Journey Continues

24 Jun Journey Continues

Met with the surgeon for a follow-up appointment on Monday morning. He says everything looks good as far as surgery recovery is concerned.

Over the weekend, even after being home a few days and one week past surgery, I was feeling pretty exhausted. I realized my energy level BEFORE the surgery was already pretty low (maybe a 4 at best, on a 0-10 scale). I felt like the surgery pretty much decimated whatever remaining energy I had left.

Mentioning that to the surgeon on Monday, and the GI Doctor yesterday, they both reminded me this was a complicated gall bladder removel particularly because of the infection, and that recovery was probably going to be a bit longer than I expect.

So, I’ve been wading through that the last few days, working when I can, and getting incrementally stronger each day. I’m not where I was before surgery yet, but it’s good to at least sense I’m on my way and not just stagnating.

Since being home, I have continued losing a little more weight and am now down 66 pounds total since this all started in January. I’ve been trying to eat a little more solid foods since coming home from the hospital. However, the nausea persists at this point.

The doctors have also mentioned that even though we’re almost 2 weeks post-surgery, we really have to wait another week before making any determinations of whether or not the gall bladder was/is the bottom line issue of the last several months.

Yesterday, when I saw the GI doc, he gave me yet another med to try for nausea. This one is called Phenergan. We’ll see if it makes any difference.

On Tuesday, I’ll see my regular doc for follow-up with him on all this. I was also finally able to get an appointment with a GI motility specialist at Cedars-Sinai. It doesn’t happen until July 27, but at least it’s a step. It’s my sincere hope that I won’t even need that appointment. That the nausea would just go away and I can start eating again. We will see.

On a really UP note, may parents came into town from Texas just yesterday for a 7 week visit! We’re looking very much forward to some good times with them over the next few weeks!