Surgery plus 20 days

In spite of the size of this surgery, I was remarkably pain free. When I woke up after six hours of surgery, I was very alert. They asked how much pain I was in on a scale of 10. I told them '8'. They expressed disappointment. I suddenly went back to sleep and when I woke again I could say that the pain was more like a '3'. The problem wasn't pain.

The real issue was that I had three drains that emptied fluids from my stomach, bladder and chest cavity. They weren't painful unless some tugged at the tubes by mistake. I had to be careful about how fast I moved around. I also had six or seven IV tubes dripping various fluids in both arms. I had an IV pole standing next to my right shoulder and one next to my left shoulder. Some lines came to my left arm from the pole on the right and some came to my right arm from the pole on the left. That meant that I had lines crossing over my body. I felt tied to the bed. I couldn't sleep on my right or left side and certainly not on my stomach. I was on my back and couldn't move without two nurses and a lot of work to untangle the lines. Still, I got up the first day and every day in the hospital and walked with my two nurse entourage, two IV polls, and various drainage bags.

I couldn't eat or drink anything for six days. I wasn't hungry or thirsty. My mouth was very dry and I could swab it often with a little wet sponge on a stick. I could watch television, but I couldn't read or operate my laptop. On day six, I passed some tests and they began to pull the drainage tubes. I was worried that it would hurt and it didn't at all. Then some IV's disappeared. I was liberated!

The ordeal required more patience than pain tolerance. I've learned new levels of patience.