Friday, July 19, 2013

10 weeks post-op

It’s crazy to think that it has been 10 weeks since my surgery, but I’m still chugging along. My husband and I made the trip from San Diego to the Oxnard / Ventura CA area last week for me to start a new work contract. Thanks to the wonderful California traffic it took almost 5 hours to go 200 miles on the interstate, but I didn’t even need my donut pillow. I also just made my 3 month appointment to see Dr G and Catherine – the end of this journey is getting closer and closer!

At 9.5 weeks I went back to work. I had one day of 4 hour orientation where I sat 90% of the time and two 12 hour shifts two days in a row. Surprisingly, I felt pretty good overall. I didn’t have any surgery related pain – just a bit of achiness in my legs after I took my support hose off at night, but that’s normal when I haven’t worn them in awhile. Most surprisingly, I didn’t feel abnormally tired like I had anticipated. Since the surgery I have been wearing dresses most everyday with an occasional pair of oversized mesh shorts. This week was the first time that I had pants (dress pants and scrubs) on since the surgery, and they didn’t seem to bother me. Prior to the surgery my pain was primarily only during intercourse, but I still thought that pants might be slightly uncomfortable on the surgical area.

The last time I had any physical therapy was 2 weeks ago at SDSM. I’ve mostly been working on the breathing to relax the pelvic floor muscle. Debbie the PT said that some of my joints especially my hips seem a little too loose so she recommended the SI-LOC belt. I’ve been wearing that daily. I don’t really notice any difference, but she said the support should help the pelvic floor muscles so I’ll keep wearing it. It’s not uncomfortable it just makes my lower abdomen bulge a little more. I’m in the process of finding a physical therapist in my new area to start seeing at 3 months.

Now that I am back to work and have been pain free for weeks it’s sometimes hard for me to remember to take it easy and refrain from strenuous activities. I keep looking at the mountains around us and can’t wait to get back to hiking. There are so many places to explore, but I’ll continue on with my relatively boring recovery. The beach is always calling my name, too, and I’m okay with just laying by the ocean all day.

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