Lots of Help Recoveringby Angie

Fri
8 May 2009
5:05 pm
1

Hi, everyone – I’m alive!  Recovery is kind of lame, but going well.  Kathy has spent the week with us, and has done her best to wait on me hand and foot.  Jim has been wonderfully attentive, too.  I feel like a very lazy princess.  My most enthusiastic exercise comes from a couple of trips up and down the stairs each day.

Jaquie is enjoying the relaxed atmosphere, and has been very affectionate, as usual.  We were a little worried, before the surgery, about what to do with her at night – she usually lies on Jim as we are falling asleep, then migrates to some part of me during the night, but it is pretty uncomfortable to have a cat sprawled on your stomach or legs when you have an incision to worry about.  Surprisingly enough, she must have been listening to our conversation about it, or else noticed a difference in my sleeping habits:  she now lies on Jim for a while but, of her own accord, she now often spends the rest of the night on the end of the bed or the floor.  We have such a smart, sweet cat!

I have a post-op appointment next Monday, where they will check me out and make sure everything looks good.  No steri-strips for them to examine – just stitches on the inside and super glue on the outside, this time!  Things look good to me, so far, so I’m sure we’ll have good news next week.  We’ll keep you posted.

A Sigh of Reliefby Angie

Mon
28 Jul 2008
3:07 pm
1

I drove out to Pleasanton today to see Dr. Dang, a general surgeon my PCP referred me to.  He looked at my ultrasound films, chatted with me a bit, poked around, and gave me his diagnosis:

The good news is, I don’t have a hernia.  The bad news is, I have… two of them.  However – the real good news is that they are both very small don’t urgently need to be fixed.  He told me what to keep an eye out for, and I’ll check back with him if things get worse; but in the meantime, I can relax.  Hooray!

I’m ok, really!by Angie

Mon
21 Jul 2008
11:07 am
1

Apparently a conversation at ward choir, coupled with some misguided comments of my own, have led people to believe that something is seriously wrong with me and I’m having another surgery.  Let me clear the matter up:

Since my laparotomy in May, my recovery has been fairly normal except that there seemed to be some swelling that never quite went away.  When I discovered a couple of weeks ago that I could feel an actual lump in my abdomen, I was afraid that there was another cyst that they had missed and made an appointment with my PCP.  In the mean-time, my cardiologist wanted to run some tests to make sure the swelling wasn’t heart-related (which would have been a very, very bad thing):  those results came back today all normal, so it’s probably not that, thank goodness.

My PCP ordered an ultrasound and I went to see her on Friday about the results.  She thinks it is likely that I may have a ventral/incisional hernia and has referred me to a doctor out in Pleasanton to see if that can be confirmed.  If that’s the problem, it might possibly require surgery at some future point, but we really have no idea yet.  It’s all very exasperating, but for the moment I am really ok.  I’m so grateful for my very attentive home teachers, bishop, and others in our ward who responded so quickly and fervently with offers of help and support.  We certainly have a lot of wonderful friends.

Post-Op Appointmentby Angie

Tue
10 Jun 2008
5:06 pm
1

Jim took a half day off work to drive with me to Stanford today for my post-op appointment with Dr. Jacobson. Everything looks good! The last of the bandages are off and now I can drive and swim and all sorts of fun stuff!

She did say, however, that the one thing I shouldn’t do is sit-ups: not for another month. I think I can live with that. 🙂

Recovering from surgeryby Angie

Mon
2 Jun 2008
2:06 pm
1

Thank you, everybody, for your prayers and well-wishes for us since my surgery.  I am doing very well and hope to be back to normal in a couple more weeks.  I have been very well taken care of:  My wonderful, adorable, thoughtful husband has been at my beck and call as much as possible since I got home from the hospital.  He and Jon spent a large portion of their Memorial weekend entertaining me (playing “Secret of Mana”My \ with me for hours on end).  JaquieMy mother-in-law, Kathy, visited for a week to keep our house running smoothly.  I received phone calls and visits from wonderful friends in my ward and from family members all over the country (thanks, Audrey!).  I even had my own pet therapist on hand: Jaquie wisely stayed off my lap, but spent long hours curled up next to me on the couch or my bed.

Getting around the house is still a little difficult because of the incision (for those ladies who have had a C-section, you probably know what I mean), and I can’t carry very much or drive yet, but I’m certainly improving.  My doctor called when she received the lab results on the cysts they removed to report that everything was benign – hooray!!  My post-op appointment is next Tuesday, so if there is anything else interesting to relate, I’ll keep the blog posted.

Cross your fingers for me…by Angie

Wed
7 May 2008
9:05 am
1

Just thought I should let our family and friends know that I am going in for a little bit of surgery in two weeks . It’s not heart surgery – nothing serious at all. I just have a benign but annoying problem that they want to nip in the bud. We’d appreciate it if our loved ones would keep us in your prayers on May 21st. We’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

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