It's
been a little over 3 weeks since I've had Alfred, my Gastric
Neurostimulator, my new Best Buddy implanted and I'm sure everyone
wants to know how I'm feeling, what it feels like, am I the Bionic
Women yet, those kinds of things. First of all, if you get me mad, I
can now send you flying to the next block with one electrical shock!
Just kidding...just kidding! I'm feeling pretty good, all things
considered. I tease my mom, because I have trouble doing certain
things that require anything heavy, by saying “it's because a
doctor went [insert 1950s horror movie knife stabbing noise here]
into my tummy!” Our freezer is a little tricky to open, so I have
to have help opening that and I can't always bend over to pick things
up for myself, but when you've been split down the middle, you don't
really care about those things.
Before
I had Alfred, I didn't know what to expect. I was thinking that every
time he went off I was going to feel a little shock, a little pulse,
a jolt, a little something. In all honesty, I rarely feel anything,
but that's how it's supposed to be. I feel a little tickly sensation
every now and again. And sometimes I get twitches that are kind of
strange, but mostly Alfred's just hitching a ride and doing his job.
One night, after that earthquake incident I told you about, I SWEAR I
felt like I was getting shocked in my throat—but maybe it was just
post-earthquake paranoia. Today, for about 5 minutes, I swear I even
forgot I even had him. Part of me was proud of myself for having
forgotten that I was living with this pacemaker, the other was sad
that I had forgotten about my new Best Buddy. Strange though, huh?
Prior
to having Alfred implanted, I would often throw up 5+ times a day,
feel nauseous pretty much 24 hours a day, and feel quite bloated
after eating anything. I hid it fairly well—when I wanted to—and
would do my best to not allow even the worst of Gastroparesis flares
interrupt my day (I know that not all GPers are that lucky). Since
having Alfred—I got him on August 18, 2014—I have thrown up a
total of 7 times. TOTAL! Going from that in one day to that in three
weeks...I'll take it! There is a year of adjustments ahead of me,
it's not perfect yet, and it may never be perfect, but it's IMPROVED.
I
wish that, considering I have this AWESOME device implanted in me
now, that I have miraculously turned into the Bionic Woman, Batman,
or RoboCop; but, alas, I am still just plain, ol' mortal Christine. I
hope that's suitable for everyone!
I
see my surgeon today for my first follow-up with him post-surgery to
see what he thinks of everything. Hopefully he's happy with my
progress considering I've only been taking Advil PM for pain relief
for the last week and a half and my incisions look good—no sign of
infection. I'm curious as to what he'll think of the return of my
chronic vertigo since surgery. I haven't had any trouble with it in
quite a long time and then BAM, I wake up from surgery and hello
vertigo. Plus, I wonder if he'll mention my post-surgical low blood
pressure at all (88/45) and the fact that the highest it got in the
hospital was 102/72—or there abouts.
I'm
glad, thus far, that I've gone through with getting Alfred. Yes,
there's an adjustment period and healing time that's not exactly
sunshine, roses, and skittles, but you have to have rain to get the
rainbow, right? A parting piece of advice: don't sneeze after this
surgery, it hurts.
 |
| Sorry, folks, this is not me. |
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