Staples are out!
Today ended up being a much longer day than anticipated, and as such, I was probably doing the worst since coming home by the end of it all, but thanks to a nice nap, I’m now doing fine.
Kaiser has everything online, so I had double checked my appointment time online. I had thought the appointment for today was around 11, but when I looked online, it said 9:30, so at 9:15, we were downtown and ready. Of course, when we checked in, we were informed my appointment really WAS for 11:30. Maybe I was too drugged when I read it online? Anyway, yet another reason why I really can’t be back at work yet, haha!
Because we had 2 hours to kill and because it was our original plan anyway (when we thought the appt was at 11), we drove over to the other hospital where my friend was so we could visit. It was a perfect visit, and neither of us appeared too tired during the visit, although I’m sure after it, we were both more tired from it than we realized during. In any case, I’m SO glad everything worked out and hopefully it was just as nice for my friend as it was for us.
Then we drove back to MY appointment, with perfect timing, and I had my stitches and staples out (more psychologically difficult than physically painful). And yes, they had a special tool to do it, and yes, it was labeled “Staple Remover.” We got a picture because it was so awesome. Everything looked good and they were very pleased with how it was healing. Also very good: we got a referral for an oncologist (NOT in downtown Denver, hooray for less driving!), and we should be hearing from them soon!
I had taken a Vicodin a little before the removal to help prevent possible pain, but since we had thought it was going to be 2 hours earlier, we had not brought food and I took it on an empty stomach. I was mostly fine, but with that, combined with the queasy feeling I get when people play around with areas recently operated on, I was not feeling super awesome after the removal. We went to a a little restaurant near the hospital, and I managed to eat/mouth more food than I have in a long time! I had a bacon and cheddar omelet, hash browns and pancakes, in addition to a fruit smoothie. Granted, I didn’t eat all of any of it, and much of it was swallowed in unchewed chunks, but I still was very proud! By the end, I was still hungry, but I was just too tired to eat any more.
By the time we drove the 45 minutes home, I was done-done-done. I had been out of the house for 6 hours, which was approximately 6x longer than my previous outings had been. I immediately went to bed and slept for an hour, at which point I woke up, but was still tired, which I’m usually not after a nap. After a little resting, I was back to pretty-good, good enough for a quick visit from a dear friend!
Lesson I learned today? Staying home until baby comes to recover is probably a VERY good idea, even if I am going stir crazy by the end (especially if she’s late).