On January 23rd I had my surgery at Creighton Hospital in Omaha.
I was kinda nervous going in, but they keep you busy once you get there. I arrived at 8am, and they whisked me back to a room and had me change into a gown and get in bed. Soon nurses arrived to hook me up to a heart monitor. My heart rate was high (120 beats per minute at rest) The normal is 80 beats per minute at rest. I've had a heart rhythm issue for about 10 years now and it's always been controlled by meds. But in the last few months the meds stopped working. My cardiologist switched me to a new med, which didn't work, and then he switched me to another about a week before surgery and it really hadn't kicked in yet. I was so worried laying there in the hospital that someone would veto my surgery.
Finally the anesthetist came in and ordered an EKG. So they brought up a machine, hooked me up to it, completed the EKG, and then left the room. Must have turned out ok because they didn't say anything more about it.
I was also worried about being nauseous after the surgery so they put a patch behind my ear. Then a nurse started an IV in my hand, and soon the anesthetist was back to inject a drug to relax me. I kissed my honey goodbye, and they pushed my bed into the operating room. Last thing I remember is the anesthetist putting the mask over my face.
I was in surgery for about 2 hours. I drifted in and out of sleep all afternoon. I drank some soda and had crackers. My mouth was very dry. At one point I could hear someone telling my hubby that they had found a lot of endo and would have to do another surgery. Sigh. I was kinda foggy though and didn't really process it all. Finally about 6pm I got up and went to the bathroom. They said I could leave so hubby left to bring the truck around to the front of the hospital and I got dressed. They had me sit in a wheelchair for the ride to the door and handed me a barf bag. Didn't think I would need it as I felt fine, but they didn't wheel me too far before I lost it all. Neat things, those hospital barf bags - they work quite well. Soda and crackers all gone. So the nurses cleaned my face for me with a hot towel and then wheeled me out to the truck. Hubby helped me in and we headed back to the hotel.
Hubby had bought me pudding, jello and milk. I ate a little. But later as I got into bed, I lost it all again. Luckily I was holding one of those handy dandy hospital barf bags. Afterwards I just went to bed. I had to sleep on my left side all night. They warned me that my right shoulder would hurt from the gas they inflated my abdomen with and boy, did it ever. Upright it hurt a little, lying on my back it hurt a lot, and lying on my right side was out of the question. HOLY COW it hurt!
The next morning, we had an appointment with Dr. Keefe at PPVI to go over the surgery. She showed a video of all my endo. Seems to be everywhere. It was really neat to see my internal organs. Funny to be carrying them around for all these years but never seeing them. :) Dr. Hilgers Jr. was there too. He's working on his fellowship at PPVI and is following in his father's footsteps.
The next surgery, scheduled for March 19, will be 4-5 incisions in my abdomen and they'll cut out the endo. Cutting it out lessens the chance of it's return. Although at my age it's not likely to return anyway according to Dr. Keefe.
Am bummed about having to have surgery again. Not looking forward to it as I have a good idea now of what to expect regarding the recovery. They told me I won't be able to go back to work for 2 weeks following the surgery. I have enough sick days at work to cover it luckily. So we headed home Friday after our appt with Dr. Keefe. I spent Saturday taking it easy and folding a little laundry. Saturday afternoon we went to chruch.
Sunday we were due to leave about 9am to make it back up to Omaha for my 1st follicular ultrasound appt, but I overslept and didn't get up until 8:30am. I planned on staying up in Omaha for the week to complete the ultraounds, but I hadn't even packed yet. I hurried around and got ready and packed and we left late and got to PPVI late for my appt, but they were ok with it. After my ultrasound, hubby drove me to Bergen Mercy hospital just down the road from PPVI to get a blood draw, my second in the hormone series. Bergen is very good about drawing blood for PPVI on weekends, and sending it on to the Hormone Lab at PPVI.
After my blood draw, we got me checked in at the Comfort in up the road from PPVI. I got a suite for the same price as a regular room that included a little living room, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchenette. We went out to buy some food for me so I could save money on meals, and once we got back to the hotel and put all the food away, hubby left.
And so started a long week of monotony: taking the hotel shuttle to PPVI for daily ultrasounds to monitor my very slow growing follicle, and blood draws every other day. When not doing ultrasounds and blood draws, my days were spent watching tv in my hotel room or videos on my kindle fire hd.
Finally on Saturday (6 days later), my follicle hatched. The good news was that I could now go home. The bad news is that it hatched at 1.7cm. The normal is 2cm. The ultrasound tech explained that this meant it was immature and probably not viable. She said it's a hormone issue and can be treated.
I called Hubby to come pick me up, and then I went to Bergen Mercy for a blood draw, and then headed back to the hotel. I packed up my stuff and was waiting for him in the hotel lobby 3 hours later when he rolled up. We had been apart for almost a week, which is the longest we've been apart since we married. My heart sang to see his face.
Back home I made calls to the nearest local hospital to see if they would continue my blood draws. They flat refused saying they'd never drawn blood and then given the vial to the patient before. Sigh. So I called another hospital and they said "Sure, no problem". Thank you Lord.
So I've done 2 more draws here at home and have 4 more to go before I'm done. Then I'll be mailing the vials to the Hormone lab at PPVI and wait for the results. Strange to have my blood serum sitting in my freezer next to the frozen corn and pumpkin puree. Oh well. Whatever it takes.
So that's the latest.
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