Up The Farway Tree

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The operation went well and I am now back at my mum and dads for a few days rest and recuperation.

I had the surgery on Friday morning and because I am diabetic I was first on the list, which was even better. I also managed to get my own room by emphasising the need for post transplant patients to avoid cross infection. This is true but I never get my own room in Freemans unless they are treating for rejection ;-) If you don't ask, you don't get!

They managed to do keyhole surgery (thank goodness!) and also repair the peg tube site. The peg tube site is basically a hole going from the skin through to the stomach. It should have closed up by itself but because I had it so long it had formed a permanent fistula (hole) which kept leaking. I though they would just pop some stitches in but they actually have to cut out the fistula so he said this would be sorer than the rest of the operation! It was quite sore I must admit but they set up a PCA (basically a morphine pump where I get to press the button and release a small dose when needed) so meant I could control the pain ok. The wounds themselves were not that sore but I had quite a lot of chest pain - they said this was probably because there were some stitches in my diaphragm. It just freaked me out a bit having chest pain again! I was also quite breathless when I woke after then anaesthetic and it was like having flash backs from waking up after my transplant, which was rather unsettling. The anaesthetist was fantastic though and very reassuring. He gave me some nebulised drugs and high flow oxygen for the first 24 hours and I was fine :-) Initially they were going to take me to HDU because I was a post transplant patient but since I was doing so well they just kept me in recovery for longer than normal then sent me back to the ward. It was actually very strange waking up from an operation without chest problems - all my prior surgeries (apart from transplant) have ended up with me getting a bad chest infection and being quite unwell afterwards. But this time my chest was fine :-) I must admit it is getting a bit crackly now because I can't cough properly with the pain so I have to do some deep breathing and huffing to keep things moving. It's weird even having to do that much!

I was pretty much out of it on Friday but did manage to start taking some fluids. I had a glucose/insulin drip in for my diabetes though so at least I didn't have to worry about controlling my sugars. However the venflon packed in that night and there was a bit fuss about getting another one in - after 10 attempts by two different doctors, they gave up! This was between 1-2am so I was not overly amused ;-) The nurses were then paranoid my sugars were going to go low and kept checking them every hour overnight. Needless to say they were fine!

They kept the PCA going on Saturday because of the chest pain and also sent a physio to see me. Andrew also came down at the weekend, which was great but had to head back on Sunday for work.

I tried to eat something on Saturday but was finding it really hard to swallow - it was just soup, but when it went down I was getting this pain as if something had got stuck and then the pain extended over my whole chest - not pleasant. So I gave up trying to eat. This continued over Sunday and Monday so they sent me for a barium swallow to make sure everything was ok with the wrap (the operation involves wrapping a small part of the stomach around the bottom of gullet to make the sphincter tighter and stop acid going up). Fortunately the wrap was in the right place and the liquid could be seen going into the stomach. He said it did look too tight however but that this was common a few days post op and was likely due to swelling. The swelling will gradually go down over the next 4-6 weeks but I have to stay on a sloppy diet for the next 6 weeks.. Yuk! I will see them again for review in 4 weeks when I am back for transplant clinic anyway. I did manage to eat some porridge this morning so hopefully things will start to improve now. I am finding it hard to swallow my tablets as well but that should ease off soon.

Pain wise things are not too bad and I am just resting up and trying not to move around too much. He said it will take a couple of weeks to be comfortable again but that's not too long. It's a bit hard to sleep at the moment as I can only lie on my back however that new tablet I started for sinus pain is a bit sedative so seems to be helping. Good timing!

Seb was pleased to see me and I got some little tail wags and he has been following me around since. However he is now in the huff with me because he can't understand why I won't let him jump on my knee! So he away into his basket to sulk.

So all in all, everything seems to have gone well and now it's just a case of some recovery time and hoping I can start to eat a bit more over the coming weeks. It won't be long until I am back to running around like a mad woman again :-)