Brazil: Recovery (Cycle I)

Recovery at the hospital -- Coming out of the anesthesia after surgery was crazy...i remember slowly opening my eyes and seeing the doctor and nurses around the hospital bed trying to help me sit up. It took a minute for my eyes to focus and for me to hear what they were saying. They wanted me to get from the gurney back to the hospital bed. I remember trying to pull my self up using my arms with not much luck. I didn't realize how weak i was just after surgery and thought it was weird they wanted my two change hospital beds on my own. After i got situated back in the hospital bed in my room everything was a blur for awhile. I remember the nurses coming in on there rounds at midnight and turning on all the lights in the room to give more IV medicine. For the next 24 hrs after surgery i would periodically throw-up blood that was coming out of my stomach. The next two days were filled with doing exercises with a physical therapist, walking up and down the halls of the hospital and playing games. I remember i had to wear two hospital gowns because the biggest one they had wasn't big enough so i used two and when Jena and i were out walking in the halls some of the nurses called me Superman

(the hospital gowns were blue and i guess it looked like i had a cape on).

Recovery at the hotel -- So we had the surgery on a Saturday May 8 and left the hospital to go back to the hotel the next Tuesday May 11. At the hotel, i remember taking lots of walks on the top floor, Jena and i walked to a little park called the Japanese Gardens that was close. On Sunday we went to church at a local ward in Curitiba and after church we went to a street market that they haveevery Sunday. Everyone we talked to there said we should check it out, everything there that people were selling was hand made. We also looked in some shops around the same area that had lots of pretty stones. During this time we also had a couple of appointments with the doctor so he could check on our progress. Since our surgery Jena and i had pretty much been on a straight liquid diet.

We could only drink 1 oz. of liquid at a time. Here are a couple pics of the little cups

we drank out of.

At a grocery store we bought some Crystal Light mix and thats about all we drank. I remember the tap water smelled funny but using it to mix for juice or jello wasn't too bad. A couple of times i tried eating some scrambled eggs from the breakfast at the hotel.

Jena had a blessing from Joey because she wasn't able to sleep, she was in so much pain. In the blessing, Jena was counseled to "never doubt her instincts" twice. This was particularly helpful when she felt like she should stay on clear liquids until she originally planned to be home (2 weeks after the surgery). She was told by others that by her 8th or 9th day she should at least be trying to eat soft foods, but she felt strongly she should stick to liquids. She was firm about this, and realized later it was part of the counsel she had in her blessing because we later found out that her stomach had a tiny hole called a fistula that was leaking into her abdomen cavity.

Jena was prescribed the "date rape" drug for sleep aid...Brazilians have a different philosophy of pain control. We thought if she couldn't sleep because she was in pain, we would treat the pain and she would sleep. The surgeon said that it was better to get her to sleep and she wouldn't feel the pain when she slept.

Jena had weird dreams during this time. She was dreaming about family and friends doing things together, but that she wasn't involved. The funny part was that she dreamed that she and her family's dog, Max, were on the sidelines eating potatoes together. Ha ha!

She woke up thinking, what should I be learning from all of this madness of dreams, pain, and healing?

Throughout her recovery, the following thoughts would come to her mind:

1. She would be able to testify of Jesus Christ, the God's delivering hand from things that are addictive or that are unhealthy (habits like avoiding people, finding comfort in food, etc.)

2. She is learning true empathy. She now will have the capacity to understand those who are in both physical and emotional pain.

3. She feels like she is being prepared for something. We don't know what, but it's come to her mind over and over.

4. She's learned to value people and giving interest to them, over finding comfort in food.