I'm Alive!

First off, I want to thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes.  This was a pretty scary experience for me and it was comforting to know that I had so much support from friends and family.  You'll also have to forgive me of the typos that will exist throughout this post because I am on Percocet.

As you can probably tell by me updating my blog, I am doing well.  I'm pretty dang sore and I'm walking around like a grandma lady, but I made it!  I seriously never thought that I would be so happy to find out that I have endometriosis.  Yep, that's right!  NO CANCER!!

So now that you know the news, you don't have to read the rest, but you can if you like.  My bonky brain never remembers anything so I need to record it all.

Yesterday morning, I woke up at 5am with Doug and couldn't get back to bed.  I gave him like 5 billion hugs and kisses and just watched him drive his car down our street.  After he was gone, I was in complete busy-body mode.  I made sure that his lunches were packed for this week, that all laundry was done and put away, and that my house was somewhat presentable in case someone would be coming to help. I didn't know how I would feel after my surgery and I wanted to make sure that everything was ready.  I had actually stopped taking my pain medication on Saturday because I hated the way it made my brain feel and the pain had subsided somewhat on my right side.  I was rather productive.

First picture once I finally got in the gown.

Kate took me to the hospital.  The hospital has valet parking at the entrance we were going to, so it was nice to not have to walk far.  She was really concerned trading in the keys to my dad's car for a little piece of paper.  We got there more than 30 minutes early, so I was really surprised to wait less than 5 minutes before they had me registered and wearing a bracelet. I sure do love souvenirs! :) 

When I showed up at the next desk, they looked at my paperwork and had us sit down.  I thought that we were going to be there for a while, but before even 5 minutes had passed, they were already calling me back.  I kind of felt bad for Kate because she brought a bunch of stuff to keep herself busy during my surgery and just as she got comfortable they would move us to another room and she would have to gather all of her things again.

So, I got into a hospital gown (Those things sure are airy!) and socks.  It took me forever to get into it because  I couldn't figure out all of the ties in the back and I was trying hard not to moon anyone.  I had just barely gotten into my gown and was sitting on my bed talking to Kate when DOUG SHOWED UP!!!!!  Doug had just changed jobs and had zero days of sick leave or vacation, but they let him leave early because he had been working a lot of overtime.  I wasn't sure if I was going to see him at all.

So funny side story... when Doug got there they had a hard time locating me.  The nurse was bringing him around and after checking different numbers she said, "Here's your wife!" and flung open a curtain that had a big black woman behind it.  Doug was kind of like, "Um, that's not my wife."  So they continued to walk around and he finally spotted my purse underneath the curtain and was able to join Kate and I.

My IV

Doug had to leave the room not too long afterward because they had to put in my IV.  (He seriously almost passed out in the hallway just listening to us talk about it through the curtain.)  The nurse started having me pump my fist to show her a vein for the IV.  I have had two IV's before.  The first one was when I got my wisdom teeth out and that was on my left arm in the crook of my elbow.  The second IV, I had just gotten with my MRI on Friday in the crook of my right elbow.  I assumed it would be in one of those two places, but the nurse gave me the bad news that they would be moving me around a lot during my surgery and that it would need to be in my hand.  She told me that I had a great vein and used a little needle to numb the surface, then she put in the IV.  It wasn't bad at all.  Something I learned through this whole experience is that there is actually no needle in an IV.  I had been scared to move my arm, but my nurse showed me that the needle was only being used to put this long thin tube in my vein.  Weird!

We waited around for a while and Kate and I watched some little show on her iPad that was making us laugh pretty hard.  (I really needed it!)  Doug made me a turkey out of a blown up glove that I could hold onto.  I met and talked to my anesthesiologist and signed more papers.  The anesthesiologist turned up the drip on my IV because she was worried about me being hydrated enough.  It made my arm really cold, so they got me more heated blankets.

Me with my blown-up turkey glove before surgery.

