I laid on my side!

Not to get ahead of myself, but that's a pretty huge accomplishment for just 6 days post-op (I believe it took about 3 weeks post-LPAO) and I'm feeling great! I was discharged from BI on Sunday, tying the record for shortest post-op hospital stay - you know how I roll! :D

The trip down to Boston was fairly uneventful, punctuated by dinner at Kitty's, our "traditional" (now that we've done it twice) stop - place is no joke! Got a call from Erin while we were there that I'd need to "pop in" to x-ray in the morning for one last view, which ended up taking just under an hour and a half - thanks in no small part to the fact that Dr. Kim is a Boston Children's dude performing my surgery at Beth Israel, which means nobody knows who the hell I am and what the hell I'm doing half the time. Surgery and recovery were painless (both logistically and thanks to my dear friend epidural), and my whole Boston crew showed up for a visit soon after I'd gotten settled in to my (second) room, bearing flowers AND a laptop, because they (and I'd have to say here Kelly especially) are awesome!

My folks headed home late Thursday morning, after hooking me up with some devilish almond croissant confection from Au Bon Pain, which I'm increasingly glad we don't have around here. Though the incision from hardware removal on the left side was definitely sore my pain overall was decidedly less than the last time 'round, leading them to remove the epidural Friday morning, a day earlier than before. Unfortunately due to some miscommunication my drain and foley didn't get taken out til that evening, so my first outing on crutches (skipped the walker altogether this time) involved two sacs hanging from my stylish johnny. Good thing the PTs are much more impressed by my crutches than my stellar appearance.

Unfortunately all the relative ease and goodness immediately post-op was interrupted Friday night by the most severe stomach discomfort I've ever experienced (including food poisoning!) because of the gas trapped by my immobility. When at 2am I finally felt like I could go to the bathroom I sat up and immediately vomited violently, which would have been bad enough without the pesky just-cut-open-pelvis aspect of my condition. Another round at 4am found me in the bathroom feeling worse than I ever have in my life, but by the morning it had worked itself out well enough that I could function, though without much of an appetite to speak of, probably best for all parties (including my poor roommate) concerned!

Alright I may have to take a snoozer before catching up to the present here at The Hipnotic - such is the life of a post-PAOer!