Two Week Post Take Down Surgery

Today is my two week mark from my take down surgery.  It has been a crazy two weeks with my emotions all over the board.  I can say that I am doing much better tonight than I was a week ago.  It has not been an easy road, and it is far from over, but I am seeing improvement, and that is a good thing.  Here are somethings that I have learned over the past two weeks.

Butt Burn is the most painful thing I have ever felt!  Nothing can accurately describe the pain from butt burn.  The closest might be hot, thick, liquid with sharp chunks of glass.  Even that seems easy compared to how it really felt.  I tried a lot of creams and remedies to help fight the burn, but nothing seemed to work until I found Ilex.  (A friend from Texas helped me with that one, I owe him a huge thanks for the advice.)  Within 8 hours of using the paste I was about 80% better.  It was amazing.  For those of you who read my blog and are preparing for surgery, I would try the Ilex if the other creams do not work.  Ilex is great, but it has it trade off.  Ilex is a butt paste, it is like skin in a tube.  When you put it on your body, it sticks.  My first advice, and the most important advice, is get your spouse, significant other, your REALLY good friend, or a good mirror and shave your self down there.  If you do not you will have dingle berrys of biblical proportions.  This stuff does NOT rub off, it clumps up.  Trust me, shave.  Another issue is the stuff really is paste.  Your butt cheeks will stick together.  You have to separate your bottom before you go, that is kind of a weird feeling.  Then when you wipe, the toilet paper can stick to the stuff, so now you have clumps of paste and clumps of toilet paper down there.  The first few days I took about 3 or 4 showers a day to let the hot water run over that area and loosen the paste so I could get it off my body.  Great stuff, just kind of messy.

I have also learned that what I eat effects my outcome.  In the first few days I ate everything and anything that I wanted.  I love to use food to comfort my woes and I had many woes.  I didn’t realize that my food was not helping my woes, but adding to them.  Two days ago I watched what I ate all day.  I was very selective in what I ate, and I had the best day since my surgery.  Everything was clicking along just great.  Then yesterday I decided to eat whatever I wanted.  Between lunch and dinner I had 5 hot dogs, chips, Mac-n-cheese, 2 cookies, yogurt, cake, ice cream, cheese curds, and some soda.  Yeah… that wasn’t smart.  By the end of the night my butt burn was returning, my bathroom times increased by almost double and I was just over all feeling horrible.  Today I watched what I ate again and it has been a great day.  So food is very important to how you feel.  I have to eat simple meals.  One or maybe two things like: A baked potato, chicken and rice, toast, single slice of cheese pizza, small salad, something like that.  I can’t do the 6 different items at one sitting right now, that is too hard on my system.

The mental battle is still just that, a battle.  I have done better, but it is going to be a long road for me.  I still panic when I am out.  I have gone out by myself and had good success, but I still have panic attacks, and I still feel like I am going to crap in my pants.  I hope these subside in the next few weeks, time will tell.

I am currently averaging 10 trips to the bathroom in a 24 hour period …..when I eat right.  Sometimes I actually have solid looking stool.  That is a first in 5 years!!

Over all week two has been nothing like week one.  I have seen many things get better.  I notice that I am holding more in my J-pouch before I go to the bathroom.  It isn’t a lot, but it is more than in week one.  I am looking forward to week three to see what else gets better.

I have to go to the hospital tomorrow so the Dr. can ‘stretch’ me down there.  (Read my last post if you don’t know what I am talking about.)  I hope that helps and that everything goes well.

Here is a pic of my scars.  There is a scab that has formed on my last scar, but that should heal in the next week.  Over all the scaring isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  The worst thing is the large fat lump I have on my left side.  Maybe my new nickname will have to be “Lumpy Lefty.”  My Dr. said it should go down over the next year, YEAH fun time swimming this year.

2 week post takedown

~ by Chaz on June 4, 2009.