Getting back to normal

I say that loosely. I am having little to no pain these day, except with coughs and sneezes. I can drive, and I even feel like getting out for an hour or two. I usually have 4 really good energetic hours in the day, but I can't do a whole lot with that energy! There's still no bending or lifting, so that rules out most things. I did manage to get my sheets off the bed today with very little effort, and I piled them into a corner so Brent can wash them.

Speaking of Brent, he is doing more than his fair share. He is a good man. He is having to work really hard at work right now and I wish that he could come home and rest.

I go to the dr. in a week to get my hormone levels checked. I seem to be doing OK on the patch. I do wish I wasn't so sweaty, but it gives my husband and children something to make fun of!

Home for a week

Well, I have been home for a week. I have to say that I have felt much better than I ever anticipated. I went to the Dr. on Monday and everything looked great. He cleared me to drive, which helps so much with school for the kids and also lets me run a couple of errands.

My sister came to visit for a couple of days and we went to a few stores yesterday. I did great, but by the time it was over, I was done for. And I have slept all day today.

I am doing well with my pain. I am not taking any narcotics anymore. I did not wear my binder yesterday and I am really sore today because of it.

Two things that I am HATING about recovery. #1 My mind is gone. I cannot hold a thought for more than a minute. It is driving me crazy. I can't focus on reading or anything. TV is even a problem. #2 All the things I cannot do. I can't bend, I can't lift. No housework. I have to have someone get plates for supper. I can't load the dishwasher. I can't vacuum. I can't do laundry. I can't really cook because of all the lifting and bending. I feel very useless. I see spider webs that I cannot destroy!

I have started taking Ambien to sleep at night. It helps a lot, and I have not had any of the spooky side-effects that some people have. In fact, I am going to take some right now and hit the hay. At 7:00. My word.

5 days out

I am still feeling great. I am only taking OTC pain meds. I sneezed and am pretty sure I popped an internal stitch. My incision looks great, but is starting to itch, which I am sure is a good thing. I took a little walk today, and I plan on doing that from here on out. I am so ready to get out of this house! If I see one more Progressive Insurance or Geico commercial, I am going to flip my lid!

The clothing sale came and went without me, and I survived. I am sure they will make me work overtime next sale!

My goals this week are to DRIVE, after I see my dr. on Monday, of course, and to wean myself off my binder at night. I am already off narcotics, so I plan on keeping my aleve and tylenol for another couple of weeks!

I will miss church tomorrow, which makes me so sad. I didn't think I would be able to go for at least 4 weeks, but I am thinking I might can go next Sunday since I am doing so well. We'll just have to see what this week holds!

I am home!

These past 3 days are NOTHING like I thought they would be.

We got to the hospital Monday morning at 5:30 and checked in. I was taken into surgery at 7:30 and woke up in the recovery room completely aware of everything. I was not groggy at all. I had some pain, but they had put a binder around my abdomen that supported me. It made all the difference in the world! I spent the first day just managing my pain with a pain pump. I slept some, but not all day. I was on a liquid diet, but did great on that so by suppertime, they put me on a solid diet. I ate well and felt well enough to have the kids come visit.

After I got my catheter out Tuesday morning, I could get up. I showered and took some walks and felt great. They took away my pain pump, but I did great on the pain pills.

I came home yesterday. I am not in a huge amount of pain. My neck and shoulders hurt from the anesthesia, but aleve helps. I have a good amount of energy, so I have to remind myself to rest!

I just can't believe how little pain I am in! I am staying on top of what pain I do have with medicine, though. Thanks for all your prayers! They have made this whole experience much better! Time for a nap!

Tomorrow is the day!

I guess I am ready. I am almost packed, my toenails are free from polish, lunches are made, kids' clothes are laid out for the week, syrup bottle refilled for Pancake Monday and Pancake Friday, most of the laundry is clean, and I am calm. I need to finish packing and clean off my bathroom counter top. My mom is spending the night here since we leave so early in the morning.

I have one hour before I have to stop eating, and I think I might fill that void with a nice big bowl of chocolate ice cream! Then a bath and some demerol and I will drift off to sleepy town and dream of no chronic abdominal pain, cysts, and fibroids. How lovely!

Pray for me!

