*   #17 My Room

The air pillow pant legs are to help move the blood along my veins and to prevent blood clots from forming.  I’d really like a pair for at home but I don’t think they’ll go for it; too bad! 

One of the nurses tells me that she’s going to get me cleaned up.   She adjusts the sheet, lifts the gown and with a small wet towel in her hand tries to wipe away some of the mess created by surgery and iodine.  I venture a look at my belly and what I see isn’t as horrific as I thought it would be, but it’s not pretty.  

There are 5 bandages visible. My tummy looks like someone has used it for stabbing practice with bandaged “X” s all over the place and bright pink, almost red, colour smeared everywhere.  There are huge dark bruises and down the middle near the bottom is a bright reddish bruise. It’s odd looking and almost speckled. 

This was taken after I got home so it's not as colourful or as bloated as it was the day after surgery and some of the bandages have already come off.

The 3 smaller incisions, each about an inch or so, have crosses of steri-strips that are caked with blood, some dry and some still oozing.  My gown shows the evidence of that in a couple of places.  My belly button has a double layer of strips that almost seem to be holding it together.  The whole abdomen is so distended that I look like I’m 8 months pregnant – while lying down!  Just barely visible beyond the hump is a large bandage covering the longest cut on the bottom left. It looks to be about 4 or 5 inches across, but with tape and gauze covering it, I’m really not sure.  One thing’s certain: I’m very tender so every wipe of the towel is a bit painful. 

The nurses are about to change shifts so they do temperature, pulse and blood pressure readings one more time.  I mention how thirsty I am and some ice chips help, but I’m only allowed a few at a time. The nurse shows me how to work the morphine pump that’s attached to the I.V. in the back of my hand.  When Mike arrives we visit for a short while and when he leaves I settle in to try and get some sleep.