Finally, my doctor came in and talked to Doug, Kate, and I.  My final MRI reports had come back and they showed that my body was reacting very badly to whatever the growth was and that she very glad it was coming out today.  She still was hoping for a chocolate cyst, but told me that an oncologist surgeon would be next door just in case the surgery got tough.  I was pretty scared that I actually had cancer whenever she started talking about how my insides were reacting.  I remember picking at my gown nervously the whole time she was talking.

Not too long after, the anesthesiologist nurse came and gave me my first dose of the good stuff.  They said that I wouldn't remember anything, but I'm pretty sure I remember most of it.  I remember when I could first feel it kicking in and I remember them putting up the sides of my bed.  They wheeled me into the operating room and there were a lot of different instruments everywhere with bright lights and lots of people.

The next thing I remember is waking up in recovery.  My doctor gave me a kiss on my forehead and told me that she was able to keep both of my ovaries and that it was endometriosis.  For the next while I remember drifting in and out and being in A LOT of pain.  My mouth was really dry, my throat was sore because they had needed to put a tube in it, and my abdomen just felt awful.  A nurse asked me if I wanted ice chips, but I told her I didn't.

I woke up again I don't know how much later and decided that I really needed ice chips.  My nurse had left and I was saying as loud as I could, "Please, ice chips" over and over until someone came over and checked my chart and gave me some.  Once again, I'm not sure of the time frame.  They wheeled me into the last recovery room and let Doug in.  I started crying as soon as I saw him.  He said to the nurse, "Uh oh, I made her cry maybe I shouldn't be here."  But I told him I was crying because I was happy he was here.  I was feeling pretty nauseous from the anesthesia so they gave me some stuff in my IV to help.

This picture was taken AFTER my color was better.

I have to admit I was probably not a very nice person in this recovery room.  They gave me one Percocet and the nurse asked me how much I hurt on a scale from 1-10.  I told her a 7 and half.  I kept on telling her that the medicine wasn't working and that when my dad took medicine it didn't work for him either.  She told me that it probably didn't have enough time to kick in yet, but after I was still in a lot of pain, she gave another one.  I kept on apologizing saying that I was sorry I was being so mean and that I really was a nice person.  I kept on telling Doug, "I hate this.  I hate this.  I hate this.  It hurts so much.  I never want to get surgery again."  He told me that this is what they needed to do so I could have babies.  He said it was the first time I smiled.

Doug gave me my phone and I'm pretty sure I texted a few people.  My doctor came back and talked to Doug outside of my room.  She then came back and said, "Who has TWO ovaries?!" with her fingers up and a big smile on her face.  She said, "YOU DO!" and started doing a little dance.  My doctor said that removing the cyst was very challenging, but it was like peeling an onion.  Doug was very impressed with her (He is not easily impressed.) and said that she was a very skilled surgeon. She showed me a picture of the surgery, but told me that she would talk to me about it more in depth at our post op appointment when I would remember better.  She told me that I had probably had endometriosis for a long time and that there were a lot of little specks in my abdominal cavity.  Doug said it was mostly on my kidney.  My doctor also told me that I apparently have some killer stomach muscles that were getting in the way and she had to have two different nurses holding them back the whole time because they were so tight.  She said that she was glad I didn't work out more. :)

Doug said that the surgery took 2 hours (only a half an hour longer than they were anticipating).  I was in a recovery room for two hours where they would not let him see me and then I was in my last room with him for another two hours before they wheeled me out to our car.  Unfortunately, Doug left my iPad at the hospital, so hopefully he remembers to pick it up today after work.  He took me straight home and we called some family members through the blue tooth on his car.  I also remember talking to my sister on the phone at home.

Getting up and down is quite the pain, but I got used to it last night when I had to get up about 8 different times to pee.  Besides a lot of random bruising on my body and three band-aids on my abdomen, I think I am recovering just fine.  I will be hanging out here at home for the next week or so thanking my lucky stars that I don't have cancer.