Second & Settled

My friends who have seen me after the surgery tell me I look "fantastic." Not good, not great, not healthy, hearty and hale. 

Fantastic.

So why do I look so good? Because this cyst I had removed was about the size of a fifteen week fetus. Basically, I was walking around with a belly pooch that made me look like I was in my second trimester. One friend who saw me the week before my surgery and days after said my stomach definitely looked flatter. And this was with post-surgery swelling.

Sure, I have my own little belly flab that's there both before and after the surgery. Before that belly flab sat above the cyst, now that flab is trying to move south, and its migration is not comfortable. (I had thought about asking the gynecologist to remove some flab while she was operating, but that might not have been good form. Plus, she might have removed some of the fat unevenly, and I might have been lumpy and lopsided.)

The surgery I had isn't so common that the healing and recovery patterns are dialed in. With my ACL surgery, they could predict how I would be doing day-to-day. I've never had a c-section, but those surgeries are so common that the recovery is well documented.

Removing a 9.5 cm cyst? Meh. Give it four to six weeks to feel better.

This weekend, I was feeling good and I stopped taking Tylenol and ibuprofen. Yesterday, I felt a little bit sore in my belly. Today, I called the nurse. 

"You can expect to be up-and-down with this. You'll have good days and bad," she said. "Just listen to your body."