Yesterday they sprung me.

Monday night, Dr. Schultzel stopped by between surgeries to check on my progress and indicated that it was likely that I would be heading home on Tuesday.  Early Tuesday morning he was back and announced that I would be sprung on that day, and by 11 AM I was in a car on my way home.

It feels great to be home. My “loving” feline roommate is withholding affection at the moment, but I can tell that she is happy to see me.  Last night I slept my first uninterrupted sleep in over a week and it was amazing. Sleeping in my own bed, surrounded by my own stuff. Awesome!

My focus now is on healing. I changed my dressing yesterday. The one in question is the site of my previous stoma. This will take some time to heal since to get the best result the wound was stitched on the bottom side (inside) with a purse stitch on the surface. That keeps the site a bit exposed as the healing then progresses from the inside to outside, but minimizes risks that could otherwise occur at this previously dirty site. I need to replace the dressing daily, and the dressing includes gauze packed into the site as well as the covering. it was a little weird packing gauze into myself yesterday, but it was not painful, so quite manageable. After 9 months with the stoma, I find myself capable of things I previously might have been squeamish about.

I am restarting my self-monitoring again, so will be maintaining a sheet with my daily vitals. Hopefully that will allow me to detect any issues early.

Cheers.