The next few days following the procedure were tough. The whole "you can go back to work after 2 days" claim seems a bit like a joke to me, though admittedly i did have a lot done.
First of all there is the pain. And my god there is a lot of it. I have had surgery before for non-cosmetic reasons, so I went into this thing thinking I knew what I was getting myself into. But having had my front, my back and my legs done all at once, I was so very unprepared for this. Every position is uncomfortable. Changing positions, especially from laying down to sitting up, brings a new fresh hell. Thank god for the painkillers to help take the edge off.
Secondly, there is is dizziness. Now, I have super low blood pressure normally. But the trauma of surgery plus the meds they put me on all combine to make that ten lower. Every time I changed levels of any sort, my ears would fill cotton, I'd get dizzy and black out. Every. Time. So we tried getting out of bed slower, breathing techniques, adding a bit of salt to my diet etc.
At one point, when we first took off the compression garment, about 2 days out, in the hopes of taking a shower, it came on so fast and I barely had any warning. I recall telling my mom I was going to go to sleep, sitting/collapsing onto the toilet next to the shower and then it all went black. I almost came to hearing her frantically shouting my name, and the next thing I remember after that is being on face down on the floor of my hallway, with her pleading for me to wake up.
Apparently I had a seizure. A 5 second, eyes rolling back in my head and convulsing seizure. Then I passed out cold.
My poor mom, I can't even imagine how scared she must have been. I learned after a quick google search on low blood pressure, that it can lead to seizures. Fun.
For the rest of that day we took it slow. We scrapped the shower idea, got me back into the compression garment, and I slept the rest of the day with the help of those trusty painkillers.
The next day way a complete 180 from that, thank god, and I was able to shower, move around etc without any more fainting episodes. For anyone else out there with low blood pressure, I found it helpful to add a bit of salt to my food and drink some coffee (I read somewhere that caffeine can help) before trying to shower again. It really helped me, but check with your doctor before you try anything out of the usual.
I promise to post some pics soon, however disgusting they may be. For anyone reading this, please do feel free to ask me any questions you may like.
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