that come out of moms mouth to be honest. I knew I had been sick, & that I had been going on for a while, but not to this extent.. It's funny.. I wanted my pancreas to be sick because I didn't want to have gone through this surgery for nothing, but I definitely wasn't expecting this extreme of a sickness.. Thank the good Lord that organ is finally out of my body for good & isn't making me sick anymore! 

My sugars were running pretty great & stable almost right out of the OR, which worked in my favor. I started off on the insulin drip, they took me off of it pretty quickly, still having my glucose checks every 30minutes from my femoral A-line (bc my veins suck completely & they couldn't get an A-line on either arm, & I have nice bruises from that & they tried twice for the femoral before striking gold!) I stayed off the insulin drip for a good while, but had to be out back on it for a short while, while taking my sugars every hour for a while.. After the first 16/18hrs the drip was discontinued, if I have my hours right, & my sugars were still being checked every hour for a while, then went to every 4 hours.. Let me tell you, that A-line was a lifesaver for those sticks!!

I had some excruciating pain in my shoulders coming out of surgery, that I'm still battling in my left shoulder unfortunately... It has gone down immensely but the pain I was experiencing I couldn't explain. My doctors said it was referred pain from my diaphragm being irritated & agitated during surgery. The unfortunate thing about that is that there's not much you can do about it, except let it run its course.. Let the diaphragms inflammation go down & the pain will subside.. So massage & ice pack the shoulders & pray it goes away ASAP. It wasn't ASAP for me though lol & boy was that a miserable pain, along with my surgical pain.. & it's funny how my pain meds weren't helping with my shoulder pain AT ALL!!
Because of my femoral A-line placement, I was confined to the bed a little longer than I typically would have been.. Due to the fact they didn't want me moving & causing any blood clots or dislodging the A-line. Once the line was removed, my nurse got me up for my first time trip to the chair.. We even ventured out to the nurses station & back before sitting in the chair for a few hours. It felt so weird & painful walking( thank you epidural! )

I would get up daily & sit in the chair & thr following say physical therapy came to visit to help walk with me a bit more in the unit.. I had a handy dandy walker by my side for stability, which helped me so much, esp because I couldn't, & still can't!, stand up straight bc of my incision & abdominal pain.. After the second day, I was pretty much using my own body weight to stand up from the chair & using the walker as my stability clutch more so..

I'm so thankful for my many visitors I've had that came from Greenville, Columbia,  Myrtle Beach, Atlanta & here in Charleston to visit! You guys didn't have to go through that much trouble to visit in the first place & coming to spend time with me while I was recovering meant the world to me!! My wonderful friends, family, & family friends are just so special to me for thinking of me through this difficult time, much less coming by & spending time with my family and myself!!

Before going to the OR

It's been so nice being out if the hospital relaxing here at the hotel the past few days, while we wait for my follow-up appointment. It was a much wiser decision to stay closer in town, instead of heading back to Greenville straight after discharge for my peace of mind, & because of the amount of pain I have been in.. Driving wouldn't be the easiest... Better do it once instead of 3x so soon..

Eating has been the hardest on me... My appetite just completely sucks, which is common & normal with this surgery... It could take up to 6months to get my appetite back to normal.. I have no desire to eat anything, no taste for anything, nothing tastes good.. Extreme nausea & intense & extreme pain during & after I eat.. Everything is working against me.  It'll get better with time but right now it's not my thing.

I'm still in an incredible amount of pain in my back & abdominal area(& my shoulder) I know I'm only 12 days out & my surgeon isn't worried about that, it's completely normal.. But the pain is miserable & my life has revolved around this.. It would be wonderful to wake up one day without pain at all!

I had my staples removed today, which wasn't the most pleasant experience. The resident truly was compassionate and did work with me as much as he could.. I can't lay down flat, so that didn't help him, & where my incision hits, is in a funky position so it made it a bit difficult for him to get a couple of the staples. Some of the staples came out super easy.. & then others HOLY COW!! I thought my heart was going to pound through my chest with how much it hurt.. & now my incision looks so weird & ugly.. It does have some dry, scabby area that I know will come off eventually in the shower but if it doesn't "shape up" better I'm going to be so upset over this...

