SURGERY (END-LOOP ILEOSTOMY, HERNIA REPAIR, RESECTION RECTOPEXY), JP DRAIN, PICC LINE, TPN...

On October 2nd, I woke up from surgery in the absolute worst pain of my life! I was freezing, shaking uncontrollably, and felt like none of the pain meds were even making a dent in the pain that was taking over me! I woke up with a new stoma, sore bottom, and a Jackson-Pratt (JP) drain to remove the fluid in my abdomen. I was in the hospital for 12 long days, but fortunately I had very supportive family and friends by my side through everything! After not eating for more than a week, the drs had me try to sip at hot tea (to wake up the bowel), but I threw it up every single time. Let me tell you, throwing up after just having major abdominal surgery feels AWFUL!!! Eventually they put in a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC line) and started me on total parenteral nutrition (TPN) which basically fed me through the PICC line and gave me all the nutrients I was lacking. With Halloween being one of my favorite times of the year, my family decorated my room and brought me a pumpkin to decorate while I was in the hospital. A few therapy dogs came to visit while I was there, but it was hard to enjoy their company when I was in so much pain. After 10 days of being stuck in my hospital room, my best friend came to visit me from college and took me outside! The fresh air felt amazing and motivated me to get out of there even more! A couple of days later, I discontinued using the pain pump, my JP drain was removed (another very painful process), I began eating a little and went home!!! I kept the PICC line in for the next 5 weeks and due to my extremely high liquid output (1200-1400 cc/day) I ended up putting IV fluid through the PICC line everyday. I actually made 2 review videos on my YouTube channel "Ostomy Product Review: Hollister 2-piece System"  & "Ostomy Product Review: Coloplast 2-piece System (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLRnq6DSjydCHpiTM2ciMg/videos) when I still had the PICC line in! It is extremely important to keep PICC lines clean and dry, since it provides direct access to your heart, but the only inconvenience was showering really. Removing the PICC line was a really weird, but completely painless procedure and only took a few minutes to do. I was recovering from surgery pretty well for a few weeks, until a few more issues were added to my plate! I will explain more in my next post! Feel free to contact me with ANY questions or comments! Thanks :)

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Email- MeandMyOstomy@yahoo.com