Post-op day one

I slept better than I expected to. The pain and discomfort from the wound is less that what I've been used to these past couple of months. Best of all, there's an absence of that indefinable sense of stress to the nervous system which was due to internal pressure on my vagus nerve. I'm no longer trapped in state of coping and hoping things won't get worse, unable to make progress simply waiting for  surgery. Although there's quite a long healing process that needs to happen from here on, I'm feeling strangely elated, better than I've felt for many many months.

A member of the District Nurse team came just before lunch. She did an assessment, changed the dressing and took my vital signs. The blood pressure reading she took was the same as mine, normal as the doctor would have it be. Clare checked with nurse about how to dress the wound, which looks quite different now. I have a 5cm incision along my perinaeum, and a couple of Seton's sutures to drain the opened cavity. Clare took a photo so I could see and understand better. It's looks strange to me. The suture ends are tied together for neatness, and are a surprising pinky red  colour, so that they stand out for anyone treating the wound to notice.

I had a message on my phone from our GP surgery cancelling an appointment made last week to visit the nurse for a blood pressure check in a month's time. Nothing to do with the nurse's findings, but a clue that the surgery already knows I've had the op, and that a different regime of medical attention will now be put into place. 

For the past couple of months the fortnightly surgery check was the GPs way of checking that my condition didn't worsen before an operation took place, and not get noticed. It's reassuring to reflect this has worked well. I have been quietly accompanied by medics and District Nurses all along this precarious journey. Bravo!

I spent a lot of time today talking to people by phone or email, updating them. We intended to go out for a short walk, if I felt up to it, but ran out of time before it rained. But never mind. So far just enjoying feeling different and resting is enough to be going on with. Praise God.