I think I'll be pulling tape & tape residue off my body for the next year, with how much tape & dressings I've had over me the past 2 weeks in such a small area.. I'll have some good battle wounds, my central line scar on my neck, JP tube drain, surgical incision, & my femoral A-line.. I would have had another drain site for my islet cells but they had to manually inject the cella instead if insert a catheter because my vein was *once again* too small & unable too for the procedure lol.. Can you see a consistent theme within my body.. Too small veins & arteries! Crazy right! I'm still swollen around my abdomen & legs a bit.. NOTHING compared to what it was like in the hospital & the days following discharge, but the swelling hasn't completely gone down yet... It will eventually.. 

I think I've updated with everything.. If I missed something I'm sorry...I'll remember & add it to the next post. :)  please continue your prayers for strength & courage to get me through this difficult recovery.. Although it may seem like I'm over the hump, this will be one of my greatest challenges.. God truly has blessed me so far, getting me to this point & he has been with me this entire journey.. I wouldn't have made it this far without him, no doubt!! I wouldn't have made it without your support and love either! My utmost respect, love & gratitude for all the support, encouragement and strength I've been receiving from everyone of you guys! I truly appreciate your taking the time out to send the texts, emails, phone calls, prayers etc.. I look forward to being back home in the coming days & being back in my own bed, recovering in my own house!
I can't wait to start seeing all of you guys that have expressed wanting to come visit as well.. Looking forward to our visits!
      

A couple pics from my hospital stay

A couple pics from my hospital stay

                        SO much love «3

4 days post-op .... & SOME

Wow! I'm officially saying this... 4days post-op...all I can truly say is that these last 4 days have been a rollercoaster ride of emotions, extreme pain, exhaustion, meeting I can't tell you HOW many different doctors, & god knows what else...

I'm not going to get into extreme details about my surgery at this time just because I'm still heavily medicated & when I type those blogs relating to surgery, I'd like for them to have detail & such... What I've heard on numerous occasions,that I can confirm, is that the surgery went very well, my surgeon was very pleased with how the islet extraction went & that my pancreas was very diseased when she removed it... Thank god that organ is FINALLY out of my system for good!

We've had a rough time with getting my epidural and pain pump levels to where they need to be... Ive been battling some major shoulder pain, contributed from the diaphragm being irritated during surgery so much, along with physical placement on the OR table.. Doesn't help matters::my parents were told it was like laying on concrete for 10hrs.. ouch), & of course abdominal pain.
The epidural is definitely doing it's job pain wise and will not be removed for a few days , as well as my pain pump... I'm taking some oral medications now, but towards the end of my stay everything will transition to all oral until I'm at that point of getting off them for good!! (I'll be having a party that day... Along with a party when I'm feeling like my normal self again! )

Thank you!! Thank you so very much to everyone who kept in close contact with my parents, Yiayia and Papou, along with friends & their friends!! I feel so blessed beyond words & there just aren't enough words in the dictionary for me to describe how grateful I am for each & every one of you!!! I love you all & hold a very special place in my heart!!

           Mini update ¦ September 1st:

It has been a difficult few days, but we've made lots of progress as well.. My legs & belly are extremely swollen, & thats very painful... Hopefully that'll go down the more I can start to move & be mobile :)
I'm pretty much off all of my drips except my study drug right now... Awesomeness right?! I according to the doctors I'm doing great... My femoral A-line has been removed, which means I have to prick my fingers for blood sugars now, blows a little but I can handle it... I brought my own lancet to do it myself so it's been all good... My pain pump was removed & I'm on some heavy PO meds, along with IV breakthrough, which has been used very steadily to be honest... My epidural & abdominal drain are still in but that is it.. I need to do a a couple things that have been very difficult... Eating is one of those things... I have no appetite & just having a hard time adjusting to this diabetic diet thing... Who being in the hospital where I'm being monitored by the minute..everything will happen when it's suppose to happen & i know that but recovery is h.a.r.d!!!
Thank you so much again for your continued support, encouragement, love & prayers...they're felt & loved SO much! Keep them up for me bc the difficult parts of this tasks haven't ended yet!
                       Much love always ‹3