Yet Another Surgery

As you may have guessed from the title, I had yet another surgery. This past October, I had another hernia repair. To recap what led up to this surgery, here's a quick time line of events. Surgery as a baby led to scar tissue causing a bowel obstruction in 2005 requiring surgery. That surgery created more scar tissue that led to another bowel obstruction in March 2014 requiring surgery. That surgery caused a hernia that was repaired in August 2014. That hernia repair failed leading to this hernia repair in October 2015. 

Needless to say, I'm done having surgery for a loooong time. This time they used a plastic mesh to do the repair. I asked them to do that last time, but the surgeon was insistent on not using plastic and I know him and trust him. I work with him on a regular basis. After it failed he admitted that he severely underestimated how much and hard I cough with having CF. A point I tried to iterate before the hernia repair in August 2014. I need a strong incision not just because of all the intense coughing I do on a daily basis, but because I need to be able to exercise without the risk of causing another hernia. There's always a risk, but the risk is significantly smaller with plastic mesh. So I had surgery. 

This time the recovery went A WHOLE lot smoother. The incision was the same, only slightly smaller than before by an inch or so, from just below my sternum to right above my pubic bone. The amount of intervention required was the same with the addition of plastic mesh and a few more sutures. The one variable that changed: I got an epidural. Epidurals scare me. Monica has gotten two and was fine. I've taken care of hundreds of patients with epidurals all who were fine. BUT, I've seen what happens when they go bad first hand and it's not pretty. It's scary. I did not get one with the first three surgeries. This time I had a great anesthesiologist who convinced me to do it. One big kicker was that he gave me versed (a sedative with an amnesia effect) before doing the epidural. I don't remember a thing, lol. I think it truly made a HUGE difference in my recovery. 

With the prior surgeries I was up walking the day of or after surgery but with lots of pain. Lots. Doubled over and walking very stiff, and unable to take deep breaths which hugely affected my ability to cough up mucus and oxygen requirements. In fact in August 2014 I almost got sent home on oxygen but weasled my way out of it. Perks of being an RT. :) In fact I had probably the scariest moment of my life after my August surgery. Directly related to my inability to take deep breaths and needing to be on oxygen. That's for a different time though. This most recent surgery though I was up walking the day of surgery with virtually no pain. I could cough like I normally do and get mucus up. It hurt but nowhere near like it did the other times. My hospital stay was therefore shortened and my total recovery time was shortened by a couple weeks. It took about 8-10 weeks to really feel back to myself. This time I felt great after 6. The only thing I can pinpoint it to is that epidural. I'm a believer now! :)

On a side note, I discovered that I'm very allergic to mastisol. A liquid adhesive used to adhere steri-strips. I broke out in a horrible poison ivy looking rash with huge weeping blisters. It spread all across my abdomen, back and down my groin. Super fun! I was out of it for about a week. I was taking the maximum amount of Benadryl allowed in a 24 hour period combined with pain pills and a couple tubes of various anti-itch medicine. That was the worst part of the whole recovery. So the moral of the story is: get the epidural. In all reality the odds are pretty rare that anything should go bad. I was just being a worry wart. And a little macho too I guess. Which I may add the anesthesiologist called me on, lol. 

On a final side note, I no longer have a belly button. After 4 surgeries they said it was time for it to go. It created a weak point in the incision. The boys were very confused by it. Maybe I'll have to get a tattoo of a button in its place! Haha!

Hernia Recovery Update

These posts are more for me than anything. I think it'll be neat to have a journal of sorts to keep track of things we go through in life. With that being said, here's some rambling about what's gone on since the last post.

It's been 3 weeks to the day since my surgery. I'm still amazed at how much smoother the recovery has gone this time around. I expected that with the same size incision (actually it's an inch longer at 10 inches this time) the recovery would be the same as in March. It's been leaps and bounds better! I'm getting around almost like normal. I got the drain, staples and sutures removed this past Wednesday. The difference after that alone was night and day. The area around the drain had become very red and irritated and was the main source of pain. Coughing was still rather painful because of the drain and the staples.

Since those have come out I'm virtually pain free. I have one spot that gives me a lot of trouble only when I cough in any other position besides sitting. So for now, anytime I need to cough, I try to hurry and sit down somewhere so it doesn't hurt. As long as I'm sitting, it doesn't hurt at all. It's very strange. The nurse and doc said I may have some pain from where the drain was, and the source of my pain now is exactly where the drain stopped under the skin. Besides that, I feel really good! Now the hard part is taking it easy.

