Road to Recovery

Hi everybody!

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm doing great! I'm moving a bit slow, but I've been able to walk up and down the spiral staircase a couple times a day. Thank you so much for the beautiful flowers and yummy chocolates! My appetite is coming back and I'm able to do a lot on my own. I can't laugh too hard and sneezing is difficult. But, I'm only taking my pain meds at night to help me sleep. My sister has been awesome and making me tons of home cooked meals. She's my only sister, but she's the best! Shawn has been so amazing! He is my pillar of strength!

This post surgery pain is a piece of cake compared to the pain I was having before the surgery! That's a good sign, right? My doctor says that I did really well considering the 4 1/2 organs and tons of scar tissue that were removed during what was supposed to be a 4 hour surgery that turned into an 8 hour one! Whoo-hoo! I think I will spare everyone the details this time, hee-hee! I will be homebound for at least a month so I welcome any visitors! I can give you all the details then if you want, ha-ha! Just give me a call (510)638-2638.

Thanks again for all your love and support! I appreciated all the wonderful emails and phone calls. I didn't have to go through this alone! I felt the love and it's been helping with my recovery! :)

Big hugs and hope to see you all soon!
XXOXOX,

I-Li

We're Going Home

The doctor has allowed us to leave! We will be heading back probably close to 5:30 or so. Here's hoping that there isn't a lot of traffic. On a Friday? Gulp.

I will send an update when I can.

Chicken Broth &

I-Li was able to take a little walk and start to use the breath exercise thingy - you try to float 3 balls in some tubes - I tried it and it was actually pretty tough.

Here she got enough strength to eat a popsicle, so things are going well.

Sleep, Wonderful Sleep

I-Li is doing well. When she came back yesterday, her lips were totally chapped, and her eyes had a bunch of goop in them, and she was freezing. We got some chapstick for the lips and later on got to wipe her eyes. At around 10pm, she woke up and was really hot, so we modulated that. Around 11pm she was able to chew on an ice cube or two.

Sometime around midnight, she had a lot of pain in her shoulders and neck. I tried massaging, but it didn't help much. The nurse said that it was from the gas pressing against her ribs and whatnot. She got I-Li to lay more on her side and moved the heating pad to her chest.

At this point, around 6am, she is chowing on ice cubes. They've taken the morphine away. Her big problem is that she's really dizzy when she opens her eyes. They've offered meds, which she declines. Probably the best choice as they would most likely end up making her worse.

Let The Recovery Begin

I-Li is totally out of it at this point. She's pretty much drunk as hell - dizzy + dehydrated. She's passed out, but seems to be in good shape. I'm trying to be as quiet as possible and not disturb her, so sorry, but it'll be a little while longer before she can speak and stuff...

All done!

To-Li and I just talked to the doctor. We got to see a bunch of cool gory pictures (some of them look like really great 4AD album covers)

I-Li is fine. We get to see her in a little bit. Since she was under for so long, they're checking to make sure she's OK.

I will update as soon as I can!

Almost There...

We were told that there is one more procedure to go and I-Li will be all done. We'll update as soon as we can!

On Hold...

The latest update is that there was actually a lot of tissue to remove, and that things were going well. I-Li is OK. We don't have any word on the B-Section, which would add several days to her recovery.

A few interesting things. The doctors had to take a break for lunch, which I found really interesting and scary. So I guess they just tied everything up and stepped out?

What was the other interesting thing? I can't remember at this point.............

Oh yeah. while they're inside, they will also take out her appendix. talk about spring cleaning

It's 12:30, we got word from the nurse, Tristan, that everything is going smoothly. No updates at this point.

Here's a pic of the outside of the facility.

Pre Op Party People

Last night I tried to get as man jokes in as I could. I wasn't sure how early we would start in the morning, and I heard that post surgery, the patient should refrain from belly laughs. I don't know if that's an urban legend or not, but didn't want to take any chances.

After a nice wake up call from my mom @ 4:45, we headed over to the hospital. It's the Menlo Park Surgical Hospital in (duh) Menlo Park. It isn't really a hospital, but more like a hotel that happens to have operating rooms instead of conference rooms. We got here around 6:20, there being no traffic at all this time of the day.

Once we got our room. I-Li got more comfortable in the operating outfit (pic with To-Li)

The anaesthesiologist, Bruce I think his name is, came in. TANGENT: I-Li actually called the anaesthesiologist group/company/whatever a couple days ago to find out if they planned to stick a huge tube down her throat. The fear was that it might impact her vocal chords. She managed to get a guy (I'll call him Bruce until I know better) who is a musician. He said that he would make sure to get this gig so he could take care of her. BACK: Anyway, so Bruce came in and gave us the d/l on what would happen. He also got us all in high spirits with his tales of his piano playing and the story of how George Winston got signed to Windham Hill.

At about 8:30, we went to the surgery area, and they ushered I-Li away. So, now we wait. More updates soon.

FLEET WEAK !

Jon Brion sang, "You Gotta Start Somewhere" so I start with a pun. You also need to have a sense of humor. Or else. So this is my warning I've got a million of 'em.

So I-Li's sister To-Li flew in from Phoenix yesterday, which is amazingly cool of her! She has been helping around the house and making sure I-Li is in good spirits.

Today I-Li and To-Li went to the doctor's for a pre-op appointment. I'm not sure the details, but they both remarked how nice the doctor is considering how they kept interrupting him with their questions.

We have to leave early in the morning, so I am going to make this short. I'll send more updates, pics, and puns tomorrow.

-Shawnpoo

Thank you for stopping by!

I figure this would be the best way to keep everyone posted on my surgery. Shawn will be updating this soon!

Big hugs and lots of love!

I-Li