“Emergency” Surgery

So…

I finally went to see the fertility Doctor this past Monday. Admittedly, I’ve been avoiding going back for a second. I got used to the look of my arms sans needle pricks in them and I was enjoying not being drained of blood at any turn. But the babies must be made… so he reported back that Earl’s stuff was fine, which made him feel like he had an “S” on his chest. Then they said they’d take a look at me – via sonogram.

He laid me out on the table and this time let Earl have the birdseye view of what was going on. Usually Dr. K makes Earl stand so he and I are both looking at the same monitor. But this time he had Earl looking at the whole thing from his perspective. Showed us the ovaries which he said look perfect. Earl asked “Are those dark spots eggs?” and the Doctor was like “yep, those are eggs, the little black holes” And Earl proceeded to inform the eggs “You’re coming home with US soon! I see you!!” That made me chuckle. The doctor moved that thingy around in me to reposition for a different view and said he saw 1 submucosal myoma (fancy for fibroid) that he said “it’s no problem, we can remove vaginally” (he has a VERY thick Greek accent). So he asked me to get cleaned up and meet him back in the office. Asked me when my last period was – I told him it had just ended. He expressed it was important to go in and take care of it right away and this was the prime time in my cycle to perform the surgery. So he said “Wednesday?” And I said “… you mean… of THIS week?” He barked an emphatic “YES”. Well… if you’re that excited, I thought to myself… how can I say no. So we scheduled what he referred to as “emergency surgery” for Wednesday the 18th. He assured me it was an outpatient procedure and I’d be back to work the next day. Fine. Let’s get it over with.

Wednesday: Earl and I got into to pre-op at 8:30AM waited there till about 10:00 entertaining ourselves on our iTouches with the lovely free flowing Hospital WiFi they had coursing through the air. They came a few times to ask me a million questions I’d answered before about allergies and reactions to anesthesia, etc. Around 9:30 / 10:00 they came in and gave me 2 pills for post-op nausea and 1 antacid. And then we waited some more. We waited a LOT. We waited till 2:30PM when they finally called me in, laid me down, IV’d me up and I woke up 2 hours later in recovery. Feeling very wonky and out of sorts (not my typical reaction to anesthesia). My face was completely swollen and I definitely had some floating going on in my head… felt like my eyes were swimming in their sockets. I found out later that the swelling was due to the extra intravenous fluids to keep my blood pressure from tanking and since the operating table they had me on was tilted so my pelvis was raised, my head was lower than the rest of me… and thusly, the fluids rushed to my face. The nurse in recovery told me that I had a catheter in to help remove the water and that the doctor had given me a Lasix to help with the removal of the fluid from my system. Earl mentioned that the swelling had gone down in my face but my eyes were still puffy. And I went to touch them and they hurt. Hurt like… I’d been crying all day and rubbing the tears away with harsh tissues all night. That RAW feeling. AndI found out later that they had taped my eyes shut to protect from corneal abrasion but I suppose in ripping the tape off, they scarred my eyelids. It was definitely some new kind of anesthesia they gave me because I could taste it in the back of my throat every hour or so… just there and reminding me that I wasn’t 100%. At about 8:00 they told me that I was good enough to go home. So i slowly got out of the bed, assessed my situation, put my contacts back in and started to dress. Got home… showered, noted that the water burned my eyelids and my regular day and night face cream burned it even more. Had a couple of bottles of water and laid still in bed till I fell asleep.

Woke up the next day and my eyes were the size of golf balls. Put in a few calls to the Anesthesiologist who told me all of the above resulted in the swelling of my eyelids (the fluid, the taping). But to monitor it and let them know if it gets any worse (which it hasn’t swelled up again, but I have these really big scars on my eyelids NOT. CUTE.) It really took the full 24 hours to get the anesthesia out of my system. I could taste it in the back of my throat up to yesterday afternoon and the only strange thing about the operation itself is that I’m bleeding more today then I was immediately after the surgery. I haven’t spoken to the Dr. yet about it but suspect I’ll be talking to him today. He showed my husband pictures of the one fibroid that he removed which E described to look like small chicken cutlets before they’ve been cooked. *shrugs* I guess that’s what all muscle / body fiber looks like when you get right down to it. The doctor explained to Earl that this isn’t a new one that grew in… it was one that was “hiding” amidst the swelling and the presence of the 14 others that we were all focused on. But that should be the last one.

I haven’t been in any pain per se – a little short of breath when I’m walking, though. I hope to get more answers soon. Beyond all the minor discomforts, I’m excited to be fibroid free and hope that this clears the way for the baby making 

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