Part 5
More recovery and final thoughts.
There’s supervised recovery-time, in the sense that you stay at the hospital for two more days, post-surgery.
This allows for any issues that crop up, to be dealt with in a setting that is appropriate.
I will say that there didn’t seem to be anyone on the ward that had issues…
…except for my room-mate.
He was last surgery from the day I arrived, and having great difficulty with pain.
As someone who claimed he couldn’t take any opioids, due to recently having weaned himself off of a decade’s dependance on a form of oxy-codone (double hip and knee replacement?!?) - he wan’t really giving the nursing staff a chance to help in any measurable way.
His moaning and groaning throughout the days and nights made it extremely difficult to rest; therefore, I did my best to be scarce.
I certainly have no idea how bad it was, and I’m guessing it ‘felt’ bad - as it went on for two days non-stop…
…but my experience was certainly different.
The most pain I felt was late in the day after my surgery. The superficial clips would pinch small bits of skin against themselves as you moved, and the hard-core pain meds were almost completely flushed from my system. Any pain relief was via over-the-counter Advil or Tylenol, to help with local pain and swelling (I mean, you were cut open the day before).
I was able to walk, sit, stand, climb stairs, and generally move about, albeit a little more gingerly than normal.
I’m not passing judgement, as people feel pain differently - and I have no idea of his true intentions - but I will say this.
He came across as, and certainly acted like, someone that was either seeking attention, or was begging to be “forced” to take a harder form of pain meds.
It finally got to the point that he was 'discharged' against his will, as he claimed to be in no shape to leave when his time was up.
The hospital is not set up for long-term care, and was focussing on the next intake of hernia patients - They were planning on his bed being available, and weren’t exactly keen on keeping him around.
The hospital were prepared to help refer him to another facility for continual care, and extended his check-out time while arrangements were made for him to be collected.
But it was made it very clear that there was nothing that they could do to help him, as they couldn’t find anything wrong with the procedure, or do any further diagnostics… chop, sew, move-on
...He then managed to make enough of a miraculous recovery to walk around spritely, pack his stuff, join the group for some laughter at lunch, and be collected by a family member...
…So that’s why I spent the majority of my recovery in the communal lounges.
I guess I have to be thankful - as the situation forced me to be mobile, to meet and discuss with others, to focus on just how lucky I was to have the outcome that I had.
Some random thoughts that didn't fit into the previous essays.
* Going in, I thought that the majority of the patients would be old-er and male. In reality, our group/s were about half older/male, and the remaining half were people under 40 years old, and split male/female - it seems that hernias aren't just for older men...
* I was also surprised that no-one really remembered an exact moment when their hernia 'blew' - everyone I spoke to just remembers looking down one day nd seeing a weird lump. There were people that did a lot of manual labor (landscapers) and others that lived a fairly sedentary life (retired bankers)...
* A whole bunch of the patients were there for a double hernia repair... they'd get one done, have one recovery day, then go in for their second repair... These poor souls were usually the ones that moved substantially slower - but yay for getting things fixed in an efficient manner :)
Not much more to say really
If you need a hernia repaired, you don’t want a laparoscopic-mesh, and you can float the cost until reimbursement…
Check out the Shouldice.
finally - some photos
- I managed to watch the Academy Awards in the floor 3 lounge - but had an abysmal year for picking the winners sadly :(
- Post surgery day #2 - remaining half of the skin-clips awaiting their removal. Simply there to ensure a smooth superficial join of the outermost layer of skin. The inner layers are sewn using an absorbable suture material which will slowly dissolve over the next few months - This is different to the actual hernia repair - which is done with a non-absorbable material, and should last a lifetime - it's a little freaky to feel the internal ridge even a month later... but completely normal - or so I've been told ;)
- Back home, the day after I flew back (yes that yellow-colour is some localised bruising, no it wasn't too painful)
post script
It's been exactly a month since the surgery, and I'd say that I'm pretty much back to 100% - I've been able to exercise, and have been getting more comfortable each and every-day since getting home...
...In fact, I start Booming on a film this coming Monday.
Of course there's an NDA in place, so I can't share anything directly, but I should be able to show some photos of the town I'll be working in.
exciting times.
Thanks for taking the journey with me, and if you ever have any questions, feel free to ask directly.
thompsound@gmail.com