3 days to go...and God is so neat

I have had the best week. I told God on Sunday night everything that I wanted to accomplish and left the how up to Him. I got everything done that needed to be done. My kids got settled at school, I got nearly all of Tyler's winter clothes bought, arranged classrooms at church how they needed to be, and filled open classes at church. I got groceries bought, made some baby gifts, and made my bed jacket. :) I spent some good quality time with my kids. The one thing I wanted done, which didn't get done, was get the painting done in the preschool hall at church. My dear friend Lawryn had really stepped up and given so much of her time to help me. I can rest easy knowing it will continue. I will get the last of my clothing sale items tagged tomorrow, and give the house a good mopping. Then I'll be ready!

I have had a terrible week physically, which makes me feel peaceful about my decision to have the surgery. One day I will not have to sleep with a heating pad! Yeah for me!

I am so thankful to all of your for all your words of advice and encouragment. I sleep better at night knowing that so many prayers are going up for me and so many friends are going to take care of my family and me.

5 days to go!

I got lots done on my to-do list today. I still have not given my house a good deep cleaning. I want to wait as long as possible so it will last longer! :)

I have heard encouraging words from so many people. I have so many people praying for me and I feel very peaceful about the whole thing.

I have got to work on my bed jacket! Maybe tomorrow night when the kids go to bed!

6 days to go

I really feel good about things today after my doctor visit yesterday. He told me that I COULD drive after he checks me at 1 week. Depending on what meds I am using for pain probably determines if I do or not. The thought of sitting up in a car seat for 30 minutes in the car rider line bothers me. I have my parents to help with pick-up, so I hope to be driving at 2 weeks out, which is sooner than I hoped.

The pain is what has me nervous right now. I don't like to take a lot of pain medicine, but my husband has told me that I have to take it. And I always listen to what he tells me to do. :) I found out today that I will be on a morphine pump the first day. I have no idea what that will be like. I hope that means no pain that day. I will also have a catheter the entire first day, which I dread. I had one with my son, but I also had an epidural. My little girl came quickly and naturally, so a catheter was not even an option. Maybe I'll be so doped up that I won't mind it. I have heard from several of you that have gone through this, and I would LOVE to hear your experiences, from the hospital to recovery.

I am going to use a hormone patch at first. Not sure how I feel about that, but my dr. feels that it is the best option for my age and hormone level. I am very nervous about having a switch hormones a lot. I pray that we find the one that works very quickly!

I bought some ginormous underwear. It's just lovely.

One week to go!

I spent the morning at my pre-op appointment. Brent and I waited for nearly 2 hours...ugh...but we finally got to sit down and talk with my dr. about what will happen.

I know my dr. is a man, plus he has never had a hysterectomy, but he seemed pretty positive that I would be up and about sooner than I expected. I guess that remains to be seen. We are not doing staples, thank goodness! Just stitches on the inside! That is a huge relief for me. The anticipation of having staples removed was just about more than I could stand! All my bloodwork and such looks great, so we are a go for Monday morning!

As for the bed jacket, I have had no luck. My sister found a robe that I ca alter, so let's see if that works. Just another to-do to add to my list this week!

I bought breakfast and lunch and snack stuff for the next 3 weeks today. I think we are just going to play dinner time by ear. Our deep freeze is showing signs that it is about to kick the bucket, so I don't want to make any meals to freeze and then lose them.

Brent moved the living room satellite box to our room, so I can watch good TV in bed. We have huge transem windows in our bedroom, as well. It is as hot as the sun in there by 3:00! He made a shade thingy to cover that part of the window to keep it cooler, too! He's such a good man.

I need to put away the groceries and then it will be time to pick up the kids from their first day of school! My first day of getting ready is almost over!

The story of the bed jacket

Towards the end of my lame pity party the week that my children were out of town, I decided to get a grip and make this as positive an experience as possible. Part of being in bed for weeks is needing to buy new pjs. I am a knit pant kind of girl, but I need gowns as long as I have my staples in. (The thought of that makes my knees weak...) So, Brent and I went gown shopping. Oh my word. For some reason, the Pajama gods have decided that the only thing to put out this year are those stringy silky camis. Imagine me laying in the hospital bed all willy nilly with what the Lord gave me on display. We went to Target, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Macys, Penneys, Sears...all mumus. I have never seen so many seersucker zip up gowns in my life. Our last stop was Dillards and I finally found some cute knit gowns that I am very excited to have.

Now, for the bed jacket. If you don't know what a bed jacket is, it is essentially a short robe...a robe you can wear in the bed without getting your knickers in a knot. It is a very old lady thing to wear, but I feel this is necessary. My family has had a field day with this, but I am still looking for my bed jacket. I might have to buy online. If I am going to be stuck convalescing, then I am going to do it in fuzzy pink happiness, thank you very much!

