Post Operation Check-Up

Overdue again, I blame myself for being lazy.

We got to our REs on the 27^th, waited in the waiting room for a few minutes and Glenna (Dr. B’s nurse) called us back.  She took us straight to the exam room.  Northern Starr said, “Wow, no choice for you, it’s straight to the exam room!”  So we get in there and Glenna tells me to just unbutton my pants and lay down so Dr. B can inspect my incision scar.  Then she left the room.

I just looked at Northern Starr… “They’re not going to look at my ovary?  I want to see it.  I shaved my legs for this!”  Insert Northern Starr’s uncontrollable laughing here. LOL!

Dr. B comes in and checks my scar.  He said that I’m healing just perfectly!!!  I told him that I’m still numb from under my belly button to the top of my scar.  He said that I may never get feeling back there.  It’s all about the way my nerves heal and come together.  Dr. B said that if I do get feeling back, it will come and go a lot.  Insert my shocked face here, and Northern Starr’s “I told you so.”  Hate that he knows a lot of medical stuff.  I’m never right in these situations.  All because he’s a certified EMT.  BLAH!

Afterwards, Dr. B said for me to get dressed and for us to meet him in his office and we’ll go over a few things.  He left; I sat up, got off the table and buttoned back up.  We headed over to his office, down the hallway.  We talked about Provera, which I told him that I wanted because even though I started when I was supposed to after my surgery, it was only for 2 days and really light, so I didn’t have much of a period.  He agreed and wrote the prescription.  Then he asked what we wanted to do as far as treatment.  I said that we want to do Clomid plus injectables.  Dr. B said, “let’s compromise.”  He feels that it’s too soon to jump into something that will over stimulate my ovaries, so we are just going to do Clomid this cycle with the IUI.  Should this cycle not work, we can do Clomid plus the injections.  And possibly back to back IUIs. 

Game plan set.

I started taking the Provera and 5 days after AF came.  I’m on CD 3 now, day 1 of Clomid.  And our mid cycle check is on the 23^rd.

Provera made me more grumpier than usual.  And now, with the Clomid, here comes more moodiness and the hot flashes.  Bring it on!!  It will all be worth it in the end when we are holding our little bundle(s) of joy!

Surgery... Part 2

Ugh… Another long overdue post.  I blame trying to get back into the swing of things for this one.

So all I remember is semi waking up in recovery.  I remember hearing a woman’s voice in my right ear and a male voice with an accent in my left.  Lets name them Harry and Sally.  I opened my eyes a little, everything was blurry, but I could see another woman in a hospital bed on the other side of the room.  I couldn’t keep my eyes open for very long.  Harry asked Sally, “What’d they do to her?”  Sally replied, “She had surgery on her right ovary.  They took it.”  *GASP* I wanted to cry.  I wanted to scream.  But I didn’t have control over my own body.  I must’ve fell asleep again, because the next thing I could feel was me being moved around.  Like they were pushing my bed somewhere. 

Then my bed stopped moving.  Harry was still on my left.  I heard him talking to a guy that was now on my right side.  His name is Austin; he was my nurse until 7pm.  Harry told Austin something about needing whatever I was laying on.  Austin rolled my body onto my left side.  I kinda woke up then because I felt weird.  I wasn’t in pain, but just really uncomfortable.  I grabbed onto Harry’s arm to help keep me on my side while Austin pulled the blanket out from under me.

When I was able to lay down normally, my eyes were still closed and I felt someone rubbing my left foot.  And then Northern Starr’s voice, “I’m here baby.  You did so good.  Everything is okay now.”  To which I asked, “Did they take it?”  “No, you still have it.”  He said.  I replied “Don’t lie to me.”  Everyone who was in the room giggled and I passed out again.

Supposedly, I got out of surgery around 3pm.  But when I finally came to, it was around 6pm.  Northern Starr was sitting on the couch/his bed, doing something on his phone and watching TV at the same time.  I groaned because I tried to sit up.  To which he noticed I was finally awake.  He jumped up to help so fast.  But I couldn’t move.  Something kept squeezing my legs.  It was that massager thing, so my blood can still circulate while I’m stationary for a long period of time.  Austin came in; this is when he introduced himself to me and took my vitals. He said all I could “eat” was ice chips and starburst, as long as I let the whole thing dissolve in my mouth before I swallowed.  Every hour Austin came in to check my vitals.  And when he left, Sarah became my nurse.  I didn’t like her.  Her assistant was nicer than she was.  I wish I knew her assistants name.

The next day, Northern Starr left to get him some breakfast from the cafeteria and bring back something for me too since we got the “OK” that I could now try to eat some solids.  While Northern Starr was gone, Dr. W came in to see me!  (I have to say that I have thee BEST team of doctors EVER!)  He checked my incision.  And I asked him if they took my ovary.  He confirmed that they DIDN’T!!!  I asked him what I’d have to do to go home today.  He said that he would imagine all I’d have to do is urinate and walk the hallway a few times.  But he felt I should take things slow and just bank on being discharged the next day.  My heart sank.  But he left and my new nurse (we’ll call her Carla) came in and I told her I was leaving today.

