Life after a Leak! Thank You for your prayers!

Greetings All, I am finally home. I stayed at my parents for almost a week. The surgery went well and all of your prayers helped my surgeon with his knowledge and allowed him to discover a leak before they compelted the surgery. He stitched me up at the leak site and everything went normal from there. The pain was totally different than I thought. I did not have the gas pain that some talk about (and I thought was unavoidable) I eventually grew sick of the morphin pump I had so they switched me over to liquid pain med. All said and done it was so much better than I had anticipated. I CAN NOT STRESS ENOUGH THE IMPORTANCE OF HYDRATION. I WAS CLEAR LIQUID FOR THREE DAYS BEFORE AND I WAS SUPPOSED TO DRINK 2 LITERS OF WATER PER DAY. I DID IT BECASUE I HEARD IT HELPS WITH IV'S INSERTION. WELL IT DID. I NEVER EVEN FELT A THING. I WANTED TO KISS THE NURSE. SHE SAID MY VEINS WERE BEAUTIFUL (I CREDIT THE WATER) I have been praying for everyone after me as well and continue to encourage anyone to relax a little more each day. After thougths: 1) There is no way you can eat everything they tell you when you get out, it's a goal and work up to it. I paniced thinking I should be eating and drinking al of that immediatley. 2) Take it easy on the liquid pain med. I was taking the full dose, 2 TBL ever 4 hours. I cut it to the lower suggested amount of 1 TBS and it worked just as well and I saved quite a bit doing it that way. Who would have thunk it? 3) Alternate the way you get up from bed/chair, I messed up my knee by using the same one as my crutch everytime and I am really sorry. I have difficulting getting started and walking, so just be aware that your favoritism may cause an injury. Those are my main hints for you so far. I will give you more as I can think of them. Kristie