Well, I went in Thursday for my surgery to remove the cysts from my ovaries. It was only supposed to take an hour and I should have been able to go home that night. Well, the last time I looked at the clock it was 12:25 p.m. and I woke up at 4:30 p.m. It turns out that I didn’t have cysts after all. My fallopian tubes were filled with an abscess (pus and infection) and had to be removed. I woke up with two tubes sticking out of my abdomen which are draining the rest of the infection from my body. I was able to leave the hospital Saturday morning and go home but the tubes are still in me. I have to go to the doctor today to see if they’re going to take them out or advance them. (Advance them means to pull them out a little bit and let them continue draining.) Hopefully they will take them out completely because they are quite painful!!
My kids weren’t home all weekend thank goodness. Briana was with her father and Matt’s parents watched Brandon for us. I can’t lift anything and I can’t let them climb on me or sit with me. They were home last night for a couple of hours before they went to bed and it was really hard on my daughter not to be able to sit on my lap with me. She kept patting my leg and saying, “You tummy hurt mommy? You want me to kiss it?” It was soooo cute!!
Anyways… I don’t think they’ll have to do anymore surgery on me because the infection isn’t growing any bacteria and the cultures keep coming back negative. I still have my ovaries and uterus so I can get pregnant through invitro-fertilization (which probably won’t ever happen because it’s really expensive). My doctor had asked my parents and my fiancee if they wanted him to just remove the tubes or if they wanted him to give me a full hysterectomy. What a decision to make!! My fiancee ended up making the final decision because we had talked about this and I wanted to avoid a full hysterectomy if at all possible so that’s what they did. I guess I should have been feeling a lot sicker than I was and the doctor’s were pretty surprised I wasn’t in more pain. Pretty unusual case I guess.
Matt has been wonderful. He stayed in the hospital with me Thursday and Friday night and home with me all day Saturday and Sunday. He brought me drinks, he fluffed my pillows, he made me food, he massaged my feet, he slept on the couch so he could be near me, and he kissed me often (which always helps).
I’m sorry this is so long but I just feel like ranting a little bit. I’m still kind of upset that I can’t get pregnant “the old-fashioned way” and have been having a rather hard time dealing with that. I have tried not to let Matt or my family see how upset I am but it is hard. As I type this, the tears are streaming down my face. I know that it’s possible for Matt and I to have a baby together but doubt that we will ever be able to afford to have invitro. I guess I should just be thankful that I have two healthy beautiful children already. Everything happens for a reason so there must be a reason this happened to me. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what it is!
I don’t know whether to say congratulations or I’m sorry! You avoided cancer, that is very good. If they had been cycts, it would have been much worse. But you never know where you’ll be financially in a few years, don’t give up hope. Be strong, hon, and thank goodness it wasn’t anything more severe!
Rachelle - I’m glad to hear you’re out of surgery and that you’re gonna be OK. I’m sorry to hear about the infection and the consequences from it. That sucks. But your continued health is good news indeed. I’ll keep pulling for you.
Oh, gross. How nasty is that. That must have been awful! I’m just shaking from reading that - of course, it probably doesn’t help that I’m having surgery this Friday. Nothing serious, but wish me luck anyhow!
Rachelle - I hope you feel better soon, and win the lottery while you’re at it!
I wouldn’t call it gross or nasty. But it was painful. Shall we go with “unpleasant”?
Another time I wanted to be awake (to watch them remove a lymph node from my arm). The bastardos put me to sleep until they were nearly done! Then the nurse yelled at me when I woke up and started watching under the little curtain they had between my face and arm. (I peeked again, but I could see Nursey scowling at me, so I decided to behave.)
Don’t be too brave. They know you’re upset. Let them help. You’ll be amazed at how well they do understand what you’re going through. And they’re also trying to be brave so you won’t have to deal with their[/ pain. It’s better to let your feelings out – share your pain with them, get it out in the open, look it in the eye and use the love that surrounds you to conquer it.
Sorry to hear the news about not being able to get pregnant “the old fashioned way”, but, as you yourself say, you already have two beautiful children. And you are still young, perhaps things may change over time.
You’ve been through so much. Perhaps you are due for some good luck.
And I agree with Pluto that you shouldn’t try to be too brave. Besides making things easier on you, it’s important to let the other people around you show how much they care by being supportive of you. Some people, and hopefully they are those who you surround yourself with, feel better about themselves when they comfort others. Anyone who loves children and has soothed them and stopped them from crying knows exactly what I mean. (Not to imply that you are a child, of course)
People on this board reach out to help other people, and I don’t think they do it out of guilt, they do it because they genuinely care AND because they feel better about themselves by showing support and giving. Sure, you can get burned by giving support (I got burned fairly recently by trying to reach out to someone here), but let’s face it, that’s rare, and I can’t imagine you doing that.
Let those people around you who care so much about you comfort you. You’ll all feel a lot better.
Im happy you made it through successfully. Im a bit disturbed that the doctor would take the word of your fiancee in such a delicate decision as no doctor would listen to me about something like that if I were a fiancee. Looks like he made the right decision.
They let me stay awake, but heavily sedated(& locally anesthesized) when they took the screw out of my knee a year after the reconstructive surgery. The most disconcerting part was when they wheeled in the big Craftsman free-standing shop toolbox & pulled out a 1/2" shank power drill out & set to work backing the screw out. I was surprised to find out that my particular orthopedic screw used a Torx bit much like my headlights do.
Orthopedic surgery is apparently more akin to carpentry or auto mechanics than internal surgery from what my surgeon was saying.
Worst part of any of my knee surgeries had to be the generals they gave me on the first scope and subsequent reconstruction. Worse than the surgery. Made me sick & disoriented for the better part of 3 days. That’s why I wouldn’t let them knock me out to take that damn screw out!
Most surgery does suck, and I’m so sorry to hear that yours changed halfway through, that is very disconcerting.
I applaud your doctor for actually asking your fiancee and family what they thought you would want. Not too long ago, a male doctor would simply have performed the hysterectomy and told you about it later. BTW, why do they call it a “hysterectomy?” Is the root word really “hysterical?”
A note on general anesthesia- I have found that I no longer get sick and take hours to recover from general anesthesia. My secret- no heavy drugs beforehand. Seriously- usually they tell you that you need Valium, Demerol or some other drug to relax you BEFORE the Pentathol or whatever they’re giving you. Not true! I could be as hyper as I could get, but I’d still go under! Thats why they call it anesthesia. Last time, I requested nitrous oxide instead, and after a fight, I got it. The result- I woke up from the general feeling fine, no retching, and not sleepy or sick at all. Good luck convincing the doctor though, they hate it when you have your own opinion on your care…
Unlike the rest of life, you will be get better with time, after having surgery. When I woke up from surgery I heard this lady yelling and and told her to shut the fuck up only to discover it was me yelling. (oh can I use that word in MPSIMS?)