10.26.23

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For the continued prayers.

My surgery went well! I was just about to go up to my room when one of the nurses said she didn’t like the look of one of my flaps. The flap is a small football shaped section of skin from my abdomen. It’s how they monitor what is going on on the inside. Part of that was starting to turn purple. Which meant it wasn’t getting proper blood flow. They monitor the flaps every hour for like the first 12 hours. Monitoring them includes: looking at them, making sure they are the right color, pushing on them to make sure they are soft, warm, and to time the capillary refill, and then they use a doppler to listen for a heart beat. After the first surgery they couldn’t find a heart beat on my left side but they could hear the whooshing noise of the blood flow. But because the skin was turning purple they went ahead and called the doctor on call and my doctor. They sent them both pictures of the skin and they both said they were coming in. It was decided that I would have to go back for a second surgery. (I guess thats kinda my thing 🤣) They weren’t sure if it was a blood vessel kinked or if there was a blood clot and they wouldn’t know until they went in. They found a blood clot. He said it was a long stringy clot. So they got that all taken care of and now the flaps look good and you can hear a pulse on both sides. A big answer to prayer! They normally don’t give you blood thinners right after surgery. The blood vessels on the left side did not match up in size so I think that contributed to it a little and they said because I am young my body is wanting to heal itself. It’s doing what its supposed to do- we just don’t want it to do that this time.

A fun little tidbit for y’all- I remember them rolling me back to the OR. They were getting everything ready for the 2nd surgery. They had to get me to the operating table so the nurse was like: “We need to roll you, and it’s not going to feel good sorry.” Or something like that. They rolled me up just enough to slide a foam pad and the rollers part way under me, they rolled me onto the rollers and then on to the operating table. It did not feel good just for the record. I remember seeing the bright lights above me then I was out! Next thing I knew I was in the recovery room again. And every thing was looking like it should.

Pain wise I’m doing ok. I’m sore, but thats expected given the circumstances 😉 At the moment Im just taking the maintenance medications and not asking for more pain meds. I would prefer to feel a little pain as I push my body than not feel anything and over do it. 🙂 Plus the pain meds they would give me would knock me out. I really don’t want to do that unless I have to! I’ve moved from my bed to my chair. And walked the hallway twice. She said I did better than they thought I would after my first walk. I have some light headedness/dizziness. I’m pretty sure it’s from all the anesthesia. So hopefully that will go away sooner than later. When I stand up I feel like I have a 10 pound weight wrapped around my waste, it’s crazy! Oh and my catheter is out!! Wahoo! All in all I’m doing great! 💗🙂