August 3, 2009

• Still alive & kicking…

  Yes folks, I’m still here!

  Surgery did not take as long as we’d anticipated (thank God).  In fact, it only took a quarter of the time that we’d thought it was going to. It was very good to hear my doctor tell me that she didn’t find anywhere near the amount of scar tissue we’d originally thought she’d encounter.  She did find fusion, but luckily it was minimal – my uterus was fused to my pelvis, my left ovary fused behind my uterus and both to my colon and bowels.  She was able to separate everything successfully and only with having to go in through an old incision site, so I wasn’t sliced open hipbone to hipbone as we’d originally feared. 

  I also had minimal issues in recovery, high blood pressure right after I came to, but it went down quickly after getting my pain under control.  The O.R. nurse was really great and physically went and got Jason & Dora and brought them with me up to my room so that they were never away from me.   My room was really tiny, which wasn’t a big deal except that we had a lot of people in & out of that little room…so much that the nurses joked that they put me in the closet! lol 

  I did have a couple small complications following surgery, I had some bleeding from the incision that was caused during the closure (they hit a vein) and wasn’t cooperating very well.  I had two nurses and a resident putting pressure directly on my incision to get the bleeding to slow down enough that we could put some pressure pads on it.  Of course, walking just irritated it again caused it to bleed more, so they added more pressure pads.  This quickly became a cycle as we wound up having like seven sets of pads on there before it finally stopped bleeding.  When the doctor came to examine it the next morning, she removed the pads and found that there was a HUGE blot clot, the size of a baseball, where the bleed had been.  I know, it’s gross, but I was just glad to see that my body was clotting because when the bleed had occurred, they were concerned about my blood count due to blood loss.  It was gushing pretty good for about an hour. So, even though it wasn’t a pleasant sight, I was relieved none-the-less.  The doctor removed a good portion of the clot, but left some as to not disturb the site further and cause another bleed.  The entire thing was removed before I was released the next day, but the whole thing was just not fun.

  Anyway, due to the bleed, I wasn’t able to walk as much as I’d liked to while at the hospital.  So, the doctor and I agreed that a two night stay was best.  I also was having some pain control issues.  My incision hasn’t hurt a bit, even with the bleed, but due to the fact that she had to scrape the back of my pelvis to remove all of the scar tissue, my pelvis has felt like it’s being crushed. Since I’ve been home, I’ve also had to deal with a lot of gas pain.  They had to fill my abdomen with air when they went in, so that has caused quite a bit of discomfort, but they also had to work on my bowels, so my muscles are fully functional yet…it’s made things a bit difficult. 

  Other than that though, I’m feeling better every day.   I’ve been walking better and am able move a little better, but I get tired very quickly (which is to be expected).  The worst thing though, is that my little kids (Corin, Jonah & Caleb) are all at their dad’s because they’ve come down with chicken pox!!   So they can’t be home with me for fear of me contracting shingles.  I have a weakened immune system due to the bypass surgery & vitamin deficiency, but throw in a major surgery on top of that, and well…we don’t want to risk it.  However, I’ve never been away from my kids while they’ve been sick before…although I know I’m not currently capable of caring for them & they’re better off at their dad’s, it’s still difficult to be away from them, especially now. I just don’t like this.

  Okay, well I’m done whining now. The good thing is that I’m home, I’m doing well as can be expected and I will be better once I’ve healed.

  • 5:05 pm
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