Recovery

Card made by Stephanie

“Just another minute, they’re going to get you a shot.”  Huh? I thought as the nurse prepped the needle and the anesthesiologist held my hand like we were on an awkward date.

    I showed up to the hospital at 6:30am and was extremely dehydrated from lack of liquids combined with the magnesium citrate that I had to take for the bowel prep.  The nurse made three attempts on both of my arms with no success at starting my IV.  The anesthesiologist founda vein near my wrist but thought that it may still be difficult so she gave me a numbing shot before she finally was able to successfully put the IV into place.  At about 8:50am I said farewell to everyone, put on my little hat and they began to wheel me to the OR.  They never told me that they already gave me some sleepy medicine before carting me off and the last thing I remember was seeing the girl who was wheeling me press the button to open a set of doors and then I knocked out.

As I began to wake up it felt like I was trying to climb up from the bottom of a well filled with water. It took me a bit to remember where I was and why I felt the way I did.  People were making a fuss around me and I remember a few times telling someone that I felt like I was gasping for air.  I guess when they thought I was conscious enough they wheeled me back to the prepping/waiting area and had me move to a lounge type chair.  It did not go well.  I was extremely dizzy and everything felt like it was spinning and I began to dry heave violently.  They asked if I wanted my husband to come back and I replied no because I didn’t want anyone to see me yet.  I felt horrible and the nurse explained that I had developed a high fever and my largest incision had been leaking badly.  When I was settled a little more I was able to lay back and close my eyes and that helped the spinning but if I dared to open my eyes the world fiercely lurched and lunged.

The nursed continued to make a fuss over me and at about 1pm I told them they could bring my husband back.  The doctor had another surgery right after mine and then she had to leave for a conference so she wasn’t going to be able to talk to me post-surgery.  She did talk to my husband but I think that doctors need to have a sheet called “what I told your husband” because by the time he was conveying the information to me he couldn’t remember exactly what the doctor said.  He knew that she said my endometriosis was one of the worst cases she had ever seen and that it was a good thing I had surgery when I did.  My left ovary was tangled in my intestine so they removed my left ovary but didn’t have to resection my intestine. My husband thinks that she mentioned removing my right fallopian tube. There were a lot of adhesions tangled in my kidneys and the rest of my organs were cemented together and twisted and tangled so they fixed that.  I have my follow up appointment on September 19^th so I’ll be able to find out all of the information and see pictures.

They nurses, who were patient and sweet ended up bringing in a machine filled with a medication that dispensed in timed intervals.  It ended up making the spinning/nausea stop and then I couldn’t get out of the hospital fast enough.  I had to eat some crackers and drink some ginger ale to prove that I could keep them down and I also had to urinate prior to leaving.  I left the hospital at about 4:45pm with just a slight fever and was overjoyed to relocate myself to the sofa where I’ve remained ever since.  After the first two days I switched to mainly taking Motrin with maybe one dose of heavier pain meds per day.  As long as I don’t move around too much it isn’t too bad though I’m still very tired and continue to nap frequently.  Since I’m sleeping a lot I’m not bored and I probably won’t have to stay out of work for as long as I thought so at this point I’m just trying to enjoy doing nothing for a bit.

Box of Meds

Since I made her get a bath prior to the surgery Lambie insisted on having her picture on my blog.  She is helping me log onto Webkinz to play some games.