SAH/BSO - Definitely earned Princess crown over here ...

After arriving at the Castle at 5:45 am for what was supposed to be a laparoscopic removal of ovarian cysts (and possibly ovaries), I am finally back online.

Things went well although I had a case of laryngitis and could barely talk. They gave me the option to reschedule but I have been waiting to have something done about these ovarian cysts for something like 2 years, so I wasn't going to reschedule.

We got under way at about 7:30 am. When I woke up in recovery and looked up at the clock and saw 1:30 pm, I knew something was up.

Turns out I had the worst case of endo two of the surgeons working on me had ever seen. (I had three surgeaons, two professors and a resident.) I had a big cement block of it behind my uterus trapping small and large intestine and completely covering both ovaries. They couldn't even start the operation right away because they couldn't find my ureters! I lost both ovaries and my uterus but kept my cervix. It took a total of four hours.

After surgery I completely lost my voice, so when I hit the call button the nurses would have to run down the hall instead of using the speaker to see what I wanted. I did OK painwise and getting up on day two to go the bathroom. I did OK on day 3 walking around the halls. But everything crashed that night, when Upper Gut decided to wake up and try to push gas through, and Lower Gut still had the sign up that reads: No Deliveries.

I can't describe the miserable pain. It hurt so much I got nauseous and threw up something like 6 times. Try doing THAT with a full bikini cut. My nurse tried to give me something through my IV but it blew, so finally I ended up with a suppository that at least stopped the nausea. When the abdominal pains weren't too bad, I was so exhausted by the pain it was like I died. Then I'd wake up, have cramps, go to sleep ... wake up, have cramps, go to sleep ... The crowning touch was I had been eating cherry Jello, so every time I puked it was blood red. Nice!

By morning I was starting to feel better, but I still hadn't eaten any solid food and really wanted to have a GOOD night before I was discharged, so I stayed another day. I ate some vegetable beef soup and about 1/4 of a sandwich, and then some chicken and green beans (and ice cream, yum!), starting passing gas and diarrhea, and had a pretty good night. They brought me French toast and sausage yesterday morning for breakfast, plus Cheerios and a banana. I ate it all and felt pretty good. No more problems, right?

Heh, I wish. After all the problems with traffic in downtown Richmond, my dear bf finally brought me home, and we discussed lunch. There is a Wendy's down the street from me. I heard myself saying: "You know, maybe I should just go to the supermarket and get an apple ..." Why, oh, why didn't I just do that????

I ate the fries and enjoyed them, felt full, so didn't eat the burger right away. About two hours later I felt sort of hungry, so I ate the burger. A couple of hours after that, I sort of felt this "gas" pain in my right upper abdomen, which soon turned into ...

A FULL BLOWN GALL BLADDER ATTACK!! By now my brother was arriving to take me home to recuperate at my parents', an hour and a half away. That was the most miserable car ride of my entire life. Pain, pain, pain, pain. I got there, changed into night clothes, threw up, and settled in for a night of miserable pain. Change positions, dose for maybe five minutes, wake up, change positions again. Thank God for a hot castor oil pack and Percocet every 4 hours, or I might still be writhing in misery. At last the pain eased up around 4 am and I was able to sleep til 10 or so. I'm afraid to eat anything. So far I've had a glass and a half of water and I've nibbled down a little more than a quarter of an apple.

I'm surprised my incision is doing so well through all this writhing, twisting, turning, and puking. As a general rule: The more times you puke, the less sore it gets. I don't know why.

All I can say, ladies, is when you get home, if you have a sensitive stomach at all, watch what you eat!! I feel so weak and shaky now. UGH. It's gotta get better than this. Everyone please send a few thoughts that my stomach will behave and digest food OK now, with no more problems, and that I will know what I need to put in it. Thanks!!!