He probably might not recall many of the details of your surgery unless he took notes!!

Yeah. Its way too many questions. I'll try to shrink the list down.
15 days post-op
Step Class was too much lower body work. Also, I was playing basketball and I slipped and fell down bruising my butt. I had a small hard stool last night. Now, the area feels a bit irritatted today. Going to take it easy for a while and just stick with the light weights I was using before.

Ryan,
Are you a fanatic about exercise? I used to be kind of like that--exercised once (when in junior high) with a fever. Maybe you could try meditating, instead of exercising so much?

Yeah. I guess I have become fanatic about it. Last year, between my desk job and going to school (20 hours in one semester), I got very lazy, overweight, and sedentary. I would sit at work and then come home to sit and study. It was getting so bad that the doctor's were very concerned. For the last 10 months, I started working out, following the "Smarter Science of Slim" diet, and exercising a lot. Now, I always have energy, I feel better, I'm stronger, and I'm 30 lbs. lighter.
I don't want to hurt myself or setback my recovery. I really just want to do whatever I can that won't really hurt me. Just something to keep me from moving back towards my previous unhealthy state. Based on trial and error, it appears that light upper-body weights and light basketball in the back yard are the way to go for me. I realize I need to stay away from step aerobics and hard basketball at the gym.

Ryan,
How tall are you and how much do you weigh? Did the doctors think that you were overweight?

I was 5'5" and was 239-247 lbs. at my heaviest. My weight has now been bouncing between 203-215 for the last couple of months. I have also gained muscle, so I lost a ton of fat. I could still use to lose another 20-30 lbs. But, I'm in so much better shape that I was. I really don't want to lose that progress (if possible without hurting myself).
Yeah, the docs said that I was on my way to a heart-attack, liver issue, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
14 days post-op
2 times today, I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. I sat and nothing came out. Instead of getting off the toilet, The first time, I must admit, that I pushed quite a bit and very little came out. Later on, still feeling like I had to go, I repeated the same. So, between that and yesterday's step class, I was back in a bit of pain for most of the day. I also ate some dairy and forgot the lactose pills. So, I've also been bloated with gas. The pain was significant for most of the day; however, it was not enough to convince me to use pain meds or even ibuprofen.
The good news is that I haven't had any BM now in a couple of hours and I am in basically no pain at this moment. I know better than to strain. Anyway, I got some of my Differential Equations Homework done and am feeling pretty good. I work Saturday and Sunday (from home).

Ryan,
Do you work on the weekends from home? I guess you do. Good for you for losing that weight!! But fingers wagging at you for straining. YOu know to NOT do that!! I was overweight during my college years even though people don't believe me, but I have pictures to prove it. I developed an eating disorder (over eating).

Yep. I work weekends from home sometimes. No BM yet today and hardly any pain (maybe just a tad bit when sitting). I've just been loading up on water, Colace, tea, a couple of prunes, some flax meal, and soft fruit and waiting for the BM pressure to build up.

Yesterday when returning home from the grocery store, I noticed that the drainage pad was no longer in place. This means that it might have fallen out in the store, parking lot, etc. That's pretty disgusting and as long as the drainage is low (like it seems to be today), I'll probably just leave the pad out when going in public.

ryanman0 wrote:I found some on amazon for 10 boxes/24 count.

cherylk wrote:Do you think that you will always have leakage?????

Lets hope not. From some of the other posts I read on here, it seems to last for quite some time for some people. I'm still having about the same amount of drainage. The only thing about those pads is that you only get 24 in a pack and it costs $10. So, I guess I'll just use them for when I go out in public since they are supposed to stay in place better. If I switched to the feminine pads, would I have to cut them? Anything in there that might cause the burning? I've been using the cotton squares today.

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Opps. I just realized that I forgot the dollar sign. I did not buy 240 pads. I just bought one box for $10. That was That was a typo. I forgot the dollar sign. it was supposed to read $10 / box of $24.
I only got one box. Sorry!