I was admitted to Duke University Hospital on Wednesday September 13, 2003, knowing only that I had a large tumor in my abdomen and not know exactly how serious the situation was. My brother dropped me off in front of the hospital on his way to work. I had to negotiate the halls of the hospital on my own to find the surgery check in area. Because no one was with me, they put my personal belongings into a locker to be recovered when I was able to. My doctor came by to check on me and to let me know what to expect. I was then put under anesthesia.
When I woke up, not only did I feel very groggy, but I was very painful. I had been cut from above my belly button to my pubic bone in order for the surgeon to be able to remove all parts of the tumor as well as taking out the lymph nodes and anything else that could have possibly been affected by the cancer. They also removed all fluids from my belly. I was told that I would be in the hospital until I was able to start passing gas and eating regular food. They insisted that I needed to start getting up and walking right away. I know that would have been helpful in my recovery, but I was hardly able to stand up, let alone walk the length of the hall like they wanted me too. They also wanted me to cough and breathe into the machine to build up my lungs, but doing so was painful so I didn't do it.
Because I didn't get up walking or do the breathing exercises, I wound up getting pneumonia. I have never been a great fan of pain so whenever I was in pain, I wasn't able to do anything. After what was supposed to be a 3 day hospital stay (which wound up being 8 days), I was released to go to my brother's house. I had a room on the second floor so I had to negotiate the steps any time I needed to go to appointments. I was able to stay on the second floor if I didn't need to go anywhere, but I had to use a walker even to walk up and down the hall because I couldn't stand up straight without it. But the excitement was just beginning...
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