It's great to start feeling normal again.

Well, I am about 3 weeks out of surgery. I just got back home to Reno a couple of days ago. I'm already starting to feel like myself again. The idea of leaving my house isn't something causing my extreme amounts of anxiety. Take away the fact that I can't wear my form fitting clothing for the time being and I couldn't be happier right now. I'll be off of the prednisone in about 1 1/2 weeks. I can't wait for that, my body and face will start shrinking again. I bought some new clothes to assist in hiding my ileo bag. I also found a maternity band to go around my waist which helps conceal the bag, but I'm finding that I have to be really careful with it so as to not cause leaks.
In other news. I went and saw some of my friends in Las Vegas and was able to not flake out of them due to not feeling well. It was awesome. I went grocery shopping with my dad which felt good because that's something I've always done with my dad since I was a little girl and over the last couple of years I haven't been able to go. It would crush me every time he would see if I was feeling up to going and I would tell him "no". So, that was really awesome that I could go and show him that I wasn't going because I really wasn't feeling well enough to go.
I'm still pretty sore, but nothing a little Tylenol can't help. I can't really walk around for too long because I get worn out pretty easily. My walking speed is slightly faster than a turtle. I'm mainly sore like inside my bottom where they put the pouch and around my stoma. These past couple of days are the first days I've managed to get sleep that felt restful. I definitely recommend following the low residue diet.
I'm hoping to go back to work in the next couple of weeks. I feel up to going back now, but I need to wait until I'm 6 weeks out of surgery because my job won't let me come back from a leave of absence with any restricitons. I'm also learning that gravity is not my friend. I feel like the more I'm standing, the more sore I get. I've had a couple of leaks on my ileo bag, but nothing too bad so far. It just sucks when it happens.
Some good news. I was able to travel from Phoenix to Las Vegas in a car for 6 hours about a week after my surgery. Then I hung out in Las Vegas for a week or so. I flew from Las Vegas to Denver to visit family and rode in a car from Denver about 3 hours away for a family reunion. It feels amazing to be able to travel and not panic about not making it to a bathroom. I still have to make sure the ileo bag doesn't get too full, but it's better than worrying about not making it to a bathroom at all. It is absolutely a huge step up from buying Depends at 22 years old. Then when I was flying back to Reno I stood in a HUGE security line, which I would have never been able to do before my surgery. I also managed to have a couple of cocktails on my little vacation. =)