Mikaela’s Blog: Mother’s Perspective on Recovery
August 26th, 2009
The Drive Home. Mikaela informs me that she doesn’t have much discomfort at all and that she can’t really even remember being in the recovery room. Ha-ha! Again, that is completely normal.
First Week of Recovery. At first Mikaela was content to just sit with bags of ice on her chest. I encouraged her to walk around every hour or so and she drink tons of water, which she does all of the time anyway. Her appetite was fine by the first evening. By day 3 she was bored, as one can only watch so many episodes of Sponge Bob and The Office. Mikaela had used her graduation money to buy a new computer for college, so she decided to use this down time to work on getting everything transferred over and become familiar with how it all worked. She wanted to stop taking all of her pain meds early, but I had to encourage her to continue through day 3 for the anti-inflammatory benefit. Besides, the maximum swelling doesn’t happen for a while and some pain might accompany that swelling. Of course, that’s why ice is so important to keep the swelling to a minimum.
Please check back to read Mikaela’s reflections on surgery and her recovery.
Mikaela’s Blog: My Surgery Memories
August 25th, 2009
I don’t even remember falling asleep; all I remember was waking up in recovery and driving home about 10 minutes later. It wasn’t really only 10 minutes later! There was almost no pain at first. Then that afternoon as I started to wake up, there was a lot of tightness and pressure on my chest, but very little pain. That feeling lasted throughout the day and into the next. The second day hurt a little more, just because the swelling was peaking, but it was still very manageable. I was taking my pain medication on a regular schedule, which helped a lot. It also felt good to get up and walk around, as Dr. Bashioum recommends to all his patients. It seemed like it hurt less then. The hardest part about the first few days was being stuck upright in a chair, not being able to change position, and keeping two big bags of ice on me. I was bored!! Otherwise, the first few days after were not bad at all and soon I would be able to move around more.
Check back to see how my recovery progresses during my first week.
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