Life Update: A Successful Surgery

Hey, friends! I must say I have missed blogging and reading all of your blogs so much over the last two weeks, but today is the first day I felt up to writing a post.

As most of you know, I had surgery on Wednesday, July 20. It went (almost) as well as possible, given the circumstances. That morning, I woke up feeling at peace. That’s not to say I wasn’t nervous (my naturally high heart rate went up to 150 and even hit 180 when I had a coughing fit after the epidural), but I was so ready. Even though I knew recovery from surgery would be tough, I had been in pain for so many months at that point that I was ready to move forward in the healing process.

My pre-op experience was so much better than expected. Meeting all the doctors really helped. My anesthesiologist was truly a gem. Not only was she super hilarious, it was so easy to tell she knew what she was doing. I opted to get an epidural, which was the best decision ever. I can’t even imagine how much pain I would have experienced after my surgery if not for that epidural. I can definitely see why they’re so popular for people giving birth!

The last thing I remember before going under anesthesia was my anesthesiologist telling me she has a close Russian friend, and she knows a phrase in Russian. That phrase was “I have lost my mind.” I’m also pretty sure I said “that feels weird” as the anesthesia hit me. I had been under twilight anesthesia before but not general, and it felt like someone knocked me out.

So I said my surgery went almost as well as possible. During surgery, they noticed the problem with my ureter was worse than originally thought.  I had extremely severe scarring from my endometriosis, which made my ureter unable to expand. Because it was so bad, the urologist on call at the hospital wasn’t comfortable placing the stent, so they sent for a specialist from a nearby hospital. He wanted to put in a 7 cm. stent, but he could only manage a 5 cm. one. Although it made my recovery a bit more difficult, I’m glad they discovered that problem, or else I would have had to have another surgery in the future. I will be having a procedure to remove the stent in two weeks.

When you're a blogger, you take a photo of the hospital ceiling on the day of your surgery.

I mentioned in my surgery date post how scary it was sign a paper that said my surgeon could remove a number of organs. What I wasn’t ready to say at the time was that included every single one of my reproductive organs. My biggest fear going into the surgery was that I could completely lose the ability to become a mother to the point where we couldn’t even try IVF. I can’t even begin to express how thankful I am that this didn’t happen. God is so good, y’all. I ended up with the best-case scenario. I obviously had to lose the ovary and fallopian tube that had the massive cyst, but the doctor was able to save everything else.

I found out the morning after my surgery that the size of my endometrioma (around 20 cm.) was a personal record for my doctor. That doesn’t surprise me because I couldn’t find anything about endometriomas that big online, but I’m glad she didn’t tell me that before the surgery! One of the residents told me the doctor had been excited all week about my case since it was a really unique situation.

I stayed in the hospital for three nights. They thought I might need four nights in the hospital but knew it was my birthday, so they hoped to make it so I could leave a little early. On the morning of my birthday, I got my epidural and catheter removed, and the pain quickly became overwhelming. Thankfully, after a change in medication, the pain became manageable, and I was able to leave that evening. It was truly the biggest gift I could have asked for this year.

I couldn’t write this post without mentioning Chris. I’ve been even more thankful for him than usual throughout my healing process. He spent the night with me at the hospital every night, dealing with people coming in to check my vitals throughout the night. On my first night after surgery, I had to wake him up every hour to feed me ice because my throat hurt so much from being intubated. The next day he not only had to get up at 5 a.m. to get ready for work, but it was also his birthday.

The view from my hospital room.

As for now, the healing process is slow but steady. Every day feels like a significant improvement. My sweet Mama (who replaced Chris at the hospital at 5 a.m. every day I was there even though she lives an hour away) came to help me every day last week. On Sunday, I was able to walk outside a little for the first day since being discharged (I’ve never been so thankful to be out in the Texas heat!), and my Mom brought Skyler home on Monday (she was living with my parents for the last two weeks). Today is my follow-up appointment with my doctor, so hopefully, she will say everything is going well.

I wanted to thank y’all so much for your support! It has meant so much to me. A few years ago, I would have never imagined putting such a difficult situation in my life on the internet for everyone to read, but so many of y’all have come on this journey with me, so wanted to share the outcome. I am going to start slowly easing myself into blogging next week, starting with a books post on Monday. I can’t wait to read all of your blogs and see what everyone has been doing this summer. Much love!

Linking up with Kristen and Gretchen