Long Road to Recovery

Tomorrow will be 4 weeks since my surgery and still I’m in pain and popping vicodin periodically.  The good news is the large blood clot in my groin seems to be improving slowly.  The bad news is that the pain and inflammation does not seem to be dissipating with it.  If I sit upright for too long or am on my feet for too long it causes frequent and sharp shooting pains around my nether regions.  Needless to say my condition continues to hinder my mobility.  I’m of course concerned because it appears that these lingering after effects from the surgery are lingering longer for me than most, at least based on feedback from others that have had the same surgery.  Perhaps this is the difference between minimally invasive versus open surgery?  Unfortunately there wasn’t anyone here locally or even at Duke University Medical that performed the surgery laproscopically.

Additionally concerns with my recovery include the frequency with which I’m emptying my bag.  When I’m up and about it doesn’t seem I can go longer than 30 minutes to an hour without needed to empty my ostomy bag.  In talking to others I found that some take imodium to limit their output, something my surgeon acknowledged I could do  but seemed concerned and reluctant.  I include many of the stool thickening foods in my diet such as yogurt, cheese, oatmeal, etc. but this does not seem to slow things down at all.  How will I manage this when I go back to work, not to mention the bulge in the pants?  Don’t even get me started on clothes.  I dropped $30 bucks per pair of shorts at Dicks sporting goods for some Northface cargo shorts with an elastic waistband as my drawstring shorts and belts seem to apply too much pressure to my ostomy bag.  Anything that constricts the flow to the ostomy bag seems like an accident waiting to happen.  

In summarizing, I’m not quite where I want to be yet and not certain how and when I’ll get there.  Maybe I worry to much?  Maybe by the time I’m schedule to go back to work all these issues will have resolved themselves?  For now I’ll continue to tackle the issues one at a time.

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