6 Weeks…
It’s hard to believe that today marks 6 weeks since my injury and tomorrow will be 6 weeks from the time I had surgery. As far as how things are going, I’m doing so much better than I was even a week ago. Things are healing and I feel my strength returning a little bit each day. My incision site is healing up nicely, although yesterday and today I’ve had a little irritation from clothes rubbing against it. I also have two wounds on my left side where the G and J tubes were removed. They are both healing well (at least, from what I can tell), but I’m not suppose to take baths or submerge them for yet another week or so. I’m slowly increasing my lifting limit- the past few days I’ve started picking up Lizzie again (she’s 14 lbs), but I’m not really going much heavier than her. It makes my life so much easier to be able to carry my baby again! It was really quite difficult to not be able to lift her because that was so needed in my care of her. As far as my diet, I’m slowly but surely starting to add to add more normal foods to my diet and it’s going really well. I am chewing the life out of every single thing I put in my mouth, and as such I have become an even slower eater than I was before. I am also limiting my portion sizes to about a cup at every meal. It seems like I’m tolerating it. It’s been really nice to be able to eat meat again. I personally could never be a vegetarian because meat is such a big part of my diet. I have been sticking with ground beef and very well cooked poultry and pork so far, but hopefully once I get back into eating more beef it won’t be a problem. Steak was usually the thing that I always got stuck in my throat the most, so I don’t think I’m going to be trying that for a while. I’ve also been nervous about trying to swallow pills again, just because I really do not want to get anything stuck down there again.
As far as treatment, I will going back to a gastroenterologist on the 12th of January to discuss treatment for my eosinophilic esophagitis. It had been previously mentioned to me that a common treatment is a steroid, similar to what they would use for asthma, although instead of being a mist that you inhale it would be a liquid that I’d swallow. There are other treatments I seem to remember, but this is the one that they specifically mentioned. It is my hope that this steroid will allow my esophagus to stay open and to no longer constrict and make it easier for food to get caught in it. So, I would appreciate that the doctors will be able to find a treatment to help with that.
So, in all, things are going really well. It has been a very crazy last 6 weeks, but things are definitely on the mend and soon this will probably all be a distant memory. I appreciate all your prayers and support during this difficult time in our family!