First Post-Op Week...

Quote for the Day:

"I was going to have cosmetic surgery until I noticed

 that the doctor's office was full of portraits by Picasso."

~Rita Rudner

Trinity stayed on here for a week after our vacation so she could help me out post-op.  With her here, that meant that Alex and Andrew were here, too!!  So here's some pictures from that week.

Cuddling with Alex...

Cuddling with Andrew...

Andrew got ahold of Grandpa's glasses...

We took the kids to the local park...(This park was built by community members and Andy actually helped build it!!!)

That concludes the cutesy part of the presentation.

Now...I'm going to warn you...the next pictures are not for the faint-of-heart.  But this is what my arm looked like on post-op day 6...

It's looking a little better now, but it's going to take a while for all the bruising to resolve.  :(   The incision is sore when touched or if I forget and rest it on something.  As for the numbness...I've not noticed any improvement in the numbness but at least the numbness doesn't get worse when I bend my elbow now.  I guess that is some consolation.  :(   And I don't get the pain in my wrist anymore from bending my elbow that I used to get.  

I just want the numbness to go away more than anyone could ever know who hasn't actually experienced this.  

Loretta

Ooooops...

After I published the last blog post I realized that I had title it "Vacation and Surgery Update" and then proceeded to not give a surgery update!  My bad...

We arrived home from our vacation on Wednesday evening and then on Friday I had a cubital tunnel release surgery on my right elbow.  

The surgery went well, but I guess it was a lot worse once the surgeon got in there than he had thought it was going to be.  I had the surgery at the hospital and surgical department that I work at, so I was amongst friends and co-workers the entire time.  :)

I awoke from anesthesia with severe pain and nausea.  My nurses took care of that and by the time I left recovery room, I was pain-free.  I had another episode of nausea in Outpatient Surgery when they started giving me juice and crackers, but once again, they treated that right away.   We finally left the hospital about 3 PM and arrived home soon thereafter.  

I have been blessed in that, unless I bumped or touched my right arm/elbow area or tried to bend it too much, I've had no pain since I left the hospital!!  I actually had MORE pain when I had my carpal tunnel surgeries than I have had with this one, and this one is a more invasive/complicated surgery!!

My daughter-in-law, Trinity, and the two boys stayed on after the vacation and she has been a great help to me during the last several days.  She has cooked and taken care of things for me and has even been pulled into the role of nurse when I needed help changing dressings, etc.  Of course, I also have to say that Andy, as always, has been a big help, too!

As soon as the first post-op day, I was getting very bored because I wasn't able to do anything due to my arm being bandaged.  I have spent most of my days snuggling my grandchildren and helping to feed and rock the baby, Alex!  

(It looks like my hair is standing up in these pictures, but that is actually fringe from the throw covering the rocking chair!  LOL)

As of now, the ACE bandage is off and the incision is only covered by a gauze dressing.  My arm is very purple and looks like hamburger meat!  LOL  I still have a lot of the numbness in my right hand, but I think some of the feeling is ever-so-slowly starting to return to my right ring finger.  The throbbing pain in my wrist and forearm are gone!!  Because my issues were caused by nerve damage and nerves take a LONG time to heal, it may be up to a year before we know for sure how much nerve recovery I will end up having.

But for now, I'm healing well from surgery and will drive myself to an appointment tomorrow for the first time since surgery.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers during this time!  They have truly been appreciated!

Loretta