Category Archives: Chester

Surgery is a Wrap and Update

About a year ago you would have found me driving from my house in Dubuque, Iowa to Iowa City, Iowa and the University of Iowa Hospitals. It was an exciting drive because I was to be meeting the surgeon who would perform my surgery in the (I thought at that time) near future.

It was time to get this thing fixed!

This little difficulty had been a pretty major problem since 2015.  I’d been struggling with it quietly, I mean nobody like to listen to somebody whine, right?  It’s not a good look. Besides, it was a rather embarrassing and definitely a #TMI problem and to be honest, something that not a whole lot of people ever think about!

I’m not going to go into the whole reason why the surgery had to be done.  I had blogged about it a year ago.  I’ll put the link here if anybody is curious enough to want to read up but I’m putting a disclaimer out ahead of time, it’s icky.

TMI: Pooping Is Not Overrated

The date for surgery was set for April 15.  Tax Day.  We had agreed I would run my March 100M, recover from the race, then she would get to slice and dice on me.  Sounded perfect!

Then COVID came along.

My surgery was cancelled 2 weeks before it’s scheduled day.

RATS!

My problem had caused some “complications” during that March 100M and I knew I was running out of time before it’d be causing major difficulties in my IRL activities as well.  When she had to cancel the procedure, I was a sad panda!  Both MFH and I knew it was way past time to get this fixed!!!

When we were able to finally get the surgery rescheduled for this past September 30, I was so excited!!!  I mean, nobody likes the idea of major surgery but this problem had moved way past being a minor inconvenience to being a major problem.  Wild horses couldn’t keep me away from that hospital!!!

It was time!

A few details about the surgery:

First off, my surgery was done robotically.  The following pics are courtesy of Google images so that is not my tummy but these are to give you an idea as to what fun things they did.

The robotic surgery is really rather fascinating! I came home with four 2-ish inch incisions along my waist.  Those incisions hated my blue jeans but loved my running tights!

It’s kind of like a video game for the surgeon!  They sit at the console and move the robotic arms around.

Fascinating stuff, right?

I had been required to do some surgery prep the day before and to take a ton of antibiotics to lesson the chance of infection. Antibiotics are not my friend and they gave me a doozie of an infection all on their own.  #NoFun

The surgery lasted about 5.5 hours.

MFH (My Favorite Husband) bless his heart, was at the hospital from 5:30am, when I was required to be there until 5:00pm when visiting hours were over.  After that, he faced the 2 hour drive home.  He was so tired!!! I slept through most of the day!

They told me that I was allowed unlimited walking and that they wanted me to try for four 15 minute walks starting on day of surgery once I woke up.  I was like, Deal!

The more I walked, the quicker recovery would be.  They didn’t have to tell me that twice!

So, 3 hours post surgery, I walked my first loop around the hospital floor.  Each loop was a tenth of a mile (not that I used my COROS to find that out or anything).

I have to admit that first loop was a tad uncomfortable but not awful or anything…just uncomfortable.  To be honest, I never took anything more than Tylenol for discomfort post surgery or here at home.  They offered narcotics but I declined. I mean, why bother if you don’t really NEED it, right?

I need to make a note here:  #1 Son very graciously came up from Mississippi to help out while I was in the hospital.  MFH had to work and give a big presentation.  You know how sometimes things just work out that way?  So, #1 Son was up to help.  It was a wonderful visit with him and the #grandpups.  We had a great time and he was the lucky guy who got to drive me home from the hospital.

It was lots of fun spoiling him and the #Grandpups, Alice and Arlo and of course, Chester!

I was discharged after 2 days with a long list of restrictions.  The worst one was NO running for 3 months.  I was like, WHAT!?!

The was whole list of dietary restrictions, no lifting/pushing/pulling anything over 10lbs for 3 months and no planking for 3 months!

*Side note:  Y’all tease and groan when we start a new plank challenge but she commented on today’s appointment at how strong my core was.  She’d been seriously surprised so, YAY for planking!!!

As soon as I got home, I hopped, okay maybe stepped very carefully on the TM (Treadmill) and started walking.  The first couple of days I could only walk 3 tenths of a mils at a time. Then the distances started getting longer.

Finally, one week post surgery I walked a 5k without stopping.  I was so excited!!!  My goal by the end of October was a 5k!  WooHoo!!!

#1 Son and I had some fun walks while he was here.  We enjoyed the Halloween Decorations, too!  I think by the time he went home, our longest distance was 7 walking miles.

Finally, this past Monday, I was able to grab a 14 mile walk.  I was so excited to conquer that distance!

It was super exciting for me to go to today’s appointment with my surgeon and tell her I was almost at 100 miles walked since surgery 3 weeks ago.  She, of course had to be a smartie and say, Why not 200!?! LOL!!!

We chatted about restrictions, etc.  My dietary restrictions are lifted.  My lifting/pushing/pulling restrictions are firmly in place as are my planking restrictions BUT, seeing as I don’t have to go back to see her again, I’m thinking we’ll ease back into that stuff in December.

The biggest news of the day was we reached a compromise on when I can return to running!!!  Y’all, I’m doing the happy dance on this!!!

Once December gets here, I can ease back into running with modified C25K kind of thing.  My coach and I will have to decide what that’s going to look like?  My first race for 2021 is my favorite Mississippi ultra, The #MS50TrailRun. It’s the first Saturday in March.  YAY for having a little more than 8 weeks to get ready for a 50k!!!

She is going to have me go on IV Iron because we’ve been fighting anemia for way too long.  I’m kind of relieved about this!  We’re also going to be hooking up with another specialist but we’ll wait and see how that pans out.

I think that catches y’all up to date on the surgery stuff!  Sorry about the long wait to find out what was going on but I kind of wanted to wait after today’s check up so I could tie up all the loose ends.

Happy Running, everyone!

#IRun4Aiden