Surgery

Hi.  I am back.  I have been home for a while recovering.  I just didn’t trust my pain medicated state to write anything yet…I’m still on pain meds but I figured it was time.

So last Monday (16^th) I got all my loose ends tied up with work and ran my errands in the morning.  I came home around noon and started the pill and drink combination they gave me to clean out my system.  I’ll save you all the unpleasant details.  I just hope that the next time I have to do that again will be in 17 years when I am 50.

Tuesday (17^th) was the surgery and we made it to the hospital in the neighboring city by 6 am.  They took me in, I saw both surgeons, and into surgery I went.  I woke up around 11:30 am very nauseous and in a lot of pain.  I heard the words “bowel resection” and I thought “what have I gotten myself into”.  You see my father had a bowel resection 7 years ago.  He had blood clots that killed a big portion of his large intestine and they had to take the majority of it out.  He was in the hospital for over a week and had a very long and hard recovery.  I watched him go through this and I was scared to death of experiencing what he went through.  Mine was not as major as his was.  When they got inside me they discovered that the endometriosis that was grown into my bowel walls had kinked over my bowel and it was partially blocked.  They had no choice but to remove a segment of my bowels.  The surgeon told me they took out about 4 to 5 inches.  The endo in my bowel wall was about 2 inches and they took out 1 inch to 1 ½ inches to either side of the nodule to ensure they got it all out.  They were able to remove the fibroid tumor from my uterus.  They found one of my ovaries attached to my side and removed the cyst that had it stuck there.  They did excision and removed all the endometriosis that they could find from my bladder, uterus, and that area below your uterus.  My Dr. is very optimistic that they were able to remove all the endometriosis.  They were planning on removing my appendix during the surgery…but it was not there.  They think that it is probably under some other organs.  In talking to my mom I found out that my mom and my little brother’s appendix’s also were not in the right spots and when they were removed the Dr.’s had to look for it under other organs…I guess it runs in the family?  Anyways appendix is still here!  And lastly they removed a cyst from my breast.  In total I have 5 incisions.  My largest one is from my belly button down that they did my bowel surgery with.  It’s actually smaller than I thought it would be.  My dad was cut from side to side for his bowel surgery and I am so grateful to not have the big cut like he did.

Thursday (19^th) they released me from the hospital!  They had told me that I would be in the hospital for 3 to 7 days with a bowel resection.  I was doing really well and they released me on the earliest possible day.  I went straight home and took a mid-term for my class online.  I haven’t gotten the results back on it.  I have to admit I am a little nervous on how well I did.

So here I am.  I’m still at home recovering.  My hate of endometriosis has reached a new high.  What else is it going to take away from me in my life?  I haven’t been able to have kids and now it took away a piece of my bowels. All endometriosis leaves you with is pain.  I just hope that I can feel like a semi-normal person again after I recover.  But other than that, I think I am doing well and recovering fast considering what all they did.  I visit the general surgeon that did my bowel and breast cyst part of the surgery later this week.  If everything goes well I will be released to go back to work middle of next week.  My pain meds make me nauseous and sweaty.  I am on a soft food diet.  With my nausea all I want to eat is salty crackers and pretzels, but they are not on my soft food diet.  Choking down soft slimy food is hard with nausea…yuck.