WOW what an experience...

I had a TVH on June 28th. From all my researching and question asking I thought I would be pretty prepared for what would happen next. I was scheduled to be at the hospital at 8:45 am. We waited in the waiting room for an hour and 15 minutes before being taken to the pre-op holding. My surgery was scheduled for 10:50 am. I didn't actually get taken into surgery till 11:30. After surgery I don't remember much about the recovery room except for my nose kept itching. Then in my room I had severe back pain and we couldn't get it under control. The nurses said that it was because when I was sleeping I wasn't able to push the morphine button so then when I would wake up the pain would be worse. Even though I had a cathater I felt like I had to pee and of course couldn't go. The next morning they removed the cathater and I asked for oral pain meds. They gave me ibuprofen and darvasat as those are the only things that I am able to handle without getting extremely ill. I was able to eat solid foods right off, which surprised me. That evening the doctor said that he would probably let me go home the next morning if I walked more. Walking was not easy because I was real spacey and could not keep my balance and my legs would buckle. That night I started vomiting uncontrollably which lasted all night. Next day I am on a clear liquid diet and no ibuprofen and little pain meds. Besides the lower back pain and cramps the pain is managable. I was finally able to go home the following morning which was Saturday. Today is Tuesday. I am not in a lot of pain just little twinges here and there. I have not had a bowel movement yet but passing gas. I am still feeling real loopy and unstable on my feet. After I get up and walk around the house I get real tired and lay back down for a time. Is this normal? I want to be up and around a little more. Not necessarily doing a lot but just more "with it" and I am not. This site is awesome. Thanks for all your support.

Wow! You did have a rough time at the hospital! First, the time you had solid foods wasn't good as far as going to the bathroom. Constipation is very normal for the first couple weeks. We usually take stool softeners. They don't always work soon enough. Also, drink lots of water, and walk the little bit that you can (10 feet and back if that's all you can do - don't push it). If these things don't work, there's also manual evacuation. It sounds gross, but you'll be glad you did it if you get to the point where you need to. How you do this is, when your bowels are full, but you just can't push it out (and remember that it says on here not to push too hard), clip a fingernail, use a glove if you have one, put vaseline on, and reach in and help it out. It doesn't hurt your body, it just helps you through until your bowels can function completely.

Getting exhausted very quickly is also normal. Your body just went through something very traumatic and is also trying to heal. In the beginning, I would walk to the kitchen (two rooms away) and be holding onto furniture to get back to the bedroom. One thing I've noticed, we seem to feel better than we actually are. You'll also find that out the hard way if you do too much. For some reason, our bodies are behind and don't let us know until after-the-fact.

There's a checkpoints Tab at the top of the page that gives general guidelines for what you can/cannot do during the stages of recovery. At this time, you should be staying in bed and resting/sleeping as much as possible. Your body heals best when it's sleeping, so please don't try to force yourself to stay awake.

I also have a sensativity to anesthesia and pain meds. I counldn't even tolorate darvoset. I had outpatient surgery and was released 5 hours after sugery. I vomited for 10 hours. They gave me finagrin saposatory and Zofrin for the nausia. Nothing would help until I got the anesthesia out of my system.

I felt delerious until the anesthesia was out of my system. I would guess the pain meds are what are making you loopy and unstable.
I was abe to manage my pain on Advil and prayer.

I think once you are able to tolorate your pain on Advil, your headswims and nausia will be gone.

Take Care.

forgiven 1 It all sounds pretty normal. Once you start feeling better you will want to do things around the house to keep busy. DON'T!!

You will know when you've done too much as oimow said. You may also experience "brain fog", it drives us nearly nuts but it does get better in time. As does all the symptoms we experience. Keep checking in as ask questions when you don't find someone else is wondering the same as you. We are here for you, hang in there, it's apparentlly like this for all majoy surgeries, mainly it's the location of work done that is different. I'm thinking that some reactions are unique to us hys's, though.

We are here anytime of day or night, just check in.