Oh happy day!

Aw yeah feeling good. I got home just in time for the super bowl, and it was my mama's birthday so it was really the perfect day to be released from the hospital. My hospital stay wasn't as traumatic as I thought it would be. They pretty much left me alone the only time the nurses were in my room was to clean out my wound and give me benadryl. Mostly i was super bored and I slept a lot. I have this weird reaction to pain pills, especially the intravenous stuff and it makes me super itchy so i was getting a lot of benadryl along with the pain meds. I was mostly afraid the hospital would be the worst part as far as being able to keep control of my bowls, I pictured messing a lot of bed sheets, but that never happened. In fact I haven't had any control issues so far, so that makes me feel Really good about the future!

I'm really pretty impressed at how good I feel. Compared to the first surgery I'm in no where near as much pain. I am sleeping a ton though, lots of naps. My life pretty much revolves around eating and going to the bathroom, it's about 14 times a day right now which is so much and feels annoying, but it also feels great because I know that number is only going to get smaller and smaller.

My little hole was so freaky at first. I mean there's literally a hole in my belly! You have to clean it out twice a day with one part peroxide three parts water, or you can take a shower and let the soap run over it and then just clean it out once. The first shower I took really freaked me out I was so nervous to let the water touch it, but it didn't hurt in fact i could hardly feel anything. My mom cleans it out for me b/c it's easier to be laying down while it's being cleaned so it's hard to do yourself. I can't even feel a thing while she's doing it.

I just really can't believe I feel this good. I had my doubts while I had the bag but now I'm just like why didn't I do this sooner! The first few days home my little bum was not happy I will admit. Its basically the same thing as a leak in your bag. The stool coming out is still very liquidy and that liquid is acidic so the skin on your bum gets irritated. You have to use desitin or some other zinc oxide cream/gel. It does help but sometimes you just have to be prepared to feel like you're on fire. I imagine this too will become less of an issue as time goes on.

Woo hoo!

Done and done! The take down was yesterday and it was amazing! Thid time around the surgery was super fast, only took an hour, as opposed to 7 for the last one. And. I was up and coherent pretty quickly this time around too, part of that might be attributed to the fact that this was a. Morning surgery, and not in the middle of the night ;). So i started walking later that day, still npo but I have all the ice chips and Popsicles my little heart desires.

So like i said they put the stoma back inside my body but turns out they didn't actually sew me up. Well not really anyway. They did sew up the muscles, but the skin layer is still an open wound and it will just have to heal and close on it's own. The nurse explained it's because stool was passing through there, and even though the stoma was stitched in place it's just asking for an infection if they were to sew it up. So right now it's packed with a sponge and covered with gauze.

Other than that i really feel pretty great. This is the first time I've been in the hospital and I'm not sick. It's almost like I'm just here for observation, for them to see how my body does. Once i pass gas i can start eating food, once i start eating and if I'm handling food well, then i get to go home. Oh man I am happy!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow I love You Tomorrow!

tomorrow morning is my take down woo hoo. in not even 12 hours I'll be done with the worst of this (At least for me). See the way I figure it if i have to go to the bathroom at first 12+ times a day, whatever, thats nothing, I've been there and then some. To me just about anything is better than this bag. Let you know how it goes! PS I finally got around to posting those pictures.