Day 2- postop

I woke up today, finally feeling coherent- well slightly. I found that I had drains, tape and cords attached to various parts of my body.

Some of my 'attachments' included

Drains: I had a drain coming from each side of my stomach. At the end of the drain was a container to collect blood. These drains stop blood and fluid accumulating inside and causing swelling. The nurses would look at the containers every day, measuring the amount of blood that had drained into them.

Oxygen tube in nose: I don't know what the technical name for this was but i had some little tubes in each nostril. After abdominal surgery people don't breathe fully. The tubes blew extra oxygen into my nose.

Drip: the drip supplied me with fluids and also morphine. The fluids are to avoid dehydration and the morphine was for pain releif.

Bandage: My whole abdomen was wrapped in a huge elasticised bandaged. To be honest i don't really know the reason for this. I think it provides support and stops swelling. I will need to wear this bandage for about a month.

Catheter: a catheter is used so that i didn't have to get up to the bathroom to urinate. After going through a big procedure the last thing you want to do is get up to do a wee!

Pressure stockings: I had tight stockings on my legs. These are used for almost anyone who is in hospital to reduce the risk of blood clots.

By the end of the day the nurses strongly encouraged (read that as made me) get out of bed and sit on a chair to have my dinner. They also 'encouraged' me to walk to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I thought this was a bit soon. I felt a bit annoyed by the nurse who told me to straighten up and walk taller- especially when it was my first time getting up and the doctor had told me time and time again that i would need to walk 'hunched' over for a while.

Be prepared that the nurses will 'push you' to make the next step in your recovery. I heard one nurse say time and time again that we were making progress. I felt like yelling at her that it had been less than 24hrs since i got out of theatre- i didn't care about progress yet.

My top tip: Pretend that you feel like total crap and then the nurse will be happy to let you stay in bed for a little bit longer.