After years of pain, heavy bleeding, ultrasounds, diagnosis of fibroids and surgery being cancelled due to covid, it was finally my turn. Over the last year while watching the growth of the fibroid grow from the size of a baseball to the size of a grapefruit, Dr Astle recommended a laparoscopic hysterectomy before it grew too large that an abdominal hysterectomy became necessary. Surgery was initially planned for September but all surgery's were cancelled days before I was suppose to go in. We decided to get our vacation and holidays over before we tried again. We scheduled it for January 5, 2022.
Days before the surgery I had to have a covid test. In the last year and half with covid looming I had been blessed and able to stay away from ever needing a covid test. This was my first. Luckily it was negative and I was one step closer. The next step was labs, consent forms and insurance. This was the day before my surgery and got pretty frustrating. I received a call at work to pre-register. At the end of the call they said they'd call me back to let me know what time I needed to be to the hospital. I asked that they call my cell phone where I was working and running errands that day. I went and did my labs and picked up my packet at Astle's office where I paid a surprise payment of $1400, which I didn't expect. By 5:00 I still had not heard from the hospital and called the two numbers they had given me. Neither number was very helpful. I got the run around for about an hour. I found a different number to call from a message I had been left about pre-registration. I called the number and they said I hadn't been registered for surgery yet. I told them I had received a call that morning to register me. He said that was for the doctor but I needed to register for the hospital. After registering again I was asked for another "surprise" payment. This time I asked for the minimum I could pay. Another $500 spent that I was not planning on. As time passed I was worried offices would close without getting a time. Stressing that I wasn't going to get in, Adam thought about checking the answering machine at home. We were running last minute errands and he called Gentry at home to check. Sure enough, after all said and done there a message to call a number back for time. I called right back and got right through. I was to be to the hospital the next morning at 8:45 am. Whew, I was so relieved to have that time. With the amount of money I had paid out that day, I depleted our HSA funds and decided to put more on the card in case there were more surprises to come. I put on $800 and got an error to log back in and try again. As soon as I did it showed (2) $800 payments. What?! I called the insurance company and was told with forms and time we could reverse it. We decided it wasn't worth it, with the surgery we would surely need all of the $1600 anyway. So, $3500 later, it turned out to be a very expensive day. But we were another step closer to surgery. That night I fasted and Adam gave me a blessing. I was feeling extra anxious because, besides my three babies I had never been admitted to the hospital. Had never had surgery or anesthesia. Non-Drowsy Dramamine once knocked me out for 15 hours. Through the blessing I was reassured, all would be well.
8:45 the next morning we arrived to the hospital.
It took two hours to prep. Lots of visits from nurses, Astle and an IV later we were ready. (It took 3 pokes and two nurses to finally find a vein) Astle told us that we were very lucky to be scheduled on that day because the next day the hospital was shutting down again. He convinced them to do my surgery but had to promise that I would be able to go home that day because there were no beds in the hospital. I told him I would be on my best behavior.
Adam had sent this picture to the family text group and apparently Calli had not remembered. She started asking a ton of questions. Later we found out that she had a nightmare the night before that I had been attacked by an alligator and died so she was already pretty emotional when she got the text. She called Levi and just cried. He assured her it was just a dream and I would be okay. Later that day at work, while I was still in surgery Doctor Scholtzen walked in and said he just had a friend who was in surgery that morning and died. Needless to say she was glad to hear when surgery was over.
Adam was able to be with me during pre-op and then went to the waiting room when they wheeled me away.
I went into surgery at 11:00. It was about an 1.5 to 2 hour procedure. I remember being wheeled down the hall and seeing the operating room and huge lights. I remember them saying they were going to move me to the operating table but never remember actually being moved. Next thing I knew I was back in the observation room trying to wake up. I heard a nurse say "Her husband has been asking out her"
While in the waiting room Adam had access to a tracking board where he could see when I was in surgery, out of surgery and back in the recovery room. Dr Astle came out at around 1:00 and told him I was out of surgery and all went well. During extraction they did find a nodual that they were sending off for testing but assured him it was probably nothing. Update: 1/20 nodual was endometriosis.
An hour passed and Adam still had not heard anything and was getting anxious. He kept asking the nurse and was told I was not waking up as easily as hoped. Finally at 2:00, I had woken up enough to go back to recovery and they called Adam back. I was so happy to see him. The rest is a blur. Adam tells me of things that happened and I don't remember. The only thing I do remember is the nurses and Adam being anxious to get me up and to get me to pee so I could be discharged. Apparently, I kept falling asleep and they could not keep me awake long enough to get me the bathroom. I didn't realize that I had a time frame to discharge before they would keep me for the night. But with no beds I would go to a cafeteria type room full of beds for the night. Adam kept asking me if I just wanted to stay and would say no so they kept trying to get me up. Once in recovery you should be discharged within an hour. It took me 3 so they were all getting anxious. I just remember thinking "gosh, give me a break, I just had surgery and ya'all are trying to push me out the door. I didn't realize the time limit. My first attempt to pee I stood up and all the blood drained from my face. Adam said I was so white. I got the sweats from head to toe and started shaking they had to return me to my bed. The nurse kept telling Adam we have an hour for her to pee before we'll have to keep her...we have 30 minutes...we have 20 minutes. I was finally able to get up and make it to the bathroom, which meant I could go home that night. Another 30 minutes and I was on my way. Adam pulled up the car and the nurses wheeled me out.
