9 Days Post-Op

I'm pretty tired of these surgical drains by now. On days where I'm more active, I drain more fluid. The color in the drains is redder than it has been the first week, so I hope that doesn't mean I've overdone it. It doesn't look like red blood, it looks like red fluid.

After being told last week to be more active, I was. I woke up this morning and baked muffins for my children and my sister, who is here to help. I went to the pharmacy and walked for about 30 minutes again. I set up a craft table for my children, and I used my bread maker to make a fresh loaf of bread for the dinner my mother-in-law was bringing. I lifted the baby a few times (I'm a day early on this restriction, so I cheated). I did lots of dawdling around the house and standing.

I wasn't supposed to lift my baby until ten days post-op, but I carried her for a few minutes a few times today when she needed comfort. It didn't hurt, but I did feel it in my ab muscles.

Now, at the end of this day, I feel like I've overdone it and I'm completely exhausted and my stomach is hurting a bit. Hopefully a good night sleep will undo today's exertion.

I have a good half-mile walk in the morning to take my oldest child to school, and I plan to rest after that. I'll see the doctor on Wednesday, and my number one request is going to be to get these drains out of me! At the same time, I don't think he'll take them out because they're still draining fluids from my abdomen and I guess those fluids are better out than in.

I've also noticed more abdominal swelling today than usual. I'm going to attribute this to overdoing it and, other than walking my daughter to school, going to take it very easy tomorrow.