Four Days Post Op, LAVH (Mentions Child!)

I had been having very heavy, very painful bleeding every month for almost two years. I had complained of it to the folks at the medical clinic when I was active duty, but I was basically told "here's some iron, that should help." The bleeding had started to last for 10 days to two weeks. I finally got things ironed out with Tricare (hubby is still active duty Marine) and was able to get a referral to a Gynecologist.

FINALLY...someone who took me seriously. They scheduled an ultrasound to take a look at my uterus inside and my ovaries. They found two large fibroids and a cyst on my left ovary. The doctor said to me "are you finished having children?" Yes. Pregnancy wasn't pretty on me anyway. LOL! So he says "let me just take it out then." I argued....I thought the only option was the old fashioned way to do it. I had NO CLUE he was talking about LAVH. He told me "here, I'll show you where I'm going to cut you, you will feel so much better and have so much more freedom to leave the house whenever you want to."

So...I just went in for surgery prep on Wednesday the 10th of Feb. Had a pre op at the doctor's office on Monday and another at the hospital on Tuesday. Arrived for the surgery prep at 7:30 am on Wednesday. They did the usual, blood pressure, get you into a gown and put an IV into your hand thing. Then they wheeled me in to a holding area and perhaps five people came in and introduced themselves and each asked if I was allergic to anything. Yes...Ultram makes me nauseas. I met the anesthesiologist and he checked my lungs (I have asthma) and my heart (small murmur) and I asked him for something to help calm my nerves....I was seriously nervous...to the point of tears. He put something in my IV and that helped a lot. They came and got me shortly thereafter and wheeled me into the operating room and had me shift over to the surgical bed. They placed a mask on my face and told me "here's some oxygen for you, breathe deeply." I took a deep breath, said "oxygen, my ***" and the next thing I remember was "Jenna...your surgery is over, you did beautifully." I said "I worked so hard." and tried to laugh. That didn't work out so well. I was able to sleep a while. They brought me liquids for lunch. I was starving...but couldn't keep it down. They brought me liquids for supper too. I was sad, because I was still starving. I was required to move from side to side throughout the day and night. They didn't want me to stay in one position for too long. That is not an issue. I get stir crazy easily so I was restless anyway.

I got a shower on Thursday morning. Was up and walking with little problem. Just a little dizzy. I have three small punctures on my abdomen. No stitches, no steri strips or anything. The gas they pumped into my abdomen and the constipation and the achiness of my vagina and insides are what are causing the discomfort.

People ask me how I feel. I say I feel like a truck hit me...but not a Mac truck. I feel bad, but not nearly as awful as I thought I was going to feel.

On a scale of 1 to 10 for pain I'm at about a 5 today. But I'm only taking the prescription they gave me when the pain is not tolerable.

In the end, the doctor got into my abdomen and found extensive endometriosis wrapped all over everything, the fibroids they already knew about, a polyp on the uterus and the cyst on the ovary too. So they took my left ovary as well as my uterus.