Another milestone on this journey has now been reached as my tumor was removed last Tuesday. The surgery took a little longer than they'd hoped due to adhesions in some areas; the areas around the the blood vesels were particularly tricky as it began to break apart and it had reached the sciatic nerve too which prolonged things a little. Certainly my main question at my post op appt tomorrow is whether they actually mangaged to remove it all as I wasn't confident given their description and was too 'whoozy' imediately after the surgery to ask then.
Despite being booked in for up to 3 nights, I fortunately only needed to stay one in the end which has been nicer for my family as it's a good 40 min drive to the hospital (each way) and it meant I got more sleep at night! The pain's not too bad as long as I take my various meds on time - separating them out to ensure I have a good coverage during my waking hours - paracetemol, diclofenic, tramadol. And as long as I don't do anything more than 'pottering' during the day then it doesn't get too sore, which is helped by the fact that any longer a couple of minutes on my feet causes me to feel dizzy and nauseous still - I think this is question number 2 for tomorrow!
It's nice to see the sun outside again but my 'classy' T.E.D.s make me feel particularly hot and sweaty and given that I developed a DVT last time I had orthopaedic surgery I daren't risk going against medical advice and stop wearing them too soon - especially as I have my daily dose of Clexane to remind me of why.
Trying to avoid sleeping during the day, so that I continue to sleep well at night but around 4pm I reach a stage where my body absolutely refuses to stay awake whatever I try and fall into a really deep sleep. I think today I'll smply go with the flow but set my alarm so that I don't sleep later than 5pm. I'm trying to keep my brain active (and positive) by keeping myself busy with a variety of things like reading, writing, puzzles, TV but find I don't have the attention span for doing anything for too long!
Oh well, I know all I need is time to let my body recover from the anaesthetic and the surgery itself, but I'm a very inpatient patient!
Other questions for tomorrow:
