Sharp Guy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:33 am
JRinFL wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:06 am
This thread is from 2020, btw.
:D
I need to learn to look harder at the post dates. Regardless, I think Sumdumguy owes us a follow up to let us know how he's doing
Okay, so...
I did end up getting the laparoscopic surgery, after initially declining. After going home and having another attack a few days later, the choice was made for me.
The surgery went fine, despite my being horribly rude to the doctors, supposedly. I honestly don't remember anything after the nurse shaved me and gave me the drugs. According to my wife, one of the doctor's last name was Gooch and I thought that was hilarious. He also offered to pray with me before the surgery and I belly laughed at him.
Fortunately, I was able to connect with him after the fact and appologize. I really felt bad about that...
Anyways! After I woke up, they brought in the stone(Apparently I had also demanded to see the stone, as proof they weren't scamming me. :rolleyes: ). When he showed it to me... well... a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
(That's my thumb for a size reference)
Yowza!
Post surgery was miserable. They said recovery would take between 2-3 weeks. No...
It was almost two weeks before I could get out of bed, down stairs or off the toilet, on my own. Thank goodness for the bidet, as I know I wouldn't have been able to get down there, either.
After the first month, I was able to start moving around without assistance, albeit slowly. After about two months, I was starting to move a little better. But, I was still unable to get on the ground or even bend over more than slightly. It would be another two or three months until I regained the ability to get down on my knees and back up.
Now, I had to face a new issue.
I was weak... ZERO core strength. I had never experienced anything like that in my life, I've always been ridiculously strong. Now, I was back to "normal" and I couldn't even lift a trailer gate. My arms and legs were fine. But, when it came time for my stomach muscles to join in, they weren't there.
Not even like they were struggling, they just didn't do anything. It was depressing. Infact, that was one of the biggest issues of the final stretch of recovery. Getting out of the funk I was in took a long time.
What finally did it, was I had to hire someone to come install the rest of the flooring in my house. After inspecting his work the first day and watching him part of the second, I offered some advice on how to properly install the flooring(he was putting it in backwards..) He didn't take it, so I fired him and started doing it myself, slowly.
That got me started and I slowly started working again. Light yard work, changing the cars oil, etc.
Now, a year post-op, I'm at 90%+. But, I still don't feel the same and likely never will.
Finally, let's discuss the elephant in the room. Recurring side effects. Namely, the inability to pass by a bathroom...
I swear, I eat something and it's not 15 minutes later that I'm blazing a trail to the nearest toilet. Some foods are not as quick to the gate. But, they are all racing to the finish.
Aside from that and the gruelling, depression inducing recovery; I think everything turned out alright.
If nothing else, it gave me a lot of time to think about the future; how I was tired of wasting my skills and wearing out my body, doing the work I did.
Life moves slower and I'm having more fun.
If you made it to the end, congratulations. You deserve a pat on the back. :p
As for me? I'm signing off.
Thanks again for the concern, everyone.
"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so."
-Thomas Jefferson
