Next, thanks to Cyn and Josh for watching the girls for me while I was in the hospital and for a few days afterwards to give me peace of mind. The girls have had a blast at your house, and it was such a great relief that Ken didn't have to worry about taking care of the girls while he was so worried about me.
Finally, to all of the doctors that I spent so much time and money to see in order to determine what was causing my pain: KISS MY ASS! There was one lady who told me that I was just seeking attention, and another anal orifice who said that the pain was imaginary.
Some of my love and affection have gone to Dr. Michael Eby. He is one of the GYNs on contract with the VA in Loma Linda, and Ken and I have learned that he is simply an amazing human being. Not only did he believe that I was in pain, but he worked to help find the solution. When medications were not working, he tried Lupron - an injection that put me into chemical menopause. After 5 months of no pain whatsoever, he determined that the culprit had to be my uterus, so we scheduled a hysterectomy. The plan was to only take out the uterus, but if the ovaries were bad, then he would remove those as well.
As the surgical date got closer, I was very nervous. I have had surgery before, but I knew that my weight added significant risk to this surgery, and I wasn't sure how things would go. When I arrived, I was treated so amazing by everyone. Dr. Eby made sure that I was as comfortable as possible, and I have no memories of anything past the anesthesiologist telling me that she was going to give me my first injection.
The surgery was to last one hour to one and a half hours at the most. Apparently, my insides were worse than anyone thought, and I learned that I was in surgery for 3 1/2 hours! Again, I cannot imagine what Ken went through waiting and waiting for news of me. He was sitting in the waiting room by himself, and my heart aches knowing that he was so stressed out over me.
Dr. Eby went and found him after surgery and first told him that I was OK, and that I was in recovery, and then he explained what had happened. I'm still not completely clear on all of the details, but I have learned that there was a massive amount of scar tissue throughout my insides. Most of my lower internal organs were adhered to one another which was what was causing most of my monthly pain - every time my uterus would contract, it was pulling on every organ and my stomach. OK, so no wonder I was in pain every month, and the pain was getting worse every month.
In addition to removing all of the scar tissue, Dr. Eby also removed the three scars that I had from my C-sections which only leaves me the one "pretty" scar that he gave me. He said that in order to do this, he had to stretch my lower stomach a bit, so I've had a really weird tummy tuck. All of the yuck is still there on the upper stomach area, but the lower section looks great. Haha!
I had to stay in the recovery area for 12 hours until they could secure a bed for me. Apparently, there are not a lot of women that use the VA, so they had to find a private room for me. Lucky for me, a woman was discharged, and I was finally able to be moved. During my time in recovery, Dr. Eby paid me numerous visits to ensure that I was comfortable, and he even got Ken permission to be back there until they moved me. The first thing I asked about when conscious was "how is Ken?" and Dr. Eby made sure to bring Ken to me as soon as possible. I cannot begin to describe how amazing it is to have a doctor who listens to you and genuinely care about you. Talk about being spoiled - amazing and loving husband and amazing and attentive doctor!
The hospital stay was as expected - long and boring with constant questions - how are you feeling? Are you sleeping (as they wake you up), as well constant badgering about all of your bodily functions. I love the subtle differences with being at the VA Hospital versus a regular hospital. First was the signs on the door stating that there were female patients in the room - so knock before entering. I also loved the lower patient to nurse ratio, and that there were tons of people to check on you. The American Red Cross came by with a toiletry kit my first full day there, and then the Home Hospitalized Veterans lady came by with my craft kit - I got a paint by numbers!
My most favorite visit was on my final day. Fred comes by and announces that he's with the Veteran's Support Services. He asks my roomie (she was closest to the door) if she had her toiletry kit. My roomie said she didn't have one, but I made sure he heard that I got mine. Well, I got a second one, and then Fred noticed that neither of us had lap robes. I had no idea what a "lap robe" was at the time, but I knew I didn't want anything that resembled a blanket - I had just gotten a chat by the lead nurse on my temperature, and she wasn't listening that someone had put a blanket on me causing me to burn up. Anyway, Fred starts yelling out our door, "Hey Dixie! We got two ladies in here and they don't have a lap robe." Now, laughing after your abdomen has been sliced open is not a pleasant or encouraged thing, but listening to these two was hilarious! Dixie was shocked to learn that we didn't have a lap robe, so she got two of them out, and Fred returned with them. He informed us that we should be treated better, and he was going to see to it!
Now, most of you know my aversion to the color pink, so you will completely understand why I kept laughing when I was given this really warm and hand-made gift:
All in all, I made it through this well. I was happy to know that that there truly was a problem, and I'm so grateful that Dr. Eby was the one to find it and fix it.
For obvious reasons, I'm not posting any of the pictures of my surgery or of the wound itself. I know I have a strong stomach, but that would be pushing things. I do have these wonderful pictures that my sensitive and wonderful hubby took of me in the hospital. My disclaimer is that I was in the hospital for three days without the ability to shower.
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| I'm trying to make sure that I have everything I need to take a shower. |
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| Talk about being totally pissed when the nurse refused to take out the IV so I could take a shower! |
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| I wasn't letting go of that pillow for ANYTHING! |
I have a ton of drugs to get me through this:
There was a stack of instructions to go with all of these bottles well. Ugh! Ken's brilliant idea was to watch SNL when we got home. Not a great idea - laughing and all, but it was fun to finally be home. I managed to drag myself into bed with the help of Ken and a step-stool. Apparently, there was more pain involved as this the picture that Ken got of me:
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| It was SOOOOO nice to sleep in my own bed!! |
The bruises are another matter. I have water blisters from tape, and I have no idea why there was tape in the places there are blisters, but I'm having to put up with it. I kept trying to tell the nurses that my left arm is the best for finding veins and the veins in my right arm are very small. Apparently, I do not know what I'm talking about, so I was put through this:
The really important things is that I made it through the surgery, and that all of the problems were able to be fixed. I got to keep the ovaries, so I'll be making my own hormones until menopause kicks in. The girls will be coming home on Tuesday, so I have some time to enjoy getting used to things in quiet. Day 1 of Home Adventures has gone well, and I'm managing to not do anything. My "to-do" list for today was #1 - get out of bed and move to the couch so I can sit upright and #2 - take a shower. I managed to do both of those things today, and I'm happy to allow Ken to take care of me.
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