WARNING this article contains some photos that may be a trigger and some readers may find confronting.

One day post op and feeling better than expected and looking better than I did on the night of the surgery.

Despite spending the night in ICU which is always fun, tubes everywhere, lots of machines buzzing and beeping and observations every hour and nurses talking loudly I managed about an hours sleep…

The surgery went well, unbelievably there was no active Endometriosis, which shocked my doctor and I. My amazing Gynecologist was very thorough and told me in great detail how they checked every organ, they took out my bowel and checked every inch of it, which explains why I feel like a Christmas turkey that has been stuffed and put back to together.

What was causing all the pain? Well turns out lots of adhesions and lots of hernias and holes in the abdominal wall. The Collorectal surgeon described my abdominal wall as looking like Swiss cheese, so many holes everywhere. At least this explains the pain, constant nausea and bloating. The repair was quite complex with a lot of mesh being used to repair the damage.

So for now at least I have a drain in to help remove any excess internal bleeding, a catheter and two ‘pain busters’ which are catheters stitched into the abdomen to release a local anesthetic constantly. These help alleviate the pain and stay in for 3-4 days along with a PCA which is a push button drip of heavy duty pain killers that is administered by the patient.

Honestly, at this point I am on enough pain relief to knock out an elephant and still the pain is horrendous. But the first day or two is the worst, if I can get through this then it only gets easier from here.

So now the long journey or recovery begins, after the incision going from the sternum to the pubic line and all my core muscles being cut into, it’s going to be a long road to recovery but hopefully the first step towards a better me.

Whoa Mumma xx