I'm Home!

and recovering.  We actually made it home yesterday afternoon but I was pretty worn out from the car ride, I just laid out on the couch and vegged. 

Well, the surgery was interesting.  At the pre-op appt, Dr. S. felt that the surgery would at the most 2 hours.  She figured that since I had a lap surgery a little over 3 years ago.  Okay.  I felt good about that.  So, on Wednesday morning, we check in at the hsp at 5:00am...by 5:30, they give me a urine pg test and direct us to the waiting area for surgery prep.  They take me in soon after we get there and get me ready.  Lots of questions and visits from the different staff that were going to be taking care of me.  A priest came in and we said a few prayers.  This hsp experience was so different from my other surgeries(which were done at surgery centers). I found the anesthesiologist to be the funniest.  He couldn't give me anything to relax until I got to the o.r.  He said "Once you are in there I'll slip you a "Mickey" and you'll wake up in recovery."  He got that right.  I had to laugh. 

So, surgery proceeds and it ends up taking four hours!!!!  I had stage 2 endo.  Dr S. did a very thorough job in getting rid of it.  She said it was on a lot of my organs and spreading.  She told my dh later that if I had waited, I'd probably have many other issues.  She found a few cysts and a few little fibroids, she took care of everything.  My dh did feel a little worried because the surgery was taking longer than expected and the nursing staff told him that Dr.S was taking the time to remove all of the endo.  She said that it was hiding itself pretty well.  I loved that I went with Napro for this.  When I woke up and realized I had stage 2 endo...I felt miffed at the other dr that did the surgery 3 years ago.  I can't understand how it got worse...but I do know he didn't remove it all.  He diagnosed me with stage 1 endo three years ago. I wonder now if he was right.

So, onto waking up.  Eeeekkkkkk!  I was in pain and I was completely nauseous.  I stayed in phase one recovery for a few hours before they put me in phase two recovery.  They gave me a lot of pain meds and meds for my stomach.  Once I felt better they moved me and my dh was able to come sit with me.  Eventually, my stomach felt better (with 7. up) and the pain started to subside.  Then they let me go home.  We went back to the hotel at 4pm.  I wanted to go home but that was not an option.  The hotel was fine, I slept and tried to move around some for the pain from the gas was bothering me.

On Thursday morning, I had the post op appt with Dr. S.  She showed me lots of pics of where the endo was adhering and she talked about how my uter.us was inflamed.  She thinks it could be the endo but was not absolutely sure.  She recommends I work on that anti-inflammatory diet.  She is pretty sure I have a cronic infection too. She sent cultures to the lab so all of that will be known soon.  We discussed the fact that I wasn't charting that infection correctly. Hmmm...she recommended I pay more attention to that.  She did give an anti-biotic prescrip as well since a few of my incisions were very tender and swelling.  So far, they seem to be healing.  I just keep them clean.  Oh, I got an extra incision...she planned on two and ended up doing another to make sure the endo was all gone.  She told us that I shouldn't have that return.  Thank you Lord!

I thought Dr.S. was wonderful and the staff at the hsp were great too.  Of course, I'm happy to be home and I had a great night sleeping last night.  Today my brother is coming over to hang with me since my parents and dh are going to my FIL's 80th bday party.  I am not ready to be around a bunch of people or have any desire for a long car ride.  I don't have a lot of energy and barely an appetite.  I'm just nibbling.  So, I just keep praying recovery keeps going well so next week I can be back into the classroom and get ready for my kiddos.

I thank everyone for the prayers.  I may not feel the best now but once I'm all healed...I'll know I did the right thing and I know I will so ever thankful for Napro.  I talked to a few nurses that had hysterectomies due to issues like mine.  They didn't know about Napro.  Wow.  Most of them did not have children.  For a laugh, a male nurse was telling my dh and I about how bad her endo got and how she ended up having part of her colon removed and a hysterectomy done too.  We talked about my uterus (I know what a topic) and I joked "Aren't you two thankful you don't have a uterus?"
Those two men didn't have anything to say.  They just smiled.  That nurse was totally awesome.

Also, one final note...I had to talk to the dr about this.  We all know surgery ups our chances of getting pg. right?  And she's giving me a prescrip for HCG(to regulate my hormones not necessarily for pg).  So, I asked her if now would be a good time to try to conceive....and she said "yes".  I asked if she even recommended it after seeing everything she did.  She answered "yes".  She said that we shouldn't wait too long.  So, I will be doing cycle reviews and P +7 blooddraws.  My dh and I talked a lot about this and agreed we would try our best.  I'm putting this in the Lord's hands.  I'll have to post a reflection on this at another time...but for now...I just want to heal and get some energy back.

Thanks again for the prayers...I felt them and I offered up my suffering to all the women who are suffering with endo.

St. Anne...pray for us!