I Still Feel Like a Sloth!

 The original title of this blog post was going to be: "Finally! I no longer feel like a sloth!" However, I was planning this post 3/23/2021 (exactly 4 months after my original ileostomy surgery, the birth of Bob). I had been working night shift as a radiographer for five years prior to this surgery and it never got easier so I was pretty much always tired even on my days off. I worked three 12 hour nights and one 4 hour morning shift per week and on my days off would rotate to day shift to live a "normal" life. Coming off two months of medical leave I had a lifting restriction and went to a sedentary job for six months to give myself more time to heal. After two months working night shift in the new department I was able to transfer to day shift and, with this change, I was sure to immediately feel alive again. Well it didn't work out that way because it takes time to adjust to day shift and my body was still recovering. Thinking back to my previous major abdominal surgeries (total colectomy 2015, pelvic prolapse repairs 2017) it took me at least a year to feel normal again physically after each surgery. I then went back to my regular shift in the X-ray department after four months on day shift, so clearly my body was not adapted and I still felt like a sloth.

Fast forward to today, 1 year and 8 months after getting my ileostomy, I am again on medical leave. I had an emergency surgery to correct a stoma prolapse June 25th that was unretractable and obstructed, at high risk for strangulation and necrosis. Therefore I am still a sloth, now 4 weeks into my post-op recovery. I will write a separate blog post about this journey as it was at a time in my life I  had some big plans and had to quickly figure out an alternative plan because some things had to be postponed.