surgery

I went under the knife a few days ago.

An unfortunate consequence of my pregnancy was a pretty severe diastasis.  A diastasis is an abdominal wall separation, which most women have after a pregnancy.  For the majority of them, the separation is minor (less than a centimeter) and corrects itself after a few months of time.  I had one after my pregnancy with Zev, and it became worse after my pregnancy with the girls.  Second pregnancy + twin pregnancy + small body + already present diastasis = severe diastasis.  I had a four-five centimeter hole down the length of my abdomen, and no amount of time was ever going to fix it.  Due to the lack of muscle support, I also appeared about four months pregnant all the time, which for someone who is already pretty small, was a bit overwhelming to me.  Physically, it was quite uncomfortable:  I could not have Zev sit on my lap without feeling pain because there was little cushion between him and my internal organs.  I also ended up with an umbilical hernia due to the separation, which was quite uncomfortable and needed to be fixed.

So for all those reasons I decided I needed to get it repaired.  Unfortunately, insurance does not cover such a procedure for women because it isn't technically a health problem:  I could live with it forever.  However, to [b]me[/b] it was medically necessary.  I was miserable being in that state and it was well worth the $$ to both me and Jason to have it fixed.  Given the long recovery time, we waited until now to get it done so I could finish up some projects at work.

The surgery was a few days ago.   To be a bit graphic and summarize, the surgeon basically had to separate the skin away from my body and sew the muscles back together.  It took about 2 hours, plus time to recover from the general anesthesia.  I went home with a drainage tube, which helps keep the swelling down.  I'll have that removed in a few days.

It is a pretty brutal surgery and I feel really beaten up now.  I've spent most of the last few days sleeping.  I was on narcotics for awhile, but they have a constipating effect, so I've decided to lay off of those the best I can.  I can't take ibuprofen due to my stomach issues, so I've been relying on Tylenol for pain.  My appetite is completely gone, but I'm forcing the fluids in so I do not get dehydrated.  Believe it or not, I am still pumping, although my supply was awful those first two days.  My acid reflux is also terrible, which I'm sure is an effect of the stress of the surgery.  I'm also experiencing hot flashes (as Jason said to me this morning:  what's up with the menopause?) which is probably my metabolism going into overdrive to try to heal.

Basically I'm pretty miserable.  And I can't do much with the kiddos:  this is a six week recovery and I am not allowed to pick anything up that is more than five pounds for six weeks.  Which includes my children.  This is really upsetting to me....it hurts to see them cry for me and not be able to pick them up and comfort them.

It hurts a lot.

When the pain gets better, Jason said he can place them on my lap, which will be nice.  But even that is probably at least a week away.

I'm out of work for at least a week.  My surgeon has written me out for three weeks, and we'll see how I feel.  I told my boss I would let him know by the end of next week how I was doing.  I hope to feel at least a [i]little[/i] better by then.  At least have my appetite back and not be so exhausted...

I'm glad I did it.  I just hope its worth it in the end.  Because this is pretty miserable.