Home Again

I was released form the hospital today at noontime. It is wonderful to be home with PH and the cats, stretched out on the sofa, eating my own food. The surgery wasn't bad, all things considered. They were able to do it laparoscopically, which means I have two tiny incisions each about a half inch wide, and two larger incisions about two to 2.5 inches wide. They didn't need to cut muscle tissue, which makes the mending much easier. One thing they do with this kind of surgery is to pump you full of air so the organs are spread out a bit. Once the surgery is done, there is nowhere for the air to go, so it floats around, slowly absorbing. And it hurts, considerably more than the incisions. So yesterday was a pretty painful day, although I took the morphine when I really needed it. That air-pain is much less today. I'm just very stiff and very tired.

We won't know if the surgery solved the problem with my ITP for another few weeks. I will wean off of the prednisone, which artificially increases my platelet count, and then we will watch and see. There are three things that can kill off your platelets: the spleen, the liver and the bone marrow. The spleen can be removed, and is the most likely cause, but you can't do much about an aberrant liver or bone marrow, so here's hoping that this fixes the problem.

I'm just grateful to have this thing over with, to have wonderful doctors, and to have medical insurance. And I'm especially grateful to have so many friends who have prayed me through this. Thanks be!