Recovery and complications

I can't even describe how happy I was to be at home, in the comfort of my own bed and surrounded by my kids, it was nice. Brandon wasn’t able to stay and take care of me so being in the comfort of my own home was short lived. Brandon had to leave Thursday evening, the day after my surgery to go back to work so I stayed with my mom so she could help me with the boys. As much as I love my mom and appreciate her help and everything she does for me, I needed to go home. I was exhausted and in pain and the kids weren’t listening at all so I went home Sunday afternoon. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t peed since Saturday evening around 6 and here it was Sunday around 6pm and I still hadn’t voided and I was in excruciating pain with SHARP STABBING PAINS in my abdomen that would not go away. I talked to the on call doctor who advised me to go to the ER. Well, I was screwed because I couldn't drive and my parents had already started drinking so they couldn’t take me to the ER also. Holly was at work, Arthur was sleeping, Melissa was hung over and Brandon was in the valley so I called my dad to come get the boys. The EMT's showed up and my blood pressure was through the roof, my stomach was ridged and I was running a slight fever but because I had taken my own meds they couldn’t give me anything better to help with my discomfort L As soon as I got to the hospital the nurse did a bladder scan on me and my bladder has 722 ml of urine in it and the maximum hold is 400 to 500 ml so the put a catheter in me and ran some test. My blood work came back that there was an infection and the CT scan came back that my bladder and kidneys were inflamed, swollen or whatever you want to call it. After 5 hours in the er on pain meds I was released and sent home with the folly catheter. I went to the doctor a few days later and he took my folly out and I was able to pee, not a lot but I was definitely voiding. 2 days later I had to go back to the doctor because I stopped voiding, I thought the pain before was bad but this time it was way worse so the doc put the folly back in and that was to stay there for a week. After 5 days I was in complete discomfort so I was able to cut the folly out, yay!!!!! I have had the folly out for a week now and I am voiding on my own, not a ton but enough. I still have a kidney infection and bladder infection and I am on 8 different types of meds but I am on the right road to recovery. Hopefully this is the end of all the discomfort and pain and I can get back on with my life.

Surgery

SO, I went to the doctor on June 14, 2012 because ever since my hysterectomy I have had bad pain and nothing, not even my surgery to remove my left ovary and the remainder of my cervix took the pain away. My pain over time started getting worse and worse those ice packs, heating pads, exercising and medicine stopped working.

Intercourse was so painful that the thought of that intimate moment made me cringe so it was time that I saw the doctor about it. Dr. Connelly checked me and saw that where my uterus used to be was a lesion that kept filling up with fluid and rupturing causing a severe infection inside that was extremely painful.

The doctor also saw when he put the speculums in me that my Kidneys were lower than usual and that he shouldn’t be able to feel them when checking me so he decided right then and there that I needed exploratory surgery to find out exactly what was wrong and what was where. Dr. Connelly put me on pre op antibiotics and anti inflammatory meds so that way my risk of infection was lower than usual.

I talked to the scheduling nurse for surgeries and she was able to get me in on Wednesday June 20th at 10 am. I was nervous but at the same time relieved that hopefully the doctor would get to the bottom of my pain and problems, I was ecstatic.

Brandon and I dropped the boys off to my mom on surgery day and left for Showlow early so he could take me to dollar tree, I wanted to do a little of cheap shopping before surgery and before I wouldn’t be able to anything for a while. It was nice that Brandon was with me that day because other then my hysterectomy in 2009 Brandon has never been to any of my surgeries and I have had 3 in between my hysterectomy and the recent surgery.

When I arrived to the hospital my emotions started running heavily, I have had many surgeries but I was so scared that something wasn’t going to be done about my pain that my doctor wasn’t going to find anything wrong and I would be left with not only my everyday pain but now the pain of surgery. Doctor told Brandon that I would be in surgery anywhere from 2 hours to 5 hours depending on the severity. Poor Brandon was all I was thinking and I was the one being cut open but I know how men are and sitting and waiting isn’t there forte.

The surgery nurse came in and asked me a whole ton of questions that I have already answered a dozen times and then the anesthesiologist came in and asked me the same questions and then told me that in 10 minutes I would be wheeled into surgery. It was 11:57 when they came to get me and told me to say goodbye to Brandon. I didn’t think it was going to be so hard saying bye and kissing Brandon, it totally sucked. As soon as I left the room I started crying so the anesthesiologist gave me a very good drug named versed (ver-said) and all my worries started to fade.

I remember waking up and hearing the nurse say "cough" I didn’t want to cough, I could barely move my leg without bursting in to tears because of the pain. I was maxed out on pain meds that the recovery nurse had to call my doctor and find out what to do next. I remember her saying that she knew I was in pain because my blood pressure was 135/98 which I guess was high. I also remember crying for Brandon over and over again, all I wanted has to be held by mu husband.

I was finally able to go back to my room where Brandon was and he immediately lowered the side rails and climbed into bed with me. I loved that he was holding me so close that I could smell his deodorant, feel his skin and hear his heart beat, that to me was more soothing then pain meds. The doc finally let me go home but I had to be on complete bed rest and when I looked at the clock it was 7:16 pm. Brandon told me that I didn’t get out of surgery until 10 after 4 and then I was in recovery until 5:30.  Holy Hell, how complicated was my surgery that I was in there for 4 hours? The doctor said I was a mess inside. My endometriosis had spread to the vaginal cuff so they had to cauterize inside my vagina, which was very uncomfortable. The doc also cauterized that lesion so I would stop getting so sick.

The complicated part of the surgery is that when he got inside he found that the kidneys, right ovary, appendix, Collin and bladder were all fused together so he had to un fuse it and put it all back where it belonged and that was time consuming. The doctor used a lot of mesh and a lubricant inside so that way everything stayed moist and in place,,, He also said that was the cause for all the pain during intercourse because not only was everything tied together but it all had dropped into where my cervix was… Ouch!!!

I was glad when I was finally able to leave the hospital and so excited that my doctor had fixed me. It wasn’t all in my head, there was something seriously wrong with me and soon I will be back to normal… That was such a good feeling and all I could think about on the way home was my kids and how much I wanted to hold the, J