Surgery

Monday (the 7th) was the beginning of a rough week for me. I had some back pain but I'd had it before and it had always gone away after a while so I thought it was no big deal. But the later in the day it got, the worse I felt. In the evening I tried taking some Advil but it didn't help so we brought out some left-over tylenol with codene. I took some of that and my pain got worse instead of better. At first I thought I was having some kidney stones (because once upon a time I was told I probably had them but was never able to confirm it at that time). But before the pain medicine worked and this time it wasn't. Around midnight we called our home teacher to come help give me a blessing. About an hour later, I decided it wasn't getting any better and I needed to go to the ER. Jared took me to the closest one and we got in fairly quickly. By this time I was worried that it may have been a cyst on my ovary because I had a big one when I was pregnant with Kaliya. So I told them my problems at the hospital and after getting sick and not being able to get in any comfortable position, (and after what seemed like an eternity) finally got some pain medicine (morphine) that worked. Jared left soon after that (around 3am?).  I was sent for a CT scan where it showed I didn't have any kidney stones but they saw the massive cyst. After talking to the doctor, I was then scheduled to have an ultrasound. After more waiting and more pain meds, I was finally sent down for the ultrasound which took around 2 hours to complete. By that point I was so exhausted that I kept falling asleep. After talking with the doctor again, I was told I would need to have surgery that morning to remove the cyst so they were admitting me to the hospital and got me out of the ER. I called my mom and Jared and told them the news and tried preparing myself mentally for the surgery.

So, now after getting into a nicer room on the 3rd floor, I was then told that the doctor there was just going to put me on some other pain medicine and wanted to manage my pain for the day (Tuesday) rather than jump right into surgery. So I was hooked up to an IV and got some phentynol and took that every hour to keep the pain under control. Later that day I finally talked to the doctor and was told that surgery was the best option and we would do it the next morning (Wednesday). But due to the size of the cyst (about 6 inches x 5 inches) they wouldn't be able to do it laproscopically. The doctor said my cyst was equivalent to me being about 20 weeks pregnant. So the rest of the day and through the night I continued to take pain medicine and tried to catch up on sleep. By this time I had an IV in one arm, an oxygen monitor on my finger, and compressors on both legs for better circulation. I was quite the sight. 

Wednesday morning Jared came to see me in the hospital and wait with me until they came to get me for the surgery. They were never able to tell me a specific time until about 15 minutes before. I was given a new IV site, prepped for surgery, then rolled away. I remember seeing the room and that was it until waking up afterwards. Surgery went well. The doctor said I lost quite a bit of blood but not enough for a blood transfusion. They were hoping to just take the cyst off but ended up having to take the ovary and part of the fallopian tube because they had lost blood flow and were purple. When I woke up, Jared was gone so I assumed he had gone to pick up my mom and a while later, he showed up with her and the kids. They didn't stay long but it was nice to see my kids again. The rest of the day was just recovering after surgery. The pain was not nearly as bad as it was before surgery. 

I spent most of Thursday in the hospital. I wasn't on the phentynol anymore so I also didn't have to have the oxygen monitor on my finger. But I still had the IV and the leg compressors (which I enjoyed).  I was never told whether I had stitches or something else to keep the incision together and only found out when the nurse changed the dressing on it. I was glued and taped up, which I didn't mind one bit about. I got up and walked around and felt good. So my mom came and picked me up in the evening so I could see the kids before they went to bed. 

My mom stayed for a few days while I first recovered but left on Monday. Then Ingrid came and stayed about a week to help. The first few days after surgery were the hardest. I hurt whenever I had to move but the doctor said the more I moved, the quicker I would recover (as long as I didn't over-do anything). About 10 days or so after surgery, I stopped taking the prescribed tylenol and switched to advil every 4 hours. As of a couple days ago, I stopped taking the advil. I still have pain once in a while but am doing so much better now. I'm grateful for modern medicine and technology that allowed me to overcome the pain and surgery. 

Anyway, here are a couple pictures I took at the hospital:

My 2nd IV.
I think I remember counting being poked 6 or 7 times for IVs  and had 3 successful ones. 

Another IV and you can barely see my glowing finger (from the oxygen monitor).

Forgive the 'selfie' but I kept forgetting to have someone else take a picture for me.