TAH - Piece of Cake!! :) - Hystersisters Hysterectomy Article

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TAH - Piece of Cake!! :)

TAH - Piece of Cake!! :)

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My surgery Thursday - February 1st. I wrote this originally on the 9th of Feb. Hubby and I got up at the crack
of dawn and showered. I had my bag all packed two days before so just had to put
a few things in and zip it shut. I went out and started the truck while DH finished
getting ready. We pulled in to the hospital at 5:50 a.m., went to admissions and
filled out the paperwork. They soon walked us to the elevator and up to the second
floor where we sat in a waiting room and watched the morning news. DH had a cup
of coffee - I just sneffed the aroma and drooled. Not ten minutes later, another
nurse called us. SHe took us into a little room with a recliner and three other chairs
and a tv. She had me change into one of those stylish gowns and gave me a big
plastic bag to put my clothes in that I had been wearing. She gave me a cup for a
urine sample and I did as requested. The anesthesiologist came in and introduced
himself, asked thirty or so questions so quickly that i hardly had time to answer
them. We discussed my anesthesia allergies and the fact that I had had trouble with
nausea before and was really interested in avoiding that this time if at all possible.
He reassured me and started my IV in my left hand. While he was starting it, lab
came in and they needed blook so the anesthesiologist just pulled the blood that
they needed for lab work from the needle he had just put in my hand. They got the
IV going and then he said he'd see me in a while. A nurse came in and went over the
"what to expects" with DH and I. DH got phone numbers and gave his phone
numbers to the nurse so that they could contact him as soon as I was in recovery.
(DH hates hospitals and would rather go to work than just sit there waiting - I didn't
have a problem with that at all.) Shortly before 7:00 a.m. they came to get us and
take us back to pre op. They had me get up on a gurney and covered me with warm
blankets - it was cold back there!. Then they hooked a pulse Oxygen thingee to my
inxdex finger. Yup - I was still ok! Two nurses came and introduced themselves
and asked more questions, soon my Doctor came in and said he wanted to get going
early if I didn't mind - heck no! Let's do this. He shook hands with DH and told him
that he would call him when I was out of recovery. Dr. reminded me that we were
planning to keep the ovaries if they looked ok and I agreed. By about 7:30 they
came to wheel me off to the O.R. Kissed DH goodbye and exchanged "love yous".
Once in the OR, they lifted me onto another table and what seemed like 18 people
all began working on me at once. We were talking and laughing, they told me they
needed me to breathe a little Oxygen, put a mask over my face and poof - I was
gone. Next hing I knew, I was hearing my name and waking up in recovery. More
warm blankets please. Dr. came by and told me that everything went great and that
he left my ovaries in place. He also mentioned that he had already called DH and
filled him in. By 10:30 I was in my hospital room with the PCA (Patient Controlled
Analgesia) hoked up. I was getting 10 mg of demoral per hour and could give myself
10 mg with every push of the button up to six times per hour. A nurse stood beside
me and fed a few ice chips into my mouth, another put some carmex on my lips - O
thank you thank you thank you! I was asked to rate my pain throughout my stay in
the hospital on a scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being the worst. My pain was never worse
than a 4 and was most frequently a 2-3. The pain was nothing at all what I had
expected - to me, it was like really bad period cramps and the back ache I had was
sometimes worse than my pain from the surgery. They gave me a heating pad which
I used for my entire stay in the hosp. This first day dragged! It felt like I would sleep
for 3 minutes and then wake up. I never pushed my pain button more than two
times an hour and many times I never pushed it at all. That evening DH came to visit,
still in his suit from the office - tough day. Said he had called my mom and would
make all the other calls when he got home. He was really surprised and pleased with
how well I was doing. He helped me sit up and dangle my feet at the side of the
bed. This made me a little dizzy, but not bad at all. My nurse that evening - Brenda
was great! SHe rubbed my back and got my up two more times during the night, had
me walk around the room a bit. By 7 the next morning she took my catheter out and
by 7:30 I got to pee on my own again! They took my Iv out shortly aftet that and
then...... I got to take a shower - I think I sat in there for half an hour. The rest of
the day I spent getting in and out of bed to go potty. Gas had started rumbling, but
never any real pain from it. My best friend came to visit that evening, had a nice visit
- right up until I sneezed - ouch! I also learned that suspense movies aren't for me -
When DH left he turned on Indiana Jones for me - love those movies. I sat in the
recliner to watch for a while. i'm a real jumpy person and startle easily. You guessed
it - something jumped out at the girl in the movie, I startled and jumped and decided
that that was a little painful and that I better watch something else. I slept better
Friday night bur not great, still tired. My blader started having spasms Saturday, they
did a urine test to rule out a urinary tract infection and then the DR ordered some
meds for the problem. Said that my bladder probably just didn't know what to do
with all the extra space since the uterus was out of its way now. Dr gave me the ok
to go home. I called DH and said - come get me honey, I want to go home. He and
his folks and our five year old came up to the hospital and took me home. First night
back in my own bed was wonderful!!! I slept with a pillow under my knees to take
pressure off my incision and also laid a pillow beside me to roll onto my side and
support my tummy. In the hosp they always had a folded blanket on my tummy - I
found I still needed this so used a bath towel.
Since coming home, I have not done much, mostly slept and rested. Took a shower
every day and watch movies and read. I have good days and not so good days, just
have to force myself to rest as much as possible. DH has been wonderful - won't let
me do anything! Scolds me if I do Had my first bm Sunday morning and have had
three since then. No worries there ladies.
Hope my brief - NOT synopsis helps to calm any fears you may have. I know that
reading these posts helped me a ton before my surgery.

Best wishes!

P.S. I am now six weeks post today! I went back to work on the fifth of March and all is well! I feel great and am even back in the gym!

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TAH - piece of cake

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Christina Ellis, M.D. 600 E. Marshall St. Ste. 205 West Chester PA 19380 610-903-6200	Ellen Wilson, M.D. 5323 Harry Hines Blvd - Dept of OBGYN Dallas TX 75390 214-648-4747	Patrick Jr. Yeung, M.D. 1031 Bellevue Ave, Suite 400 St. Louis MO 63117 314-977-7455
Vincenzo Sabella, M.D. 7950 Floyd Curl Dr. Ste. 600 San Antonio TX 78229 210-615-8585	Jennifer Cova, M.D. 7700 Washington Village Drive Suite 210 Dayton OH 45459 937-433-6513	Keita Sakon, M.D. 7190 S. Cimarron Rd. Las Vegas NV 89135 702 870 3921
Linda Green, M.D. 3001 Coral Hills Dr., Suite 300 Coral Springs FL 33065 954-341-2916	Amie Napier, M.D. Medical City Hospital 7777 Forest Lane Suite A331 Dallas TX 75230 9725667760	John Welsh, M.D. 102 Handley Park Ct Goldsboro NC 27534 919-734-3344

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