Post-surgery recovery

Had the surgery last Wednesday morning. Went well, but there were some unexpected complications. Lost a lot of blood. That made my blood pressure drop really low. They kept me overnight at the hospital to monitor that. My normal blood pressure is like 105-ish/60, which I'm told is on the low end of normal--funny to think I've got low blood pressure with all the issues we deal with from the kids. Also, was super light-headed & dizzy. No doubt, from the anesthesia & low blood pressure. The anesthesia hit me really hard. I was in the recovery room at least a couple hours. I remember going in & out of sleep, and hearing things, being asked questions. Took almost that whole 2 hours to be fully alert. I had to beg the nurses to let me walk in the halls(per doctor's orders!) a couple times, 10 pm and then like 2 & 3 in the morning because sitting in a bed with no activity of moving around made it very difficult to sleep. I think I only slept 4 hours(2 hours at a time) Wednesday night in the hospital. They were checking blood pressure, etc. every 2 hours too.

So thankful to be off the antibiotics--they made me very dizzy. I also had to switch pain meds from Vicodin to Advil, also due to extreme dizzyness. I was having to pull out my over-the-counter meds for vertigo(which I get every time I get over a cold) to help minimize some of that.

Most of the pain has subsided, a week post-op now. I can't lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk. It's breaking my heart not to be able to pick up Brent when he cries or just wants to cuddle. I feel so bad for Tom & Ivy picking up so much of the slack on that. There's not much else I can do though. Thankfully, Brent has already been climbing for a couple months now, and I am allowed to push him in a stroller(walking and light weights(3 lbs) are all I've been officially cleared for. Tom has also thoughtfully pulled out our futon mattress for Brent to sleep on at night since I can't get him in or out of his crib. We usually have used it for when the kids are transitioning from a crib to a bigger kids' bed, since the futon mattress is pretty flat.

We've got some full blown tantrums from Brent. Collin's taking advantage of the situation and being as aggressive & disagreeable as much as possible--though, his teacher says he's much better this year than last year for behaviors at school. It bugs me that he's got a big smile on his face when he hurts others(mostly Brent, Drew, and me). I feel like there is just a brick wall that we can't get thru to get him to understand. It's bad to say or even think of feel this about your own kid, but man there are so many days I feel like giving up.

Other than that, doing a LOT of walking, since I can't take the car to & from school--I can't lift Brent in his carseat. Ivy can, but then, I'd be stuck once school starts in the morning. If I don't do any walking on Saturday, I'll have walked 11.25 miles this week. We've had a nasty heatwave this week--in the 90's with humidity. I feel bad for the kids, but this is out of my hands. I did try to get the surgery scheduled for early August just for this reason, so it'd only be dealing with it only a few weeks into the school year. But, that's not how things always turn out.