I feel really good, so I will be more inclined to start doing a lot more and lifting more. The surgeon told me I can increase the amount of weight I lift by 5 pounds each week, starting at 10 pounds. Pain being my indicator as to when I'm going too far. My first feat will be to tackle the yard. My sister was kind enough to mow the front yard for me after I got out of the hospital, after 2 weeks of not being mowed. It's been another week and a half and we've had a lot of rain since the last mow. It's looking like a jungle again. The backyard hasn't been  mowed for almost 4 weeks now. It really looks bad! They boys were out playing in the backyard today and Jace found some weeds that were up to his chest. No joke! His chest! It's gonna be a blast mowing that, lol. It'll be good exercise though. I do have a self-propel mower that I will take full advantage of as well.  I have a CF clinic appointment Monday. I'll post the results of that. I'm anxious to see where my lung function is at.

Everything has been going good around the Parks' home! The family is happy and healthy! Life is great!

Surgery #2 of 2014

March 2014 surgery incision

For those of you that don't know, I had my second pretty major surgery of the year. In March, I had a bowel obstruction caused by scar tissue from two prior surgeries (1984 & 2005). It required emergent surgery. I had a short 5 day stay post-op and a 6 week recovery. It was much more painful than I remember from 2005. I had to dress a 2 inch portion of my incision that had been left open for draining purposes. Overall, it was a lot harder than I remember and a whole lot more painful (did I mention it was very painful). The surgery in 2005 was the exact same scenario, bowel obstruction caused by scar tissue, only it wasn't emergent. I don't have any pics from that surgery.

Fast forward to a couple months ago and I noticed a bulge in the center of my stomach near my belly button. I knew instantly it was a hernia. I could just tell. On the plus side, it didn't hurt. I had no feeling left in that area of my stomach from all the surgeries. After a couple weeks, it kept growing, sticking out more and more. I called and had an appointment to have it looked at. Fast forward 6 weeks, a CT scan and two more doctor visits and I had a surgery scheduled to fix it. I had my appointment with the hernia doc on a Wednesday afternoon. The only opening they had was for that Friday (two days from then). I'd have to wait another month or so before having it fixed if I waited. I scurried to make all the arrangements with work, etc. and went in Friday, August 1st to have it fixed.

I'm just over 2 weeks out from surgery. This time has been much, much better! So much less painful than in March. So far the toughest part has been not being able to hold my two precious boys. It's a 6 week recovery again and I can't lift anything over 10 pounds. They didn't leave any part of the incision open this time, thankfully. However, I do have a drain in place. It honestly hasn't been that big of a deal. I expected it to be much worse. I have to empty it once a day and that's about it. The past few days it has been causing me a lot of pain. I think mostly because my body is trying to heal itself, but can't because there's a suture and large tube in the way. It's very red and irritated. It keeps forming scabs that get torn off (which is causing most of the pain) from the dressings and from moving around. The skin around the drain is extremely tender. My incision on the other hand is doing great! It looks awesome so far! The surgeon did an excellent job of putting me back together. He used a biologic mesh to hold my guts in and reinforce the area. The scar will look phenomenal compared to the two I had prior. It looks like someone drew a line down my stomach with an ink pen. It's put together so well and I think it'll leave a very nice, neat looking scar. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it's much better than the one in March I promise.

Thankfully, my lungs have remained healthy through all of this. I give all the credit to God! I've stayed faithful to my treatments and kept myself busy, up and moving around to help keep my lungs healthy. I haven't had PFT's post-op yet, but I know they'll be much better than the last go around. My FEV1 dropped to 47% after the surgery in March, which was pretty scary. Even though I knew it was because I was still in a lot of pain and couldn't give a maximal effort, seeing that 47% was scary. I know I'm doing much better than 47% this time and for that I'm extremely grateful.

I get the drain and all 29 staples and 7 sutures out this coming Wednesday! I couldn't be more excited! I'm anxious to get on with my recovery. I feel like I never fully recovered from the surgery in March. I got the hernia so soon, I never got to get back into running and working out. I'm extremely motivated! I've been down and out for almost 7 months when it's all said and done. I'm ready to get back at it! I should be back to tip top fighting shape after this surgery and am looking forward to getting myself back into the best shape of my life!

I'll keep you all posted on how things continue to progress! Thanks for reading!!