My home for the next 20 days, (I was in mid transition of re decorating our master bedroom so it was kinda a modge pod of different colors and patterns.)
We stopped at Lins for my prescriptions before heading home. We got home around 5:30 pm. By this time, because it had taken me so long to discharge I was without any pain meds for 3 hours. The pain was so intense. The meds didn't even seem to touch the pain. I had zero appetite so I was also nauseous from taking the meds on an empty stomach. It was a LONG night. I was in pain throughout the entire night and neither of us got much sleep. At one point I was ready to go back to the ER because I was in so much pain. My ribs hurt, it hurt to breath, cough, sneeze and laugh and my throat hurt from the air tube they had put down my throat during surgery.
In the wee hours of the morning, I woke up Adam to help me to the bathroom and the nausea kicked in again. I sat down on the toilet shivering and shaking and throwing up. Throwing up turned out to be a blessing whatever was causing the nausea I was able to get out and felt MUCH better. I was finally able to eat something, take another pill which seemed to work and get some sleep for a couple hours before Adam had to leave for work. He just went into the office to get the guys out and came back home. He continued to do this the rest of the week.
The first day, all I wanted to do was sleep or just lay there with my eyes closed. Adam would ask if I wanted the TV on but I only felt good when it was dark and quiet. Getting up to go to the bathroom was killer. Adam had to help me, I would get lightheaded, it hurt to walk and most the time is was a false alarm. Haha! Once I could get up and walk to the bathroom by myself, I was a lot better off. Over the next days and weeks I continued to feel better each day. Below is breakdown of my daily improvements.
War wounds. I had 4 small incisions on my belly. I was really patient with myself to allow myself to sleep as much as possible, and very consistent with keeping on top of my meds, liquids, stool softener, putting heat on my back and ice on my stomach and going to the bathroom as much as possible.
I had lots of love, texts, flowers, meals, gifts and visits from people.
As well as lots of lunch dates with this guy once my appetite came back.
And a pizza party one night when Lyman an Marilee brought by Little Caesars. Other meals/gifts were: Soup, Bread sticks, Salad, Oatmeal creme pies, and Ice cream from Cains, Lasagna, Mac-n-Cheese and soup from mom and dad, Curry, Collegian and super greens from Sean and Amy, Homemade bread and flowers from Helen Furr, flowers from my girls and flowers from JPS and a blanket and activity book from Shauna.
My view throughout recovery. We had put away Christmas decorations and scrubbed the house before the surgery but I wanted to keep the tree in our room. So glad we did. It brightened my moods most days. It may just stay permanently.
Wednesday and Thursday bed ridden, not much to eat, slept all day or just laid in the dark. Thursday at midnight ate toast and banana with my pain pill.
Friday brushed teeth for the first time and got dressed in an oversized shirt, pants still put too much pressure on the incision sites. Ate oatmeal and toast for breakfast and Mac-Cheese and Creamie for DinnerSaturday showered for the first time. Toast for breakfast and Costa Vida for Dinner. Felt good enough for the first time to work on a few things in bed: Blog, Come Follow Me etc. Left my bedroom for the first time and walked to the bonus room to watch a movie but only lasted an hour before crawling back in bed.
Sunday - Got dressed and put on makeup. Walked to the mailbox with Adam and ate dinner with the family at the dinner table. Took last heavy duty pain pill and 800 mg Ibuprofen as needed.
Monday - I paid for so much activity on Sunday and was bed ridden again and slept most of the day.
Tuesday - Stayed in bed all day again only getting up to use the bathroom and wander down to the kitchen to make food when Adam would pop in and could help. Down to one Ibuprofen a day.
Wednesday - One week since surgery. Feeling better each day.
Thursday - Got up and around a little more today. Continued to feel better each day. Full appetite back.
Friday - Went into work for a couple hours to do mid month billing. Came straight home and went back to bed.
Saturday & Sunday - Took it easy. It’s crazy how much just working for a couple hours took it out of me.
Monday - Returned to work…kinda. Went in just on days I knew I had things to get done and only a made it an hour most days. Throughout the rest of the month I tried to stay a little longer each time, making it 4 hours one day in the 3rd week of recovery. Sitting is killer. I’m thankful for a flexible job that allows me to time to heal.
I am not much a TV person. I have my favorite shows that I like to watch but I'm usually doing something while I watch. But being bed ridden, I watched more movies than I ever have:
Stranger Things: Season 1, 2 & 3
Lala Land
Bugs Land
Cool Runnings
Can’t Buy Me Love
Mannequin
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Harry Potter
While You were Sleeping
Manifest - My and Gentry's show we are watching together right now
Tons of Survivor reruns
Friends
Modern Family
Last Season's of This is US to prepare for new season
Each day was better and better. Although surgery is no fun, I know in the long run it will be so worth it! I actually thought I would go a little more nuts than I did with nothing to do, but I actually quite enjoyed it, knowing that my body needed the rest made it easier to be content. Here's to continued improvement everyday and a full recover.
