Will I ever feel normal?

[DuodenalSwitchaRoo]

Sorry for the pitiful post but I feel shit. Hand is still numb and to make matters worse it's my "wiping hand". I also have the squirts.

And then I have a huge trench wound in my abdomin which is thankfully horizontal and not vertical.

I just feel so much self pity that I'm over 3 weeks out and still this unable. I can't bring myself to regret my choice as I keep remembering the endless days of pain and the struggle not to gain weight.

I guess I'm just asking for reassurance that life will get better and I won't be bed bound with the shits for life.

Ps. Still haven't weighed as I don't care. I just want to feel like me.

 

[southernlady]

No, the shits aren't for life...altho it does feel like it right now.

When do you get cleared for normal food and are you taking your vitamins yet, esp calcium? Just go easy on the fat right at first til you see how your system reacts...Once all healed, you should be fine.

As far as your hand, sounds like a visit to the neurologist may be in order. Nerves take a LONG time to heal when damaged. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/480071_5

The rate of axonal regeneration has been assumed to be constant and, in clinical situations, is generally estimated to be 1 mm per day and is often followed by an advancing Tinel sign. Reported rates of regeneration, however, vary broadly from 0.5 to 9 mm per day. This variability is due to several factors. 1) The rate of axon growth decreases with increasing distance from the cell body to the advancing axon tip. 2) Measurements of axonal regeneration were made in different species after different methods of nerve injury. 3) The techniques for measuring regeneration were different (for example, Tinel sign compared with functional recovery). Moreover, the rate of regeneration can depend on the nature and severity of the nerve injury, the duration of denervation, and the condition of the peripheral tissues. Regeneration after surgical nerve repair is slower than uncomplicated regeneration, most likely reflecting the severity of the original injury. Aging has also been shown to retard the rate of axonal regrowth.

Axonal regeneration is not synonymous with return of function. A process of maturation precedes functional recovery. Morphological changes of maturation proceed along the regenerating axon at a slower rate than axon regrowth and continue for a protracted period—as long as 1 year. Remyelination develops in a manner similar to that for developing nerve fibers, involving alignment of Schwann cells and encircling of the axon to form a multilamellated sheath. This process begins within 2 weeks of the onset of axonal regeneration and results in myelinated axons quite similar to the originals except with shortened internodes. The axon's diameter increases progressively until normal dimensions are reached, but this enlargement is dependent on the establishment of functional connections between the axon tip and the appropriate end organ.

But they should heal. Yeah, I know it's the pits...I truly do understand. I have nerve damage that is two years old in my jaw and it's still not healed.

 

[shann]

I don't know anything about the nerve damage, so I'm just crossing my fingers for you!!

As far as the tummy problems go, I promise that will get better. As soon as you can eat more food and take all your vites, things should improve.

Hang in there, honey-- and post whatever "pitiful" posts that you want to. That's what we're here for!!! <3

 

[kirstabelle]

I felt like absolute shit for 6 weeks - I was having the biggest pity party and I could not have typed what you just did cos my brain felt like it was full of cotton wool. With hindsight I'm pretty certain I was dehydrated.
Anyway - just wanted to say - YES - it will get better and I swear you will read this post back in times to come with a smile. xx

 

[DuodenalSwitchaRoo]

I can eat just about anything...although everything tastes like arse lol. I don't know what they did to my tastebuds but omg....pepsi max tastes like lemons to me now!!! That used to be my addiction! Everything just tastes off. The good news is, my sleeve shrunk so Im eating less

I think the hand thing bothers me most as whilst Im not left handed, I do use that hand for important things and when you can't feel....its not good.

Been taking 2 x multi's thus far. And going to get out my box from vitacost in a moment and see where I need to start.

 

[southernlady]

I can eat just about anything...although everything tastes like arse lol. I don't know what they did to my tastebuds but omg....pepsi max tastes like lemons to me now!!! That used to be my addiction! Everything just tastes off. The good news is, my sleeve shrunk so Im eating less

I think the hand thing bothers me most as whilst Im not left handed, I do use that hand for important things and when you can't feel....its not good.

Been taking 2 x multi's thus far. And going to get out my box from vitacost in a moment and see where I need to start.

Yeah, we take "feeling" for granted til it's compromised. And the healing CAN be painful.

This was a good time to break the addiction to Pepsi Max, apparently. Just be sure you get your fluids in...and WHINE AWAY!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Took me eleven weeks to feel like I had not made the worst decision of my life.

 

[southernlady]

Apparently the DS Welcome Wagon was an 18 Wheeler and ran over you, backed up, ran over you again...and did it a THIRD time just to be sure.

 

[Charris]

YEAH Roo what @southernlady said. That's how I felt for probably 2.5 months. It does get better!

 

[newanatomy]

Ah Roo, give yourself a big hug for me. Take it slow. You will start to feel better. You almost need to start counting the days since being out of the hospital instead of from when you had your surgery. You will have a different recovery than most because of your complications and long hospital stay. Be patient with your poor body, it is doing its best to heal.

 

[k9ophile]

I'm swinging critters that it does not take as long for you as it did for me to feel human. It took me at least 3 months. I guess we never know what it feels like to have such major surgery until we have it. The only thing that kept me sane was reading about others' experiences and realizing that perhaps I was normal after all.

 

[DuodenalSwitchaRoo]

I think it was made a bit worse by speaking to other two-parters who were like "oh yeah, I was able to go back to work in a week". um. no. not me.

I can't wait to be on the other side of this mess. Nurses are coming daily to change the dressing on the wound as there was a mix up/incompetence at the hospital and they didn't send me home with all of the dressings I need to use the wound vac.

My life feels like a chaotic mess right now.

 

[huneypie]

I'm a 2 parter and I was off work for 6 weeks having had my DS lap.

I'm glad you're back posting as we've missed you and I hope you start to feel better soon.

 

[DianaCox]

You're a big girl - any surgery is HARD on people whose bodies are compromised in that way. Add a complication or two, and a week or two or three of being bedbound, and you lose strength and endurance quickly.

BUT - it WILL get better, and the more you take an active role in that, the quicker it will happen. Move as much as you can, as soon as you can. Push yourself just a bit beyond your comfort level to improve strength and endurance. And here's the amazing thing that happens - at some point, seemingly simultaneously, your strength starts to return AND the weight you have lost lightens the load, and they synergistically combine to make you feel like you are ON TOP OF THE WORLD. The nausea and shits abate, your sense of taste and smell return to (something more closely approaching) normal, and you just plain feel BETTER. No, make that GREAT!

I don't know when it will be for you - for me it was at about 8 weeks out, when I had to take a trip to Paris from west coast, and while it exhausted me, in between business meetings, I was hanging out with a friend who was in between rounds of chemo for stage 4 ovarian cancer - we were about equally physically challenged, but we were in PARIS and couldn't waste that, so we walked and then sat and ate a few bites, and repeated the process all over the town. And by the time the week was up, between the moving around and the weight I had lost by then (maybe 40 lbs?), I felt better than I had in years. A few weeks after that, I had to return to Paris and London, and took my husband with, and we did 2.5 week vacation, traveling to Edinburgh and all over London and the south of Britain as well as Paris. I felt SO much better by then!

So - yeah, I'm sure you feel like crap, and you should expect to. But rest assured you WILL feel better soon, and that you have a bit of control over that by getting yourself moving as soon as possible. Look forward!

 

[hilary1617]

It will get better, Roo, I promise. A little bit better every day, until in a couple of months one day you'll wake up and feel your old self again, only new and improved as the weight loss will show and make everything easier! Hang in there!!!!!