I'm back to daily post-op updates, aren't I?

CW: I had an organ removed, and I'm gonna talk details.

Welcome to day 3 post-op, where it starts getting properly gory. I mean, it was pretty gory on Wednesday, but I was born with that uterus, it's definitely one of the more visceral organs to begin with. So, more gory than expected, but not so much to be concerning.

The pain has kicked in, I wouldn't be surprised if today was peak pain day, or maybe tomorrow. It feels like a pretty average period, for the most part. So, painful, but very localized pain that isn't worrying me at all. THC + the Ibuprofen & Tylenol isn't perfect pain control, but I also don't want to think I'm feeling better than I really am and do too much. The combo takes it down to acceptable if I'm behaving myself, so I can see why they don't load a hysterectomy down with pain meds the way they would a joint replacement. You do need to be able to feel what's going on enough to not injure yourself, unlike with some of the recoveries I've done. If it gets worse, I can take more Oxy than I am, and if it gets worse than that, to the ER I go, because something is wrong.

I should probably describe my suture points. The big one, the one that obviously reacts to movement, is through my belly button. The one that doesn't like my guts as they're getting used to moving solid food through again is on the left side of my upper abdomen, over that left bend in the bowel as it goes to its final destination. I then have two other incisions directly below the upper abdomen incision on the left, and a matching one on the hip bone on the right. And the invisible one, the vaginal cuff, which has now replaced my cervix. None are very big, maybe 1/2" to 3/4," it's just a "death by 1,000 cuts" kind of thing when you consider that's 5-6" worth of incision, total, not incomparable to my hip replacement incision from January. They just don't have to be held together by industrial-strength closures like one big one, so dissolving stitches are a nice change.

I went from 36 hours with empty bowels to my body just absorbing nutrients from any source, and I made sure the easy sources I have available to me are full of probiotics and prebiotics to build my gut flora back up after all the prophylactic antibacterials and fasting, so I know my bowels are active, but they're... confused right now, especially with the evening Oxy dose. So, I'm guzzling Miralax, and have added some Ex-lax to the party to get things going, heh, on top of the regular wanderings out around the house to keep my legs active. I did this after trying to pass whatever was giving me cramps in my bowels, especially around that upper abdomen suture, caused a blood clot to loosen. ANY pressure is a bit dicey right now, which was what made my peeing problems on Wednesdays so concerning. I'm also shedding this kind of beige-colored film when I'm peeing, though I'm sure it's from the vagina. It's odorless and almost colorless, and not coming with any weird smells or excessive bleeding behind it, so I'm guessing it's some kind of biofilm my body is putting off while it's healing. Do I actually know what it is? Nope, I'll ask my gyno at the post op in a couple of weeks.

But. that's a pretty good day 3, all things considered. My mood is high, I got a good night's sleep and a 2.75 hour nap this afternoon, so it's been a productive day, recovery-wise.

As for the cats, they seem to have accepted that Mama isn't as fast or flexible right now, but they're also mad about the inconvenience of the whole affair.

And we're back! This is getting published 12 hours later than intended, because Elon Musk's internet is hella unreliable. But, that means that I can report that I'm to the phase in healing where the incisions itch. I know this, because I kept waking myself up last night by unconsciously scratching at them (thankfully over my clothes) as I was falling asleep, which of course hurt enough to jolt me back awake. Rinse and repeat until I'm finally able to fall asleep without the instinct to scratch kicking in. I did sleep pretty well once I got there, getting there was the issue.