Anyway, that sucked a whole bunch, and they did eventually throw some pantoprazole in my IV to damp the acid down, but there was apparently nothing to do about the rest but wait it out. So I did. It was bad!

Day 2 was... better, but still pretty bad. The burning had died down unless I moved, the chest thing came and went in waves instead of being constant, and the shoulder was, if anything, worse. They told me that was because of the gas they inflate the abdominal cavity with during the operation; it does some kind of weirdass diffusion thing, picks a joint or two to settle in, and basically gives you a mild case of the bends. The doctor's explanation for the chest thing was that the stomach is right below the diaphragm, and in the process of cutting out most of the former they probably outraged the latter. "It'll settle down," he said.

They kicked me out of the hospital about midday. Guess how much I felt like getting into a car! If you guessed "not a whole bunch," you are correct! But I made it home, took one of my tiny supply of Legal Narcotics™ and went to bed.

Day 3 I woke up after 12 hours of sleep and felt...

... fine.

Seriously. Oh, where there are superglued holes in me was still kind of stiff and stung a bit when I moved, but the other stuff had completely resolved. Drinking anything made it twinge a little, like an echo, and there was so little room inside me that if I tried to drink like a normal person I would immediately cough it back up, but as long as I wasn't trying to... you know... hydrate or nourish myself... I felt basically normal.

This was the state of affairs for the rest of the week and into the weekend. Yesterday (Sunday), Day 6, I noticed my fluid capacity starting to creep back up, which I assume means the swelling is going down in the ol' steam plant.

Today, Day 7, my only complaint is completely unrelated to the operation, to wit, my bad knee buckled randomly and dropped me on the living room floor at one point in the afternoon. But I didn't furiously headbutt a bookcase or anything in the process this time, so the only lingering ill effect is a slightly stiff lower back. I sort of crumpled to the floor in something approaching slow motion, so neither the front of me where the holes are nor my head were involved in any way.

So, you know. I could've done without it, especially the getting-up part, but it doesn't seem to have done any real harm. Good thing it didn't happen Wednesday!

And so, here we are. One more week of liquids only, and then I meet with someone from the surgeon's office and the program dietitian to see if I'm cleared for diet phase 4, soft foods--meaning, for example, soup with stuff in it, as opposed to the plain broths and cream soups I'm limited to now.

You have no IDEA how much I'm looking forward to cracking that can of Chunky beef-and-veg soup that's sitting on my counter.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.