Congrats, now you get to start healing and ready to return to your normal life. This will be both very easy and pretty hard.
You will wake up groggy, probably in stages and not really feeling anything. Even moving will be hard to start with. Just rest, relax, and enjoy whatever blankets they put on or you want off. The most surprising thing you will notice is the sore throat, which no one will warn you about. “Surgery wasn’t on my throat so it shouldn’t hurt” but they intubate, shove a tube down your throat, to help your breathe while out. It will also fade in an hour or so, maybe three but its so little, just the first thing I ever feel when waking up as I try to talk.
I do not know if it is me or what but the first thing I do when coming out of anesthesia is start to talk and blather. “What time is it?” “How’d it go?” “Can I get something to drink?” “Why does my throat hurt?” “Where is Darth Teddy?” “When can I get up?” So it is annoying, then some more sleep. It will take a few seconds for your brain to kick in, hence why I have asked why my throat was sore more than once.
There is one nasty side effect I had the last time though, and it was the only time so be warned. Operating Rooms are kept COLD, and in recovery they warm you up with heating blankets before you are fully awake. Sometimes you regain consciousness before warm, and it will be cold. This is a bone chilling cold as if naked and buried in the snow for an hour but instant. It can leave you more sensitive to the cold, happened to me and had to force myself to reacclimate because I hate the heat more than I feared the cold. It will get better.
The next thing you notice will be the pain wherever they did surgery at. It will hurt, or sting, or maybe something that cannot be described (which does happen) and will figure it out. They will give you pain meds for this, which I try to avoid and just take the edge off. For me a little pain is better than the addiction and the empty filling those medications give, but also ties in with my stubbornness and self-reliance. There is not much to explain on pain, it is pain.
You will either be outpatient and can leave once they see you are recovering, or inpatient where you get to stay in the hospital for a while. This is a boring step and the most aggravating. You are limited in what you can do and need quite a bit of help, need to rely on others. And can’t shower, which is the most horrible fate imaginable.
Most often after surgery I have a 20 pound carry limit, or 5. In school that would be my backpack I could no longer carry and forget moving things or helping with the groceries. It also means a lot of sitting and resting, and when forced to read or game all day it gets old fast. Ne prepared to have to stagger to the restroom. The carry weight is to prevent your wound from opening or things tearing.
Eventually, maybe even a few days after surgery you can shower. Do not shower without approval from your doctor as that can cause an infection, don’t know the odds but why risk it. Sponge baths leave you clean but not feeling as clean or are as comforting, and never had any really good shower thoughts with them.
Slowly but surely you will return to a normal life feeling better than when you started. Just remember the sucks is payment for healing.
Cancer is Bullshit 