Hi.
Here I am back from the "castle" as of 10 a.m. this morning. It is so good to be on this side of things!!!!
I was orginally slated for a SAH, my symptoms leading up to the decision were incredible pelvic pressure, periods happening every 21 days or less and lasting for 14 days, getting heavier all the time, most recent two requiring trips to emergency as I was soaking two super plus tampons and an overnight pad every 20 minutes on day 1 with huge clots, I became very anemic and my surgeon was very concerned that another period might actually be my undoing as I was already on a BCP and a medication to control bleeding. I was having to go to the washroom to "pee" small amounts every hour - day and night - if I didn't and waited longer I would end up having to "self-cath" to get the urine out.
I found this site after the decision had been made and learned so much valuable information from it, I highly recommend everyone use it to it's fullest advantage.
My surgery was moved up from February 4th, 2009 to December 22nd, 2008 due to the surgeon's concerns about another period. On the weekend of December 13th my husband and I scheduled a wonderful retreat just for the two of us at a local hotel (didn't leave town due to bleeding concerns). This was wonderful. For the weekend of December 20th we planned on having the family in for "Christmas". I cooked a 22 lb turkey so there would be lots of leftovers for those at home while I was away at the castle. It was a lovely time, but in retrospect I would have switched these weekends as having everyone over and facing surgery so soon was a little overwhelming and exhausting for me and people didn't really seem to understand that.
The morning of December 22nd I awoke with a feeling of panic, thinking to myself that "today was the day". My heart was beating rapidly but I calmed myself down and decided to break everything down into manageable chunks. My goal then became to get ready to go to the hospital. Once at the hospital, the goal was to get through the admission process. Once in the waiting area the goal was to get through that period until they called me to the OR. At 10:30, they came to get me, my husband was allowed to walk with me and stay with me in the OR waiting area. There, my surgeon came out and met my husband and talked to me. My husband really liked him. The anaesthetist and OR nurse also came out and talked to me. Then I kissed and hugged my husband and the OR nurse escorted me back to the OR. I was asked to loosen the pajama bottoms and undo the gown and lie down on the table. The anaesthetist started an IV, gave me a mask to breath from and next thing I knew he said "have a good sleep". This was it!
When I woke up I was in the recovery room and it was very painful. My whole pelvis was sore and it really didn't get much better with painkillers. I had told the anaesthetist that I had problems with nausea with a previous wisdom teeth surgery so he had given me something during surgery and this was not an issue in recovery.
When they felt I was ready, I was taken to my room and asked to move from the stretcher to the bed. Not easy. I had a PCA pump with morphine and was given the button to use when I felt I needed it.
I have to say that the first 24 hours were rough and my hemoglobin had dropped lower to 71. The surgeon I have is very reluctant to transfuse so he just kept repeating the levels to ensure that it was on the way up, not getting lower. This meant thought that my blood pressure was on the low sideand I was quite weak. The evening of the 22nd the nurses got me up at the bedside and wanted me to walk but I felt incredibly light-headed and very nauseated on standing up so I told them I was prone to fainting and needed to get back into bed. The next morning I was able to go for a short walk, but I do not think my body had it in it that evening and I was glad I stood up for myself.
On the morning of the 24th, they removed the catheter, locked the IV and took away the pneumatic stockings. I was able to shower (it was a real quick one!) and felt so much better following this. I made myself walk every two hours as advised on this site and every time I got up it was easier. I didn't have any problems with peeing and emptying the bladder, however, it still is a little hard to tell when I "need to go".
Christmas day was quiet and very relaxing, I was passing gas and so I was allowed to progress from clear fluids to a full diet. I was hungry and this was much appreciate.
I am someone who does not like to take a lot of medication and I felt almost "hungover" after the morphine, so all I took once the PCA was removed was ibuprofen and tylenol. I have not been pain-free, but it is definitely tolerable and really helped to avoid the bowel issues I have heard of others having.
Today, my surgeon was thrilled with my progress, my hemoglobin has made it up to 84, still a ways to go but much better than 71. My staples were removed, I had my discharge teaching and my husband came and took me home.
I should tell you that my surgeon said that he has never seen anything like what he removed from my pelvis. He said the surgery was very difficult. The ultrasounds I had had seemed to suggest that there were several fairly large fibroids in the uterus, the largest they said was anterior cervix, however, the surgery showed something no one expected. My surgeon actually got out his cell phone and took pictures of my uterus and the "tumor" so he could show me. What he found was a fairly normal size uterus, somewhat bigger with several fibroids but growing off the back of the cervix was a large tumour the size of a "large melon" that was taking up the entire pelvic cavity. He said when he tried to lift it out it actually made a "slurping" noise like would occur with a C-section and removal of the baby from the uterus. Due to the fact that the tumor was growing from the cervix, he had to perform a total abdominal hysterectomy instead of the sub-total that was originally planned. The pictures are something to see and it totally reinforced to me that this surgery was absolutely necessary and not having this "thing" in me will make a world of difference to how I feel.
I would never go into anything like this lightly and I know that I have much ahead of me as far as healing and finding out the pathology of this tumor but I feel that if there can be an ideal surgical experience then that is what I have just had.
I hope this account is helpful to all who may be facing a similar surgery.
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