Recovering

Almost 2 weeks out from my hysterectomy and I'm feeling really well.  This is, by far, the easiest surgery I've had.  I stopped taking pain pills 4 days after.

What color will my pee be today?!

I did have to take a some a few days later because I had a horrible sore throat and got a UTI.  I ended up in the walk-in clinic thinking I might have strep (I'm prone to that too) but the doctor felt it was something probably caused by the surgery.  Something introduced when the tube was put down my throat.  Ack!  Weird that it would show up a week after surgery.  The UTI was also caused by the surgery.  I don't usually get UTIs but I do get them every time I have a catheter.  Every. Single. Time.  So annoying.  I'm recovering from that now and feeling better.  However, the medication I'm on turns my pee florescent ORANGE!!!  It's kind of entertaining!

Dr. Brinkley!

The surgery was supposed to take only about 90 minutes but when they got "inside," they found that I had a fibroid that had grown through the uterine wall and attached to my appendix and colon.  This is a fibroid I knew I had so that wasn't a surprise.  It has caused problems for me in the past.  They wanted to make sure that I kept my appendix (I guess you can have a lot of complications if you take out a healthy appendix) so it took a long time to save the appendix and to not damage the bowel.  My doctor was determined to keep the surgery laparoscopic so they took the extra time.  I'm so incredibly thankful for that!  Dr. Brinkley is the best! I read, after the surgery, that there can be major complications with a fibroid attaching to your bowel.  I was so lucky to have caught this now!  I knew I would have to have a hysterectomy at some point anyway, I think it was very good fortune that I had it done now before I really needed it.  And, now I don't have to look over my shoulder waiting for ovarian or uterine cancer.

I'm also looking forward to doing some taxes as soon as I'm healed!  Have to wait 6 weeks to file though!  Dr. Brinkley said several times, "No funny business!"  I'm pretty sure he was talking about taxes.  I have some fears that doing taxes won't be quite the same anymore.  I've read things online where some women say it's exactly the same.  But a lot of other women say it's different, and not in a good way.  I really hope I don't have to learn a whole new way of doing taxes!  That could be confusing and frustrating and about as much fun as doing actual taxes!

One frustrating experience from the surgery is that they refused to use my port.  I still have the port in my chest just for these occasions.  It's so much more comfortable for me than trying to start an IV.  It's the very reason I GOT the port!  But, they refused to use it and gave me a plethora of excuses as to why it wouldn't work.  I could tell that my doctor thought this was ridiculous.  And I knew they were just making excuses because it was too much trouble and they didn't know HOW to use it.  They insisted on starting an IV in my left hand which took a lot of smacking me around trying to get my veins to show (they only smacked on my hands and arms in case you were worried) and pain while they dug around in my hand.  The nurse yelled at me a couple of times to RELAX!  Oh sure, it's not like you are digging around inside me with a needle right now or anything!  Sheesh!  They did finally get it started and it worked well, I guess.  But, now, almost 2 weeks later, I'm still having pain in that arm.  Quite a bit of pain.  I don't have full use of my arm yet.  I used a heating pad on it for a couple of days after surgery and that did help - but it's still very painful.  Really frustrating.  I would think that they would have enough cancer patients in there for surgery that it would make sense for them to train someone and have the equipment to use ports.

Emotionally, I'm doing okay.  It's not like there's any reason to dwell on it now.  It's over with.  I feel relieved in a lot of ways but I still feel pangs of sadness when I see a baby.

This is my last surgery for a while.  I feel like I can maybe try to live normal life again.  I know I have breast reconstruction in my future (should I still choose to do that) but I don't feel like I'm in any particular rush to have that done.  I can choose when.

I'm supposed to "take it easy" for another month.  It's hard.  I'm feeling really good and that's definitely a problem!  I have to REMEMBER to be good and to stay down and to ignore that the kitchen needs to be cleaned and the house needs to be vacuumed!  Ignore!  IGNORE!

Just vacuuming a little couldn't hurt....just a teeny bit...just the whole downstairs....I won't tell if you don't!