Surgery

So, as all of you know, I had surgery for endometriosis on Thursday. For anyone who doesn't know what endometriosis is (I'm sure all of you do), I will give you a quick explanation.

Endometriosis is when the uterus lining that is usually removed during the menstrual cycle actually goes the opposite way, back into the fallopian tubes. The lining then binds to the walls of the tubes or the ovaries, creating lesions. If these lesions become bad enough, they can cause severe pain or infertility.

Anyway, so I went in for surgery on Thursday, and here's how the day (and he day before) went down.

Wednesday night I got a phone call, telling me when to be at the surgical center, and not to drink or eat anything past midnight. Later, our next door neighbor Mike, who is also Chance's Elder's Quorum President, came by to help Chance give me a blessing.

We had to be at the center at 6:30 am, so we left at 6:00 in the morning, and arrived in Provo right on time. We had to fill out some paperwork and pay part of our deductible before I could start getting prepped.

A nurse called me back, had me get dressed in a hospital gown and very stylish cap, and had me pee in a cup for a last minute pregnancy test. (Negative, just in case you were wondering).

Here's me ready for surgery!

I got the I.V. put in, and the anesthesiologist came in to talk to me, as well as a few nurses and the doctor.

Every single person who came in to talk to me asked me if I knew why I was there.

Chance said this was so they didn't perform the surgery on the wrong person, but really, why would I show up to the surgical center without knowing why I should be there?

Anyway, I got knocked out and around 30 minutes later I started to wake up. I remember being freezing, and the nurse putting a bunch of warm blankets on me. Chance was there next to me, and he says I kept asking a few questions over and over again, but I don't remember any of this.

These are the questions I supposedly asked:

"What did the doctor say?"

"Can I call my mom?"

"Why am I wearing a diaper?"

(I will explain this one later)

"My stomach and throat hurt"

(I realize this isn't a question)

I was pretty out of it, and I guess my gown kept falling down, and I almost flashed everyone quite a few times. Oops!

About the diaper thing, the doctor lasered off my uterus linings, so I was bleeding a lot. Someone, a nurse I'm guessing (and hoping), pretty much wrapped a pad around my body, so it felt like a diaper.

Once I was conscious enough to know what was going on, Chance explained to me how the surgery went and showed me some pictures of my uterus (don't worry, I won't be putting them on the blog).

The surgery went well, and the doctor said he lasered off quite a few lesions, as well as a cyst. Apparently, I should have been in a lot more pain than I have been because of the amount of lesions I had. (I was blessed with a high pain tolerance).

Chance took me home, and put me to bed. Thanks to the anesthesia and the Percocet the doctor gave me, I slept most of the day. Chance has been a wonderful nurse, getting me everything I need.

Since then, I have been recovering slowly. One weird side effect of the surgery is that my shoulders are sore. This is because they inflated my stomach with a ton of gas so they can see everything better. The gas traveled up and settled in my shoulders, which is super painful. This is normal, but its annoying.

My stomach is sore, which is to be expected. I have two tiny incisions on my stomach, which are a little painful. It doesn't help that Spike loves to walk and sit on my stomach whenever I am lying down.

This is his favorite place to sit.

My throat is sore from the tube they put down it while I was under, but this is going away.

Anyway, you might not be able to tell from all my complaining, but I'm grateful that I had the surgery. These are all the things I'm grateful for concerning the surgery:

Our health insurance, without it the surgery would have cost a buttload.

That we found out about the endometriosis early, so we could deal with it

Modern medicine

My husband, who has taken great care of me

That I was blessed with a high pain tolerance

That the doctor knew what he was doing

That there hasn't been any complications (so far)

Percocet (!)

Much, much more!