Northern Starr came back and I ate my breakfast.  Nothing fun happened between then and lunch.  Slept, watched TV, and had my vitals checked.  Dr. B came in to check on me around lunch time.  He told me, “So I hear you’re telling everyone you’re going home today.” I nodded.  He said as long as I urinate and walk the hall at least once, I’ll be able to go home.  That when I feel up to it, I have to call their office to schedule my post-op at least 4 weeks from my surgery date.  Done deal!  He left, Northern Starr got us some lunch, and then even though I didn’t feel like I needed to pee, I told him I had too.  Getting up hurt sooooo bad.  I just sat up in the bed and started to cry.  It took me awhile to get to the bathroom, even with my husbands and Carla’s help.  And since I was already out of bed, I had Northern Starr put some pants on me and we walked the hallway.  I am a determined woman! LOL.  I was discharged at 3pm.  Exactly 24hrs after I got out of surgery!

Surgery: Part 1

This is so long overdue… You can blame the pain meds that made me sleep ALL THE TIME and my husband for not setting up our laptop for me to blog about the surgery.

So Thursday, the night before the surgery, we stayed up as long as we could and ate dinner REALLY late since I wouldn’t be allowed to drink or eat anything as of 12am Friday.  We went to bed close to 12am.  Northern Starr fell asleep quick, he tends to do that, he can fall asleep anywhere.  I on the other hand, didn’t fall asleep until 2am.  My alarm goes off at 7am.  Needless to say that I kept waking up throughout that 5 hour span; but I got out of bed, got ready, and we were off on our 1 ½ journey to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital and checked in.  Almost immediately a nurse brought us back for me to put on “my party dress and party hat” as she called it, and to sign some papers and answer any questions we had.  Later we met the anesthesiologist, Northern Starr asked him if there was anything they could give me to help calm me down because I kept shaking my right foot and twirling my hair LOL!  He said of course and that his nurse would come in and give it to me once my IV was set up.  He left, and my nurse started to hook me up to my IV.  As soon as she did it, I started balling!  It finally hit me… I am having surgery done… today.  You know when little kids cry hysterically?  Eyes screwed shut, mouth wide open, snot rolling out of their nose, and it sounds like they’re having trouble breathing on their own?  Yeah, that was me.  And the funny thing is; I’m not exaggerating.

My nurse then left to find my anesthesiologists’ nurse.  While she was gone, Dr. S came into my room!  She was dressed in scrubs and told me that she was going to be in the operating room with me.  Dr. B was the lead surgeon and that she would be assisting him!  It felt great knowing that both of my REs were going to be “working” on me.  But that didn’t stop my crying.  She left, Dr. B came in… he saw me crying, and he kept telling me that everything is going to be okay and he held my hand and rubbed my leg and he left the room.  Then the anesthesiologist nurse came in and I watched her start to inject the calming medicine into my IV.  I saw the medicine was halfway gone and then I was out.  I do not remember anything after that, the next thing I remembered was semi waking up in the recovery room.

Per Northern Starr this is what happened after I received the calming medicine.

            ***As soon as the nurse gave me all of the calming medicine, I reached down to the foot of my hospital bed, grabbed “my party hat” and put it on my head and started to stuff my hair in it.  I started to get frustrated because not all of my hair was getting in it (thanks layers!).  Northern Starr told me it was okay not to put it all in the hat, but I kept doing it until it was all in there.  I was having conversations with anyone who came into my room.  When it was time for them to roll me back to the operating room, Northern Starr kissed me and told me that he’d see me in recovery, that he loves me, and that I’m so brave for doing this for our soon to be family.  While they pushed me away, I was talking to everyone.***

I really wish I knew what I was saying.  I hope nothing embarrassing LOL.

Late Post... My Bad

A million thoughts have been running through my head since Dr. S called me back with the results of my ultrasound.  I was nervous as hell for my MRI.

The MRI wasn’t all that bad.  But that’s all thanks to the nurse that did it.  She was so sweet and funny, I just wanted to be her friend.  She gave me a washcloth to put over my eyes so I wouldn’t be able to see the machine around me and become claustrophobic.  Even though I know I’m not claustrophobic, it really helped to have my eyes covered.  The only uncomfortable part was that it’s hot as fuck in that machine!  But to my surprise, I fell asleep in there… TWICE!  Sure the machine was loud but the noises it made was a constant noise; and that’s how I can fall asleep.  I can’t sleep in dead silence.  Even if our house is cold, I have to have a fan on.  Just because of the constant noise it makes.

MRI was on Wednesday the 15^th.  Friday the 17^th Dr. S called me and explained that the MRI results show that it is in fact a dermoid cyst, the size of an orange!  WTF!?!?  Since it’s so big she said that I’ve had it for over 5 years.  And now since it’s bigger than what they thought, I can’t have the “simple” outpatient surgery we were already planning on having.  I have to have basically a c-section.  A c-section without a baby.  FML!  Oh and the cyst is IN my right ovary!!!  So there might be a chance that I'll lose it.

My pre-operation meeting with the Dr was this past Tuesday the 21^st.  SURGERY IS TOMORROW!!! Friday the 24^th.  Nervous has hell!  Dr. B (my original RE) is going to be doing my surgery.  Dr. B said that his main goal is to remove the cyst and not take my ovary.  He said he will slice my ovary, peel it back, and make a hole in the cyst and suck the fluid from it so it'll shrink down and make minimal damage to my ovary so he can repair it and I can keep it.  I have to spend at least one night in the hospital.  Plus side is that Northern Starr can stay with me in my hospital room.  That they have a pull out bed for husbands to sleep on, so the wives are more comfortable and at ease knowing someone they love is there with them.

Wish me luck for tomorrow.  I’ll keep yall posted.