tl;dr - I uninstalled my uterus yesterday, I feel amazing.
Please excuse any formatting mistakes, this is my first wall o text post.
First I want to thank all the wonderful folks who commented on my partial hysto call for advice post. You helped me build a self-care pre and post-op plan that was efficient and effective. Also, best wishes and juju to /u/BlackCaaaaat tomorrow, for her procedure.
After reviewing all advice, I packed a bag with the following items:
- fuzzy socks, loose pj pants, no wire bra, and a button down sleep shirt
- three pairs of super comfy underwear
- two types of travel pillows, one u shaped for my head, one regular to hold against the stitches
- travel slippers with grippy bottoms (acorns)
- normal toiletries, with some body wipes, face wipes, dry shampoo, things you can use in bed without water and just toss.
- jelly beans and gum (for post-op dry mouth and sore throat)
- posh toiletries - moisturizing facial mask sample, fancy lip balm, fancy dry skin lotion samples, and facial water spray. I used all of this, it was dry as fuck due to the cold snap.
- thin overnight pads, the long ones (hospital pads are terrible).
- eye mask and earplugs
- simple makeup - bb cream, lip stain, and mascara
- satin hair wrap, barrettes, hair elastics, and hair screws (I have a lot of curly hair).
- extra bag to hold what I was currently wearing for husband to carry out of the pre-op area.
- all of this fit into regular sized backpack.
- To the hospital, I wore leggings, oversized shirt, a longer sweater, shorty boots and a compressible thermocell jacket. It's been -10 degrees here lately.
As far as pre-op prep details are concerned, I stopped eating the night before, took a shower that night and the next morning with antibacterial soap, and had to have two enemas. I left for surgery at 4AM on Wednesday.
Pre-op was smooth-ish. Stripped, put on hospital gowns, forced my curly hair into submission, and settled into the bed. There is a lot of confusion in pre-op, so having some there to advocate for you is key. My biggest concern was when I was to be foley cathed and when it was removed. I asked them to remove it when I was still out of it after the surgery - which the staff noted in my chart and complied to. My surgery orders were checked and re-checked with me to confirm my desires (uterus, fibroids, tubes, and cervix removed. Ovaries also if they looked bad. Endometriosis to be ablated if found in accessible spots.) The anesthesiologist came in and tried to start a IV line in my hand - this was an issue because of the dual enemas - I ended up very dehydrated. Blew out both of my hands, and had to go to a wrist line. It was not a huge deal, but sort of painful and my husband was witness to the 10 minutes of poking. He was not impressed and wanted to slap the doctor a bit, but we all behaved.
The staff wheeled me into the OR, transferred me to the table and gave me Nitrous Oxide gas to plump up my veins for the wrist IV. At that time, the surgical team descended on me like a zombie horde on the Walking Dead. It really freaked me out, but I made a point to say "I need you to stop for a moment, I am getting over stimulated and it's freaking me out." I asked the anesthesiologist if he had any pets - which was met with a little confusion at first. I'm like "Tell me a story about your cat, it will calm me." And he totally did. I was injected with something calming, I think valium, then I went out like a light.
Post op is a fog, I heard I was charming, made jokes, ate some sherbet and sprite, expressed concern about the gas pain and bladder spasms (super bad), and was wheeled into my room. BTW, at this hospital all rooms are private and posh as fuck. U. Of Michigan rocks. Had my own TV, pretty view, refrigerator, and it seemed to be sound proof.
This is where I woke up enough to figure out what was going on. I went into surgery at 8AM, was out by 11, post op fog lifted around 2 PM. The pain was ok - I had a discussion with the staff present at the time and informed them that I feel calmer and in control if they just tell me what my job is and give me data. For example, the first job is to urinate. If you don't, you may have to have a catheter put in and that hurts like hell. So I made them help me up, walk me to my potty, pulled down my pants, help me squat and we waited. And waited. Nothing happened. Bladder was terribly uncooperative at first. The post-op staff gave me a goal of peeing by 5PM, which did eventually happen. The staff likes to measure the output, so don't dump it down the toilet from the little hats they put in there.
