Good luck on your surgery. Make sure you take it easy and definitely have someone to take care of the little one. Here's to wishing a speedy recovery to you.

Hope

Oh April, ok, the big day has almost arrived!
Seems like just yesterday you joined us!
This is the next logical step in this process and, the beginning of your new world.

I had a VP shunt , not LP but I would imagine the recovery is much the same.
Don't even think about the surgery except to say, good bye to hds and pain!
They will give you something to relax you prior to going to surgery and take everything that is offered!
After that, you probably wont remember anything,thank goodness, and simply wake to , your years long hd , gone.

When I woke from my surgery, I had no pain, just the high of ...no pain!
I could also see properly again , for the first time in years.
I did however, make one mistake and that was to go home the next day.Don't Do This! Stay as long as they will allow. You need the comfort and security of a hospital until your body comes round from the surgery.

When, its time to leave, make sure to have a script for pain meds, in case you mat need them. Very Important!

Once home, find a bed/couch, what ever works for you, to be comfortable.
Get a basket and fill with all the things you may need throughout the day, like, remotes, water, meds,tissues, phone, wipes,books magazines. You get the idea.
The site in your abdomen, is the one we all find causes us the most trouble. It will hurt. So, you want to avoid anything that involves bending and stretching.
Make sure to still drink a lot of fluids.

On a more sensitive note,get a stool softener. The anaesthetic will mess up your bowel movements for a while and straining , from being constipated is a non no. This, is also very important.

Don't rush your self, take your time to recover. The body has a great way of dealing with all this trauma, it makes you very tired, so sleep, a lot. Your body heals best while you sleep.

We are always here if you need any help or advise.
The VERY BEST OF LUCK TOMOROW APRIL!
I will have you in my thoughts and prayers. Cath

Congrats!
I don't know if that's a weird thing to say, but if your situation is anything like mine, you've been waiting a LONG while.
It feels like I've been waiting forever. Weird how you go from fearing surgery to eagerly awaiting the day they call and tell you to come in.

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

I second what cath said. The stomach incision will hurt a lot, but will be so worth the pain when you wake up to no headache :)
This is a bit of a touchie subject but needs to be said i suppose...I was very stupid and I didn't like the person they roomed me with (long story..) and I had not had a BM and left the hospital....so because of that I became best friends with a bottle of MOM (milk of magnesia). Not fun...so because of the anesthetic, high morphine doses, norco, and Valium I was very constipated. Just a question...Does any one
know why constipation is so bad after surgery? I also had not eaten a lot so that was the other issue.
Best of luck to you my dear, I will be thinking of you.
Mal

Hi Mallory. To the best of my knowledge, the reason you get so constipated after anaesthetic is a few reasons;
1) You are on pain meds that cause constipation.
2)Anaesthetic slows all the body down , as if to sleep for awhile so, when it wakes up, just as you feel sluggish when you wake so does all the body as in your all your organs are slow to kick start.
Its not just your brain that goes to "sleep".

One should, ideally not leave hospital until bowel sounds can be heard. That means every thing is working again as normal and also in some type of surgery, nothing has been nicked.

3)The normal feeling you have to "push" (I'm trying to be delicate here!) is some what halted by you, because you have pain.
Pain from the abdominal site and you try not to hurt yourself, so you are not comfortable or feel as normal as you normally do.

A good stool softener, started before surgery, ideally but also from the the day of surgery until things settle back to normal, which may take a week or two.

The one word I have used a lot here is, normal. Which it all is and part of the process. Better to be prepared for it tho, to eliminate and more problems.Cath