Good afternoon to all. It is a sunny day here and quite cool and breezy. It is time to look forward to autumn and slide as graciously as we can into winter. My favorite season is fall. I love the colors, the cool sunny days, and the smell of smoke coming from bonfires and fireplaces. I don't fair well in hot and humid weather, so this is a perfect time for me.
Things are starting to get better at our house, finally. My husband has been able to get all the medical issues addressed that were holding him back from getting better. He is starting to improve and making strides to getting well. It is a very slow process but at least he is able to eat again and is outside and walking. He is getting a bit stronger everyday. I make a point of getting him out of the house at least ever other day. We go to the park and drive around or we go out and eat and I have been taking him along when I run errands.
His overall outlook has improved which is very important to a good recovery. We have found a support group that we will attend for the 1st time at the end of the month. My husband has talked with the director of the group and he has assured him that his life will return to normal. It will help immensely for him to be with others that have the same illness and situation to deal with. My husband had an ileostomy August 26. He had his colon and rectum permanently removed. He will now and forever wear an ostomy bag.
If all goes well, he will return to work in November and hopefully our lives will go on without a hitch as stressful and lasting as long as this one did.
It has been three weeks since my husband's surgery and 10 days since he returned home from the hospital. There has not been a whole lot of change, but a lot of ups and downs, mostly downs.
He has ate very little food for over three months, and he is really having a hard time eating. It is hard for us who have never had that problem to understand. But for him it is almost impossible. His stomach has shrank so much that he can only put a few bites in his mouth at a time. Also, it is a bit mental too. For three months every time he put food in his mouth, he would instantly have to run to the bathroom. I guess in his mind he was trying to protect himself. Now he has to get a new mindset that food is not his enemy, that it is his friend and he must eat to get better.
This has been the most stress that either of us has ever had to deal with. For a long time before this I was able to get plenty of rest and take care of my fibromyalgia. I was home by myself all day, I could sleep when I needed to and in general do what my body needed me to do to control the pain. My husband ran most errands on his way home from work, did most of the grocery shopping and I didn't have to do much running around.
This summer I have not been able to any of the things that I need to do to take care of myself. I have decided that I am going to be tired forever! I can't see an end to the tiredness any time in the future. I do everything now. As far as pain goes I no longer can tell where it starts or ends. It is constant. The second week in the hospital I went through the worst bout of fibro fog ever. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't make sense of anything. I wasn't making sense to anyone else either.
I am pretty sure that when everything gets normal again, my husband finally getting well and back to work, I am going to go to bed and stay there for however long it takes. That could be days, weeks or months, whatever it takes to get well again.