At this time, I was like - "Get me into pretty comfy clothes, this hospital swag is the stuff of nightmares." Off came the poop colored socks, on went the soft cotton items I brought, and I cleaned up as best I could. The super thin extra long pads came in handy here, but I've hardly bled at all.
My next job was to walk, so up and down the hallways I shuffled with assistance. This is where the lap pillow is important, holding it to my little bloated stomach was a great idea. After, into bed I went, turned the big screen TV on, and babbled a bit to anyone who would listen because I was high as ballz still.
Husband brought me dinner, a bunch of extra fancy drinks like chai and coke zero, and we sat around for a while shooting the shit. I felt alright to be alone, so he left for the evening around 8. It was this time the anesthesia after effects totally wore off. It hits you fast, and then the true pain levels come at you like a mack truck. I am fairly stoic, so I was all "It hurts." but nothing too hand-flappy. The staff will ask you to rate your pain, and I think I err a little too much on the low side - because the nursing staff's sense of urgency went to shit after that. The timing from informing the staff about the pain to getting the pills or injections in hand was an average of 30 minutes, so keep that in mind if you want to stay on top of the pain - build some buffer time into your requests. Also, the staff didn't give me simethicone (gasX) - you must complain of gas and request. I wish it would have been just part of the package out of the gate.
Currently, pain management wise I'm ok. I found that morphine is like water to me, and doesn't work. Norco is ok, but the dosage wears off in 3 hours for me, which left me an hour in pain, then another 1/2 hour waiting for the dose to come in from the doctor's order, which I didn't enjoy the first time it happened. The staff upped me to percocet to try and manage the quick metabolism. Things are going along much better now. Bottom line, the staff starts low and simple on pain management with a try and trial approach - speak out if its just not working for you. Sometimes speaking out means getting a little bit bitchy, don't feel bad about doing it. I needed to flip from nice pliable patient to direct, short clipped sentences with a bit of loud to get my point across.
I didn't sleep much - at 3AM I puttered around, feeling bored. I washed up with the body wipes, found that the pyridium was coming out in my tears and brown crusty stuff was all over my face. I got that scrubbed all off, then I picked up my room and took a look at the photos the surgical team took during surgery.
Turns out, my fibroid was a lot larger than the team thought (twice the size of my uterus) and was adhered to the left ovary. There was also some scar tissue (I think from last weeks ovarian cyst blowout). The surgical team said the fibroid was tucked away in a spot that was difficult to reach, and they had to cut it in half to remove it vaginally. The last photo in the series was the stitching of the pouch at the top of my vaginal canal and of my pretty ovaries.
Breakfast is included in the cost at this hospital, so I ordered an omelette, bacon and coffee, which was pretty tasty. Getting released was a little complicated. The staff wanted to get my pain under control on their timetable, I wanted to leave so I could manage my pain on my own. The trick was having a bridge dose of motrin as the stronger drugs wore off, so I wouldn't have unmanageable pain spikes. Got dressed, had the IV removed, grabbed my recovery paperwork and walked (shuffled) out of hospital.
One logistical mistake - have your responsible party valet park if the hospital offers it. Parking was a shit show and took forever to get out of the ugly snow covered campus filled with confused drivers.
Additional things to buy before surgery so you don't need to spend time getting after - Miralax and GasX - name brand. Supposedly better than generic and will help the swelly belly to reduce it faster.
Its been about 36 hours - and I'm walking around, sitting and standing without help.
In summary - I can tell the fibroid is gone. That pressure and pain I have felt for years is gone. The recovery pain is so much less than the pain from before - I am confident I have made the right decision. I feel like I will be around 70% in a few days, and will go back to work in two weeks with no worries.
Thanks again TwoX. You all are an amazing community and you helped me work through my anxiety leading up to this. Internet hugs to all, especially /u/esk_209 and /u/someoneelsesusername.
Obligatory pet tax: Xoe the wonder doxie
[edit - percocet makes me forget periods]
Submitted February 20, 2015 at 09:11AM by mgenta http://ift.tt/1LgI4py TwoXChromosomes
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