4th day post Surgery

For those not familiar, I'm keeping a diary of my life with Crohn's disease. I started it the day of my surgery. My surgery was needed because the Crohn's disease had scarred tissue in a couple of areas in my small intestine and part of my colon. If Crohn's is new to you, check my post on yesterday in which I explain what Crohn's is. I'm not a doctor but the information provide was through sources on the web and my experience.

Today has been challenging. For one, I'm sleepy but it's difficult getting sleep in the hospital when they are checking your vitals, changing your medicine, etc. When I do fall asleep, it's only for maybe an hour and somebody is waking me up. They always ask what is my pain level on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest. My pain level right now is a 5. It is usually the highest when I first wake up because the morphine is not in my system. Before today, I had to administer the morphine myself, every 8 minutes. It was done that way initially because after surgery, when I needed pain medicine I would not have to wait for the nurse to give it to me. It had its drawbacks obviously. Now I call the nurse for my morphine. She will give it to me in my IV and it will last for roughly 2 hours. It's critical that I move around every day to help with the soreness my body. I walked around the floor for 30 minutes (about 11 laps). I feel better in spite of the soreness. The doctor came to check on me this morning and my incisions look fine. Before I can be released, I need to be able to move and walk around, eat and take medication by mouth. Right now, I can do 1 out 3. I'm sipping juices and taking medication through my IV. What I'm waiting for is to pass gas. Once I pass gas, my digestive system will be beginning to function. Once that happens, I'm on way to eating again. I have not had solid food in over a month. I'm progressing but still have a ways to go before I can go home. My goal is to be outta here by Thursday. Pray for me that I pass gas by tomorrow.