Recovery: One Week Down, Five to Go!

Today I left the house for the first time since my surgery last Thursday and headed to my surgeon's office for my post-op appointment. I've been wearing a compression garment around the clock since the operation to help with swelling, blood flow and healing. It fits from my chest all the way to my hips. The garment had appeared monstrous when it arrived in the mail and I'd snorted something about it being a mistake and that it definitely was too large, but now I feel like the damn thing is 18 sizes too small. Still, it had been going great for a couple days until it started to get a little more snug, then a little more snug. No doubt I was swelling a lot from such a big surgery, which was to be expected. Then two nights ago I woke up to find my legs and feet swollen to at least four times their normal size. WTH!?

I started to panic, I had NO idea what was going on and if this was normal. I had never seen my legs and feet like this in my entire life. Even when I was pregnant with quadruplets and developed preeclampsia, I still didn't swell like this. My husband was trying to calm me down although he wasn't sure what was happening either. And because my hips and upper thigh area was so swollen, I couldn't pee and that made me even more panicked. We were both thinking I was either having a reaction to the pain meds or antibiotics (even though, realistically, that didn't make sense since I'd already been on them several days) or I had a blood clot or something. After debating it, we called my surgeon who'd given me his cell phone and told me to call him anytime I needed anything. Anytime meant 1:30am, right? Sure it did. He answered his phone with "Good morning," which made me smile in retrospect later when I wasn't freaking out about my monster-size feet. Clearly, I was not his first middle-of-the-night-panicked-phone-call-patient.

He asked if my thighs were hard, which they were. Then he asked if my calves were hard or more squishy and they were the latter. He said it wasn't anything serious, it was the swelling moving down my body and being segued off mostly into my thighs because of the compression garment ending at my hips. Relieved the husband and I jerry-rigged the garment so that the part around my legs was a bit looser but it was still snug on my stomach to provide support. Now that you've read all this, you know exactly what to do if this ever happens to you! Public service announcement provided. Bam.

At my "recovery post" in bed, with meds, lots of water and pretty roses. :)

The whole night sucked, actually, because the babies all took turns crying randomly throughout the night and I never could get comfortable. As soon as the babies would quiet and the husband got back in bed, I'd need help getting up or taking my meds. Then as soon as I got better, one of the babies would start crying again and he'd have to go see to them. Then once all of the people were quiet, the dog would start barking for no reason. I felt awful for him! But he handled the whole night like a champ, only complaining once that he really just wanted to sleep for one whole hour at a time. Which I thought he totally deserved every time I drifted off back to sleep. (Mean wife, mean!) Fortunately, he was able to get a nap amidst all the chaos the next day, thank goodness.

Other than that, I've been faring pretty well. I still take all my pain meds right on the dot. I tried to take just one pill instead of two the other day—and an hour later, I was incredibly regretting that decision so there will be no more heroism efforts for awhile. I proudly hunch-walked my way into my surgeon's office today for my post-op appointment and got a great report. Everything was looking just the way it should, the incision looked nice and clean (it's stitched up and glued shut with dermabond, same thing that closed my c-section incision) and my belly button is also starting to look like, well, a belly button! I can't wait to see more results as the swelling goes down, which will take about four more weeks. I should be more or less fully recovered six weeks out, at which point I look forward to wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans, fitted tops, working out and being able to eat healthy meals instead of worrying about foods that'll least upset my indigestion.

The babies are doing fantastic and are being taken such good care of. They all come stop by my bed for a visit during the daytime, either daddy or grandma brings them in to make me smile and cheer me up! It'll be so worth all of this when I can run around and play with them without physical ailment or setback.

A group feeding. Ready, set, eat!

My beautiful, happy Logan.

Come back soon for my next guest post from a fellow Texas quad momma!