1 missing Gall Bladder

Just a quick post to say that my gall bladder surgery went really well. I was at the hospital at 8:15 am and back home by 2:00. My abdomen is a little sore, but nothing that some Tylenol #3's can't fix. The Doctor thought that because of the fact that I'm already dizzy and nauseous that I'd be a lot worse after this surgery. Turns out I'm not. Other then my sore tummy and the fact I can't lift I actually don't feel any different then yesterday. Crazy thing, because the doc was expecting me to feel so bad he prescribed me some heavy duty anti nausea medication. It's actually what they give to people who are going through chemo. Jeff filled the prescription and our portion (after our drug plan) was $54. The total cost of the drug was $275!!! I had asked Jeff to still fill the prescription since this drug isn't supposed to make me as sleepy as Gravol. I thought it'd be nice to have for days when I get really dizzy. Had I known the cost, I'm not so sure I would have. Crazy!

So happy to have this surgery behind me. Hope it will be a long time before I have one again. Very thankful for answered prayers.

I was thinking today about my thought of taking surgery up as a hobby and realized that I actually think I may have already without realizing. I counted how many times I "went under the knife" and I've actually had 8 surgeries so far in just the past 14 years. I first had 2 knee surgeries when I was in my mid 20's. Then I had laser eye surgery. After that was a c-section. Then I had an exploratory surgery after Keira was born (turns out Septic shock was my problem but that's a story in itself). Then I had another c-section. Then finally with my brain surgery and now my gallbladder that makes 8. Boy, I really do need to find an easier way to get attention!

Time for another surgery

So 2 more "sleeps" until I go for my next surgery. I've been telling people that I'm open to suggestions for my next surgery as I'm thinking of taking this up as a hobby. I told Jeff that I still have my tonsils as well as my appendix, so those are still options. Just kidding of course. It's pretty crazy to have another surgery so soon, but it should be a pretty easy one compared to my last. I'm very grateful to my mother-in-law that she is coming out to help with recovery, especially since Jeff is going to be gone. Also a big "thank-you" to our neighbour Barbara, as well as my dear friend Heather for watching our girls while I'm having the surgery. I am so blessed to have such great friends & family in my life.

As for how my recovery has been going, there isn't a lot to report. Thing are pretty much the same. The Gravol is still helping for the nausea. Although I was hoping that taking the Gravol the night before would get rid of my sleepiness, but I have to say that by 10:30AM I'm pretty ready for a nap. Thankfully our 3 little girls still nap, so that Mama can get her nap in as well. I guess fatigue is all part of the recovery and it'll just take time like everything else. As for the dizziness, I don't notice any huge improvements from week to week. I was actually thinking the other day (after I had just walked up our stairs) that if I had felt this dizzy at any other time I'd be quite freaked out as the world really spins after I move around any amount. I have to say that I feel the best when I'm sitting still without moving. But that wouldn't help my recovery as it wouldn't give my brain opportunity to adjust. So having said that I'll continue to "suck it up" and keep moving and in time I will be back to "normal"...what ever that is :-).

Found a solution

Just a very short post to say that I found a solution to the nausea vs. sleepy problem. When I saw my family doctor last I had told her that I'm looking for a solution for my nausea without making me sleepy (like Gravol does). She said that she thought there might be non-drowsy Gravol. When I talked to the local pharmacist he said there isn't, but there is 12 hour Gravol. He said that since my nausea is always worse in the morning to take it before I go to bed at night and then hopefully the effects (not the sleepy part) are still working in my system in the morning. It totally works. The first time I tried it was Friday night and all Saturday morning I was dizzy but didn't feel I needed to throw-up, that was until around lunch time. Sunday I also felt fine. Then this morning I was moving around a lot and was actually surprised just how dizzy I was but didn't have any nausea at all. I'm thinking that this solution is good because I know when I feel dizzy it means my brain is working at adjusting and without the nausea I can get quite a bit dizzier with out having to sit down because I feel gross. Hopefully this can speed up my recovery as it seems to be going quite slowly. Having said that I have to remember the Dr. Chen did say average recovery is 6 months (and it's only 7 weeks today). I've already had a few time when I thought that I'd be different just to find out I'm not :-(. I know I still can't push it too far as I really don't want a setback. I don't mind the feeling of dizzy, it's just the upset stomach that I was finding hard to handle and it seems that I might have a solution for that.

