Two weeks ago Monday, I was at the hospital at 6am. The next hour and a half seemed like the longest I have ever sat through. I was given a gown to change into, IV started, blood drawn, blood pressure taken and circulation socks placed up to my knees. Then Hubby was brought to the room. We waited. And waited. At 7:30, the doctor walked in and and within minutes I was wheeled away to the pre-op room. There I answered questions that I had already answered three other times, which is better than the alternative of no one knowing the answers. Then the anesthesiologist gave me something to "help me relax." The last thing I remember is them about to wheel me through a door. Then next thing I remember, I was being put into my room around 11am. According to Hubby, I was in surgery around 1 1/2 - 2 hours so that left another 1 1/2 - 2 hours in recovery. I had been given spinal morphine before I went into surgery and was still feeling the effects of it when I got to my room. Hubby came in while I was being hooked up to a bp machine, air hoses hooked up to my socks and had a monitor placed on my finger. When the room finally quietened down, I dozed off only to have alarms scream. They stopped when I came to. I dozed off two other times for them to scream again, only the last time they didn't stop until a nurse turned them off. Seems that my blood oxygen level was low, so I was placed on oxygen. Finally, I got to sleep.
A short while later, I woke to find a friend, TJ, coming into the room. She was coming to visit while Hubby was walking out the door to come get the kids. Not long after she got there, I complained to the nurse about my face itching. Itching so bad that my chin and neck were almost raw I had scratched them so bad. Because I don't respond to benedryl well, the nurse came back with stadol. By the time she was finished injecting it into my iv, I was almost asleep. TJ watched tv, while sending out messages to facebook about how she was with me while I was sleeping and seriously drugged. She was very amused with the whole thing.
TJ left later that afternoon and Hubby made it back with the kids about 5. They spent about an hour walking around the room, asking questions, and finally got antsy. Hubby left with them for the night and within 15 minutes a coworker walked in. Then my parents. Then the doctor. By the time everyone left at 7:30, I was itching again. At 8, I was dozing again after another dose of stadol. At 10, the night nurse came in, checked my bp and I turned off the tv for the night. At 1am, the nurse came back in again. My bp had been steady dropping throughout the day and at 10 was around 59/38. At 1, it had not dropped anymore but it had not gone up either. So she paged the dr and requested more fluids for me. Over the next hour, I had a liter of saline pumped into me with the nosiest iv pump in the hospital I think. At 2, my bp had come up slightly and I had blood drawn. Finally around 3, I got to get back to sleep only to be awakened at 6 by the morning shift coming on duty.
Tuesday was a lot of the same. I dozed off and on a good part of the morning. I had not been able to hold down much food and started the day off on the same foot. The doctor came back in on morning rounds and informed me that they were unhooking me from most everything and that I would be up walking soon. No more catheter. No more swelling socks. I was still hooked up to the iv but I could sit up in a chair. Until they gave me phenegren so that I could start holding down food. Again, I was almost asleep by the time the medicine was in. I held down some lunch and supper. I got up and walked around the corridors. At 6pm, my bp was 68/45 and I was being released. I was on my way home. I dozed off and on while on the couch until Hubby woke me long enough to go to bed.
Wednesday morning, I made my way to the couch. Every inch of me was swollen and sore but my stomach was not nearly as painful I expected to be. Unfortunately I had a killer headache. Every time I stood up or sat up my head would scream so I spent most of Wednesday dozing on the couch only getting up when I absolutely had to. That afternoon, we called the doctor and was told that they were adjusting my pain medication and that if I still had the headache on Thursday morning, they would bring me in. Thursday morning, I walked into my doctors office still in considerable pain. I had my finger pricked to check my platelet level, a head ct because I had been having nose bleeds and then was sent back over to the hospital for a blood patch. It seemed the site where the morphine had been administered did not close over properly and I was leaking spinal fluid every time I stood up which was the cause of my headaches. Over the next few hours, I had two liters of fluid one of which was full of caffeine. By the time I left, I was headache free. I was also done with my sleeping all day. From that point on, I had no problem staying awake for most of the day.
Over the last two weeks, I have been slowly improving. I have had a lot of help from Hubby and the kids. Some of the church family has brought over meals so that I didn't have to cook. I am moving around more, can sit for longer periods of time and walk a lot farther. According to the doctor, he found the beginning of endometriosis. I had cysts on both ovaries, which he removed the fluid from, and one of which was a lot larger than they had originally seen on my ultrasound. According to him, my uterus looked as though it had been shot with a shot gun from the number of areas in it where it did not replace the missing lining with new lining. Now I am on iron supplements and am feeling somewhat better. I was released to drive at my two week check up and return in four weeks for my final follow up. I was told that I can return to work (which I have) on a part time, light duty basis. If I decide that it is too much, then all I have to do is call and I'm off for the next four weeks. Luckily, I have a boss that doesn't argue when I call and say I'm just not up for it today as I did this morning.
Over the next few weeks, I will try to update as things progress. The kids are out of school for the summer and antsy to be out and about. They have been spending considerable time on the computer and playing wii while staying close to help me out. Bryce went to church camp this week for the first time ever. Tonight Belle and Brady are at my parents while I take the night off which allowed me to update this post. I am taking things one day at a time for the next few weeks so I will be back. Eventually.
