Heart Surgery Part 6

March 2, 2007
Day 11

I forgot to tell you an amusing ( at least Tom found it amusing, lol) story that happened the third day of being home. As I said before, Tom was waiting on me hand and foot because I was unable to take care of myself. I was on a 'schedule' for eating, and at 8 am I was more than ready for breakfast, whether I could keep it down or not. That first night, I know Tom didn't get much sleep, he was so worried about me and making sure my needs were met first. The second night he stayed out on the LR chair at least until I had fallen asleep and then he retired to our bedroom down the hall. I think I only got him up once during the night.
I awoke at 7 am. I turned on the television and flipped through the channels. Before I knew it, it was 8 am and Nicki was in the shower getting ready for work. She left at 8:30 and Tom was still sleeping. Poor man was exhausted. By 8:45 I couldn't take it any longer and yelled out to Tom ' Hon !!! I'm ready to eat now!!!' He got the biggest kick out of that. I guess you had to be there, lol. He fixed me some scrambled eggs with cheese and a half toasted bagel with jelly. I kept this down today. In fact, today would be the first day that I didn't have an upset stomach after discontinuing those pills. I'm also down a few more pounds.

Nancy came over with some more food today. What a wonderful friend she is. She brought over some ham-bar-b-ques, pasta salad. Bob is a baker for the Italian Bread Store and brought over some fresh buns and bread. I had a bar-b-que for my lunch and it was heaven. I don't even like bar-b-que, lol.

I'm walking around the house more and feel more steady on my feet. A lot of the swelling has gone down. My shoulder still aches from where the implant is and something tells me I'm just going to have to get used to it. My stitches are 'pulling' tighter and there's an area between my breasts where the scab is gone and it really doesn't look bad at all. Must be my skin coloring, it's blending in and won't be very noticeable. The lower area however still concerns me and looks raw and red. It's sore.

Deana stops by after she feeds her family dinner and helps me in the shower. I'm using one of those shower chairs because I'm a little light headed and it's best so I don't fall. I'm able to wash my face, arms and chest area but she has to help me with my back and legs. I can take care of 'personal areas' besides she would have been uncomfortable but she would have done it if I needed her to. She washes my hair and it's the first time it's been washed since I went into the hospital. ( the first week there, Derek, the male nurse 'washed' my hair by bundling it up into what looked like a terry cloth shower cap. He wet it, slipped it on over my hair, tucked in all the loose pieces and let it sit about 30 min. or so. I guess it had some type of shampoo in it - but they don't wash that out. Gross. I asked Diane to pull it up into a high ponytail and she fastened it so it looked like a bun.) I wore it that way the remainder of my stay and until this first shower at home by Deana). When she took my hair down, it was just awful, looked like a rat's nest and was so horrible I was tempted to have my son-in-law shave my head. Mrs. Hyde was all for it, she says I take too long pampering my hair anyway and she likes the idea of wash 'n go. Deana nixed the shave though and washed my hair a couple times. It once again felt soft and silky. I had her pull it atop my head again though, just easier to deal with right now.

I told my family that I felt like I had a new lease on life, because I really didn't think I would be here now. I want to lose all this extra padding, and I want a make-over. ha ha dream on girl. In my mind I see myself looking 10 years younger and 50 pounds lighter. I like the image I see, but it's not reality. I will settle for looking 5 years younger but I still want that 50 pounds gone.

I'm getting anxious to get back into my crafting but I know I'm not up to it yet. I checked my emails this afternoon and see that one of my bunnies from my shoppe sold and I was very excited. Thank you Kathy!!!!

For the remainder of the weekend, I'm enjoying my visit with my sister Diane and Deana brings the babies over to see me. I'm so happy to see them. It gets noisy, even hectic and I sit there and just smile and feel my heart fill with joy and love. Tom looks nervous. I think he's afraid that it's all too much for me but it isn't. I tell him to relax that I'm enjoying every single moment. I might not be here........but I am and this is what my life is all about, my family.

Tom is getting lots of phone calls from friends and co-workers that are asking how I'm doing. Once again I'm just overwhelmed by it all. People from his route have sent me cards and ask about me. He gets these messages from the guys who are doing his route while he's on FMLA.

Nothing much changes in the next few days. Appetite is returning but I still eat light.

Thursday March 8, 2007

This afternoon is my appt. with Dr. Hayborn to have him check my stitches. I took a nice long shower, washed my hair and even applied make-up and blow dried and curled my hair. That was too much like work. I can't believe I did that every single day.
Dr. Hayborn remarked that I looked very well, he was happy to see that I'd lost all the fluid weight from the surgery and said my coloring was very good. By this time, I was down 23 pounds.
Dr. Hayborn looked at my stitches and says they are not infected. He said 'big breasted women' tend to take longer to heal in this area. I looked at Tom and couldn't supress a huge grin, as I'd never thought of myself as 'big breasted', heck I only wear a B cup!!! But it was kinda nice to hear, LOL.

Afterwards Tom took me to Peppi's for lunch. It was really our dinner because by now it was 3 pm. We ordered the Italian special with extra cherry red peppers. Tom said if I couldn't eat the whole thing, we'd just take it home and I could have the other half the next day for lunch. Ha!!! I sure fooled him! I ate one half and Mrs. Hyde ate the other!!!

This was my very first 'outing' since coming home from the hospital. Also the first time I had dressed in something other than a nightgown and robe. Felt good for awhile but I couldn't wait to get the bra off and get back into my robe. The walk from the parking lot to Dr. Hayborn's office was the longest jaunt I'd had as well, and while it felt good, I was tired when we got home.

When we pulled up in front of the house, there was what appeared to be a shopping bag on the front porch. Tom says 'more food!!' lol - but it was left by the local florist. A beautiful floral basket bouquet from our friends Neil and Diane from New York.
The basket is placed on the sofa table in the LR where I can enjoy it from my spot on the sofa.

Nicki is watching the babies this evening at our house while Deana and John have their taxes done. Tonight is the first time I hold Ayden Grace since before going into the hospital. I'm not allowed to pick her up yet, but Nicki hands her to me. Feels wonderful to hold her and smell that baby smell. Hard to believe she is nearly 3 months old now.

Jonah and Jordyn are so good. They color pictures for me and we watch the movie Curious George. Jordyn sits beside me and we snuggle. Now that I look more like myself and don't have tubes coming out of nearly every oriface, Jonah hugs me and kisses my cheek. He's more into blowing kisses and catching them, so we do that for awhile. He falls asleep before the movie ends.

It's been a pretty wonderful day.





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