Preview: A Gradual Recovery
Abigail Strubel
The ideas, views and opinions expressed in my LinkedIn posts and profiles represent my own views and not those of any of my current or previous employers.
The day after surgery, I woke up to burning pain. Percocet took the edge off, but didn’t fully vanquish it. At intervals I clamped an ice pack between my arm and breast, which helped for about 20 minutes at a time. I was also nauseated, which hadn’t happened after either prior surgery. I ordered in saltines and drank a lot of water.
2/15/22
Subject: Ow
Ow. Woke up with PAIN. Headache. And nausea. I don't remember my fibroid surgery being this bad.
In 2016, Dr. Stratton punched five small holes into my abdomen to carve out pounds of fibroids, and left my uterus mostly intact. I’d been warned by hysterectomy survivors that for weeks after surgery, I’d experience wrenching pain when climbing stairs. Instead, a few days after surgery I felt a small twinge negotiating three steps into a Starbucks, and after that I was mostly fine. I took little walks and then longer walks every day. I needed painkillers for two days and then just felt exhausted at random intervals. I thought core muscles and nerves would heal more painfully than fatty breast tissue.
I was miserably wrong. My breast pulsed and burned. I iced and medicated and lay in bed cursing and crying. But good news trickled in anyway...