1 week later--lessons learned

It has been over a week now since my salpingectomy.  I am feeling good.  I've hit the point where the bruising is going away and the dermabond is getting itchy and falling off.  I love when this happens.  All this time my incisions have been closed with this clear glue.  The look pretty gross all ragged and bloody.  But then the glue starts to peel away from the skin and behind it is this magical little bitty pink line.  What was hideous turns out to be not that bad at all. Only one of the sites is still slightly painful.  It's the largest one right above my belly button where the largest of tools was used and the largest bruise was.

I have learned a lot of lessons from this surgery that I will take with me from now on:

• I will never take another surgery lightly.  I didn't think this one would be a big deal and because of that didn't plan well.  For any future surgery, I will not assume that my body will immediately bounce back. Whether under anethesia for 8 hours or 30 minutes,  my body needs time to get back to normal. 
• Even though I like to think I have a high pain tolerance,  if a doctor prescribes pain meds, it's an obvious sign that there will be pain involved and I should take them.  This was my biggest problem with this surgery.  For my mastectomy, I never woke up in intense pain.  I kept on top of the pain meds taking them round the clock for the first while because I knew the pain would be bad.  I should have done the same thing this time at least for the first day or two.  
• Just because I start feeling better, it doesn't mean you actually are back to normal.  On day 4 I posted that I really started to feel better.  Which led to me thinking that on Day 5 I could do a lot of things that I shouldn't have like vacuum, pull the hose out around the yard to water the flowers, or let the girls bike during our walk which I know leads to trouble when one little girl's legs just get too tired.  I knew that I have a lifting restriction of 8 pounds, but to me I justified it because pushing, pulling, or dragging is not lifting.  Silly me spent Day 6 regretting all the actions of Day 5.  I know better now.  I will be taking it easy more.  This is what happens in my house when I take it easy. One daughter dances and signs with the dog while the other sets up an obstacle course with every basket or box she can find while I read on the couch.