It's a good time to have a solution too as we now have our whole family back together again. It's so nice, although quite a bit busier too, so to feel a little better is such a bonus. I'll post some pictures of our little ones a little later. In the meantime I think having all 3 girls home was absolutely the best Mother's Day Gift ever. Thanks to my in-laws for taking such good care of our little dolly as well as for driving her out here on Saturday!

Pictures of the Doctors

For interest sake I thought I'd post the pictures of my doctors. I had actually wanted to take my picture with Dr. Chen on my last appointment, but forgot our camera. These pictures are pirated from the Sunnybrook website.

Dr. Chen

Dr. Pirouzmand (although a very bad picture of him, he looks much better in person)

To clarify, Dr. Chen is the ENT surgeon and Dr. Pirouzmand is the Neurosurgeon, they did my surgery together. I think surgeons are very bizarre (in a good way) people as they make such a huge difference in your life, yet they will always remain basic strangers to you. I find that a very strange concept.

7 weeks post-op.

I figure it's high time for a post again as I have been getting a lot of e-mails asking how I'm doing. There hasn't been a lot to report of late. I'm definitely progressing in the right direction, although slowly. Since my last update we now have our little Sidney home and our Danica will be home on the weekend. It's just so awesome to be at this point and having our family back together.

In great news for our family, Jeff has just been hired by WestJet. This means he only has 1 month left in the military. We're pretty jazzed about this as it means he'll be around more with our family. He will take a wage cut for the short term, but it's totally worth it to have our Daddy around more. He has missed out on so much family time, that I'm really looking forward to knowing in advance what our family schedule is going to be and actually being able to make plans a month in advance (and not having those plans change at the last minute).

As for myself I still am tired, dizzy and experiencing nausea. It's always worse in the morning, but I'm happy to report that in the afternoons (after an afternoon nap) I feel pretty good. I am finding that the more I do, the more challenging I'm finding being deaf in 1 ear. I'm finding that I really do miss a lot when we are in a social setting. I took some advice from a long lost friend of mine and I just tell people that I'm deaf in 1 ear and I'm having a hard time hearing them (thanks Yvonne). It really does help as most people have no problem speaking up and making sure they speak into my hearing ear. The plus side of my single side deafness is that normally I'm a really light sleeper and everything wakes me up, now I find I can sleep through a lot and as result I'm getting some of the best sleep of my life.

I have to say that even with all the challenges of recovery, when I think back to the headaches and how awful I felt pre-op, I'm just so super grateful in how I feel right now. Every once in a while when I lay down at night I think of how I used to have to try to make myself comfortable on the stack of pillow, it just makes me SO happy I can lay down flat now. Just even the thought of how I had to keep my head perfectly straight or face the consequences of a brutal head, makes me so grateful. The amazing thing to me is that I've only had about 3-4 tension headaches since I was home. To think I used to have the brutal pressure headaches 2-3x's/day as well as a migraine every 3 +/- days and suffered with that for over a year. I can very confidently say that even if I was given the option to have my hearing back, I wouldn't in a million years go back to how I felt then. I have to say that in term of what I can accomplish, I'm pretty much on par now post-op as what I was pre-op. I just am much more happy with the dizziness and nausea over the headaches and terrible feeling I had before. There was almost no relief before, where as now there is Gravol and sleep!

As for my Gall bladder, I'm going to have that surgery on May 18th. I'm going to be pretty happy to have that behind me too. It's only day surgery and the Doctor said recovery for that will take about a week. I'm counting on a little longer since I'm still recovering from my last surgery. Either way, it'll be nice to have that over and done with.

Thanks to everyone again for you thoughts and prayers.

One more quick thing, I'm starting to get feeling back in the tip of my tongue. I'm thinking that this has got to be a good sign for the rest of my tongue, face as well as my eye, as it's the same nerve that takes care of all those things. I'm thinking that the feeling back in the tip of my tongue means that it is repairing itself. I know Dr. Chen had said that it would only take time to get better, but I've been preparing myself for the fact it might not. It would be so nice to not have numbness in my face and an even bigger bonus to have my eye produce tears again. Time will tell if that will happen, but I think this is a positive sign.