3 days after surgery
You always wonder if you are tough. At least I do. There is a sense of pride in thinking you can tolerate pain more than others. My goal was to take the least pain killers as possible. I don't want to be dependent and if I don't feel pain, I feel I am good. The day after surgery I stopped taking my dosage at 11 am (24 hrs after surgery). The medicine made me sleepy and I'm not a fan of sleeping all the time. My mom and I ran errands throughout the day and by 5 pm I was tired. My leg felt heavy and getting on and off the car was very tiring. I would say it felt like I kept carrying a 5 gallon jug around and it didn't hurt, it was just hard. At 7 pm I started to feel pain, I'm assuming that's when the medicine started to get out of my system and by 11 pm I was hurting. I took a painkiller then (half the dose I was taking). It didn't get better and 4 hrs later I took another pill. The anesthesiologist had warned me that if I stopped and I had pain, the catching up would be the hardest part. It was. It was a hard night and my will broke. I decided I would take one every 6 hrs today. I feel better and my swelling has gone down. My brain still can't fully focus. All I can do is wait and be patient. My body is working hard to heal. I'm not as strong as I want to be but I'm ok with it. I am happy and thankful I came out ok. I'll increase the time between dosage until Monday. That's when I'll see the doctor and my scar for the first time. Wish me luck!