So today was a big day! My first real outing since surgery, and it actually consisted of 2 outings! I took a lovely shower with my shower chair - so happy about that thing! And then I dried and curled my hair. And then I tackled cleaning my stoma. I think I discovered a WAY better way to clean it than I had been doing. I had been trying to clean it while sitting down and putting gauze and waterproof disposable clothes under it. Well, today I thought, why not just lean over my sink and let it drip in there while I'm cleaning it? So that's what I did! It worked like a charm! I leaned over my sink and unsnapped my bag from the base and took it completely off. I cleaned all the mucus off of the stoma and then, per my home health nurse's instructions, I rinsed out the bag and got as much of that mucus off of it that I could (some of it had dried on it pretty hard). I had been thinking about changing the bag today for the all reasons I didn't like it, but I knew I was going to be wearing a dark blue smock dress today that totally hid the bag, so I decided to keep it on. When I was done cleaning the stoma, I threaded the stents into the whole in the bag and snapped it back in place, and voila, all clean! It was interesting because shortly after I had snapped the bag in place I looked down at the stoma and saw it actually producing some of the mucus right before my eyes. It was kinda weird! I had read that it should slow down on the mucus producing, so I'm looking forward to that!
So after I got dressed and put on some make up and my hot rollers had cooled, I took them out, brushed my hair, and off my husband and I went to a lunchon at a country club (ooh la la!) by invitation of our Financial Advisor. It was really the first time I had gotten out (besides doctor visits and when we stopped for breakfast after my doctor's follow up visit), and I felt pretty good about it! It was about a 20 minute drive, and we stayed for about an hour and a half, and drove the 20 minutes home, and then I took about an hour nap - that felt SO good! I rested for most of the afternoon, and then I left the house at about 6pm and drove myself to our marriage class (Tim had to be there earlier), so that felt good to be driving again after over 3 weeks of not driving! My doctor had told me the week after I got out the hospital I could drive if I wanted to, but I had read that most patients were advised not to drive until 4-6 weeks. So I compromised - 3 weeks! Anywho, we always have dinner with our facilitators and go around the table and find out what's going on in everyone's life, so I was able to be there for that. And then I surpised Tim by getting up to speak during our large group time (and this is no small class - we run about 60-70 people every week), and I spoke mainly about him. I just wanted to honor him for the way he has supported and loved me through this crazy bladder cancer journey, and to hopefully cast vision into other marriages who may be struggling like we were for the first 20 years of our 31 year marriage. It went really well - I had a lot of great feedback - and then we spent an hour doing the last chapter of the marriage book we use with our group we've been leading for the past 5 months. By the time we left there a little after 9pm I was pretty tired, but feeling very satisfied and thankful! I was exhausted when we got home, but not sleepy, so I ended up not going to sleep until around 1am! It was a long but blessed day!
So after I got dressed and put on some make up and my hot rollers had cooled, I took them out, brushed my hair, and off my husband and I went to a lunchon at a country club (ooh la la!) by invitation of our Financial Advisor. It was really the first time I had gotten out (besides doctor visits and when we stopped for breakfast after my doctor's follow up visit), and I felt pretty good about it! It was about a 20 minute drive, and we stayed for about an hour and a half, and drove the 20 minutes home, and then I took about an hour nap - that felt SO good! I rested for most of the afternoon, and then I left the house at about 6pm and drove myself to our marriage class (Tim had to be there earlier), so that felt good to be driving again after over 3 weeks of not driving! My doctor had told me the week after I got out the hospital I could drive if I wanted to, but I had read that most patients were advised not to drive until 4-6 weeks. So I compromised - 3 weeks! Anywho, we always have dinner with our facilitators and go around the table and find out what's going on in everyone's life, so I was able to be there for that. And then I surpised Tim by getting up to speak during our large group time (and this is no small class - we run about 60-70 people every week), and I spoke mainly about him. I just wanted to honor him for the way he has supported and loved me through this crazy bladder cancer journey, and to hopefully cast vision into other marriages who may be struggling like we were for the first 20 years of our 31 year marriage. It went really well - I had a lot of great feedback - and then we spent an hour doing the last chapter of the marriage book we use with our group we've been leading for the past 5 months. By the time we left there a little after 9pm I was pretty tired, but feeling very satisfied and thankful! I was exhausted when we got home, but not sleepy, so I ended up not going to sleep until around 1am! It was a long but blessed day!
RSS Feed
