Surgery from a Less Groggy Point of View

Thinking back to a week ago, I can't believe I actually wrote about my surgery a mere 4-5 hours after it happened. I think I was so bored and my mother was driving me so crazy, that it was a good outlet for something to do. However, needless to say I was still pretty out of it and definitely doped up on pain meds. About 24 hours later, however, I was feeling it!

First of all, that night the air conditioning in our hotel room stopped working. It was 82 degrees in our room for about 4 hours - the amount of time it took for someone to come check on it. It was miserable! Finally, we were able to change rooms - my poor mother had to move everything over - I felt so bad for her!

Luckily, I never felt sick and I never really felt pains from the CO2 gas that they pumped in my stomach. I was really worried about those two things, especially on the flight home on Thursday. The last thing I wanted was to be that person throwing up in a bag throughout a 3 hour flight. I was also worried that the CO2 was going to have crazy effects on my body with the altitude change (something the doctor warned me about) but I never really felt that. I did, however, feel tired, sore, and VERY cranky! I had to be wheeled around the airport in a wheelchair, which was fine (embarrassing, but fine) but that meant that 1. my mom was constantly embarrassing me by things she asked or said and 2. if you've ever seen those wheelchair guys pushing wheelchairs around the airport you may notice that they tend to drive wheelchairs like New York taxi drivers drive on the streets - which isn't fun when you have three incisions throbbing at every bump and turn. But all in all the trip home wasn't too bad. It was all worth getting home sooner and getting into my own bed.

The doctor called me Thursday afternoon to tell me what he found. I pretty much got the gist of it from my mom, but man oh man the doctor told me more! My mom had a few things slightly wrong. Apparently, my right tube just stops in the middle of nowhere - doesn't connect to my ovaries or anything. But my left tube -- and this is the part that was different from what I understood before - it goes up nice and normal and then takes a 90 degree turn up into my abdominal cavity and disappears. The doctor said that he and his team couldn't find it! And then all of a sudden it shows back up (coming out of the abdominal cavity) and peaks out near the ovary. Crazy! He said he was shocked that I haven't been in more pain. He said scar tissue was everywhere - and everything in my body was pushed to the front - ovaries, bowels, everything. So he didn't see any fluid in my tubes, but he tied them just to be on the safe side. He told me "I don't think I necessarily helped your chances for being successful, but we certainly know more about what's going on in there - and why you haven't gotten pregnant." Well, sir, we certainly do! Ha!

I was talking to my sister in law the other day and she asked me if I'm glad I did the surgery, especially since it turns out with wasn't necessary. My answer, without a doubt, is yes - I will never regret doing it. Sure it cost $5,000 and now I have 3 scars on my stomach, and I have to go through weeks of recovery, but at least now I know what I've been wanting to know for a year. When we found out my tubes were "blocked" (now we know they're not blocked, just deformed!) my first thought was "Oh God, what did I do to cause this?" Even when the doctors said that it may be something I was just born with, I still wondered...did I contract some kind of STD that I never knew about, did I have an injury that I never let heal properly, etc. It's amazing what all went through my head. Well, now I know that I WAS just born this way and that I didn't do anything wrong. I also know I don't have endometriosis, it's not hereditary so I don't have to worry about my future daughter having the same problem, and I can move on with the next steps with a peaceful mind about the state of my uterus!

I'm also glad I waited a year before having the surgery. I don't think I was ready for it this time last year. When we were debating the surgery last year it was in hopes of removing the blockages. Had I done that and then learned what I learned last week, I think I would have had a major breakdown. I think that extra bit of bad news would have just knocked me down and I'm not sure I would have been able to get back up. But now, a year later, I have been through 3 IVFs, regardless of what the surgery outcome was I knew I was still going to do IVF, so that's why I consider this surgery a success. Nothing really changed about my prognosis, but that's okay. It's a success because it gave me a peaceful heart and mind. Now I can move forward!

We'll probably be doing our IVF cycle in May. It all depends on when my natural cycles happen in the next couple of months but if all works out the way it should (as in if my body cooperates) we'll start around May 10 which would put my two weeks in Colorado during the first 2 weeks of June - after school lets out! If my period decides to come just a few days early, then I'll miss some of the last week of school - which would not be good. So fingers crossed that my body behaves!

Sorry for such a long post - but I wanted to fill everybody in on everything!!