Seems she'd been trying to get hold of me all weekend - I have another top tip for you - don't change your home phone provider (and then discover the new phone line doesn't work) the day before you have an operation. A Virgin lad had been round on the Saturday and put a new switch in my slot ... I didn't ask further in case I made him blush, but no one had the new Virgin number - and my mobile number had had a 3 replaced by a 5 in the notes she had. So on the off chance that I was in and because she was in the area, she rang the door bell.
Quick check of the dressings (which meant drawing on one as there had been a bit of an ooze, but nothing serious and she was just marking it to check it didn't get any worse) and a general discussion on how things were going. Which included her taking a monitoring pad off my back - it seemed I'd been wearing that since Friday, she also pointed out I was still orange from the stuff they cover you with in surgery and had developed a bit of a rash from something rubbing. Goodness knows what she thought, I must have looked very grubby and like I'd not really checked my bits at all!
I was also warned that the general anesthetic and pain killers they gave me during the operation will be in my system for five days so I should expect to be a bit up and down and that it was worth keeping up a reasonable routine of taking the tablets I'd been given. I can get a bit stupidly stoic over things like that so it was very useful to have a nurse tell me to take the pills.
Next set of important dates, I'll get another nurse on Wednesday (phone call between 8 and 9 - all the phones now work and she has all the correct numbers!) at which point they'll take off the dressings (slightly nervous about the ouch factor in that!) then the following Monday I'll be allowed to properly shower and pull out my stitches (if I want) (they're the ones that dissolve so actually it should be quite straight forward and I'm not particularly squeamish) or I can make an appointment for the nurse at my surgery to take them out.
I got permission to shower below the waist as I have a hand-held device (that sounds wrong ... but I'm leaving it there for the comedy value!) and bless her cotton socks she washed my hair for me.
Hearing that she had just come from an 80 year old lady who had announced that she was feeling fine and was off out I felt a bit guilty about being in my pj's so I washed the bits I could reach, wiped the rest of me and put on some clothes to venture to Tesco's for wet wipes (and other tip/obvious thing I should have thought of! You need loads of wet wipes when you're not allowed to shower or use deodorant!)
Monday I walked to the Dr's to deliver my surgery note and ask them to process my prescription application - another of the 'benefits' of cancer is that I'll have five years worth of free prescriptions. I then caught a bus into Croydon to buy a couple of larger bras - which I did, deciding that maternity ones looked the softest.
All of which meant I overdid things a bit and I got home cold and tired; silly Lucy. I fed myself, took painkillers and then cranked up the heating and the number of covers I had for a sofa nap - woke up bright red but feeling much better :-)
Tuesday will be spent in the house!
Oh and hoovering counts as heavy labour so I can't do any of that for the moment ... I didn't like to confess I only hoover if someone is coming to visit so that isn't going to make a lot of difference :-)
Quick check of the dressings (which meant drawing on one as there had been a bit of an ooze, but nothing serious and she was just marking it to check it didn't get any worse) and a general discussion on how things were going. Which included her taking a monitoring pad off my back - it seemed I'd been wearing that since Friday, she also pointed out I was still orange from the stuff they cover you with in surgery and had developed a bit of a rash from something rubbing. Goodness knows what she thought, I must have looked very grubby and like I'd not really checked my bits at all!
I was also warned that the general anesthetic and pain killers they gave me during the operation will be in my system for five days so I should expect to be a bit up and down and that it was worth keeping up a reasonable routine of taking the tablets I'd been given. I can get a bit stupidly stoic over things like that so it was very useful to have a nurse tell me to take the pills.
Next set of important dates, I'll get another nurse on Wednesday (phone call between 8 and 9 - all the phones now work and she has all the correct numbers!) at which point they'll take off the dressings (slightly nervous about the ouch factor in that!) then the following Monday I'll be allowed to properly shower and pull out my stitches (if I want) (they're the ones that dissolve so actually it should be quite straight forward and I'm not particularly squeamish) or I can make an appointment for the nurse at my surgery to take them out.
I got permission to shower below the waist as I have a hand-held device (that sounds wrong ... but I'm leaving it there for the comedy value!) and bless her cotton socks she washed my hair for me.
Hearing that she had just come from an 80 year old lady who had announced that she was feeling fine and was off out I felt a bit guilty about being in my pj's so I washed the bits I could reach, wiped the rest of me and put on some clothes to venture to Tesco's for wet wipes (and other tip/obvious thing I should have thought of! You need loads of wet wipes when you're not allowed to shower or use deodorant!)
Monday I walked to the Dr's to deliver my surgery note and ask them to process my prescription application - another of the 'benefits' of cancer is that I'll have five years worth of free prescriptions. I then caught a bus into Croydon to buy a couple of larger bras - which I did, deciding that maternity ones looked the softest.
All of which meant I overdid things a bit and I got home cold and tired; silly Lucy. I fed myself, took painkillers and then cranked up the heating and the number of covers I had for a sofa nap - woke up bright red but feeling much better :-)
Tuesday will be spent in the house!
Oh and hoovering counts as heavy labour so I can't do any of that for the moment ... I didn't like to confess I only hoover if someone is coming to visit so that isn't going to make a lot of difference :-)
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