Reality sets in

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I have known for a good while that having a hysterectomy was going to be in my future, but as I hung up with the appointment desk, a wave of dread hit me. It was NOW. Not in the future anymore. I just felt lost. What would it be like for me?

I came home and got on the internet. (My husband loathes medical websites, by the way! He says they get me all worked up. Hmmph.) Everything out there is so general and there is NOTHING for younger women out there. My kids went to their grandparents for the week and I sulked the entire time they were gone. I guess not having them here to distract me left me be alone with my thoughts and feeling. Again, I just felt lost. No answers for me...

I have lots of friends that have had the surgery, but most are 15-20 years older than me. Most of their answers don't apply to my questions. I have a friend close to my age and she has helped me, but I just wanted to find something that I could read to prepare myself for the next months. I did find an e-book called the Happy Hysterectomy that is pretty good. It was someone helpful, but I decided to keep this blog in case there is some poor soul out there that only has this...
...to rely on. Heaven help them.

Choosing the date

I am a super-ahead-of-time-planner, so I know what I am going to do months in advance. We are going to the beach the beginning of August, and school starts August 10th. We are going to Disney World in October, so I had to be well enough by then. My surgery needed to fall somewhere between the beach and Disney. I didn't want to do it the kids' first week of school, and in order to give more a good 7+ weeks, I would need to schedule it for the week of August 17th. That JUST HAPPENED to be one of the busiest times of my year. I am on the committee of our church's children's consignment sale, , a job that takes lots of my dear friends working together around the clock for that entire week. I just bit the bullet and asked my committee girls what they thought. They were so supportive and told me to do it. So, I scheduled my hysterectomy for August 17th. The kids will have been in school for one week and we will have almost 8 weeks until Disney.

Why am I doing this? Part 2

So, I told my dr. a year ago that I was fairly certain we were not going to add anymore biological children to our family. I was still feeling decently well, so he suggested a new implant called Essure, which can be done in 5 minutes in the office with a mild sedative. Pretty much getting my tubes tied without the surgery. It sounded too good to be true. And it was...of all things, the implant contained nickel, which I am allergic to. So I thought for a while about getting my tubes tied. And then my pain returned. About 6 months ago, I just knew that it was all coming back. The thing about endometreosis is you can have a tiny amount of it and it hurt just as much as before. I talked to my dr. and he said to give it some time, plus gave me some good pain meds. He could look at it, but it would mean another laproscopy. The middle of May, I started having severe pain in my abdomen. I was so worried it was a cyst. I had an ultrasound that showed a couple of fibroids, but no large cysts. I then had a CT scan to see if there was anything. It looked good. So, I went to my dear friend Randy, who is a gastro dr., to see if it could be something there. He looked at my CT scan and saw some odd things, so he ordered a barium enema with contrast. I was very angry at Randy for having to go through that test! :) It was HORRIBLE. It showed my diverticulitis, that I knew was there, but there were no kinks in my intestines or anything. So, I went back to my OBGYN. He decided that it was my endometreosis. It makes sense. Abdominal pain, lots of tests to rule out other things, my history, etc. So, I had 2 choices...lapro again with 6 months of Lupron, or a hysterectomy. We have made the decision to not have anymore biological children, so doing Lupron again really seemed like postponing the end result. So, I came home and got out my calendar and tried to figure out how in the world I could take 6 weeks of my crazy busy life to do this.

Why am I doing this? Part 1

Many people have asked me why I am having a hysterectomy. After all, I am 34 years old with 2 small children. I am too young to be going through this, as I am told on a daily basis. well, for starters, I have spent 20 years with endometreosis. Not diagnosed until I was 26, I spent many years thinking what I went through daily was normal. I had laproscopic surgery at age 26, one year after the birth of my first baby. Nearly all of my organs were covered in endometreiosis and most of it was burned off. After I recovered from the surgery, I went through 6 months of Lupron injections, which put my body into menopause in hopes that the lack of hormones would inhibit any further growth. I was told that my best hopes of having another baby was to conceive as soon as possible. I was pregnant within a month of coming off of the injections, which in hindsight, was just too soon. My body had been through too much. I lost that baby around 12 weeks. After some rest, my dr. put me on Clomid to ensure we would know when I was pregnant again and would have high risk care from the get-go. I became pregant the first dose of clomid and had a successful pregnancy. I spent the next 4 years feeling great and having no signs of returning lesions. Then, about a year ago, I started having some pain again.