It's hard to believe that a week ago yesterday I underwent my hysterectomy. I'm moving around pretty well considering that I have a 12 inch incision just below my belly.

On Monday morning we arrived at the hospital shortly after 6am. The emergency room was empty and we had no wait to register. All my info was taken and I was given one of those fancy hospital bracelets and another more fashionable one in hunter orange because when they asked about allergies I mentioned that I have environmental allergies like mold, dust etc... We went up to day surgery and sat with 4 or 5 other couples who were probably as nervous as I was. There was one fellow who needed to get his finger broken and reset and he didn't think it was an appropriate way to spend his birthday. I tend to agree, but after listening to his tales of drinking all weekend I can only imagine how he broke his finger in the first place. Around 7 this nice porter came and whisked us all to the 2nd floor from the 6th and had us sit in yet another waiting room. I had a great resident explain to me about the different options for pain. One was an epidural and the other was the morphine pump. I opted for the epidural. I figured this was probably my only chance to experience it seeing as how I never did give birth (LOL). I can tell you this much, I will never have anything with morphine in it again. EVER. I learned later that the epidural had morphine. I woke in recovery and was able to focus enough to breath through the feelings of nausea. I recall being taken on the stretcher to my room and when they moved me to my bed I couldn't stop the nausea anymore. I had gravol, something stronger and then something stronger again before the heaves stopped. I think that when I was "frowing up" (Jo's words) I pulled something on my right side because that is where most of my pain is.

By late Monday night they had me sitting up in bed and Tuesday morning I was given a sponge bath and put into a chair while my bed was made. I started walking the halls and by supper time I was almost mobile. Wednesday morning my nurse for the day(who also happens to be my step aunt) gave me the go ahead for a shower and removed my dressing. I had gotten the IV out the night before and I begged enough through the night that my catheter was taken out around 630am. When my Dr came in he looked me over and asked if I wanted to go home. I almost hugged the man. There is nothing better than your own bed! He told me that he left my ovaries so HRT won't have to happen and that there was no endo, but the fibroids were there and my uterus was tipped way back. He gave us the short list of do's and don'ts and before he was even off the floor hubby was there to get me. We stopped at work and I visited with everyone while he loaded up the truck for his day. When we did get home I was in pj's again and slept off and on. I was really disappointed when I walked with my nieghbour to get Jo and she didn't come running. All she wanted me to do was watch her on the swings. She is however fascinated with my incision and had been wonderful about being careful around my belly!

After my catheter came out the nurses warned me that there could be some odd colors of discharge......A long time ago, maybe around the time my brother was born(we are 25 months apart) my mom tells this story about me coming out of the bathroom with my pants full of toilet paper and I announced to her that I had my period and it was blue! She got a real chuckle when I called her last week and told her that I really did have a blue period. The dye that they used during the surgery is blue, so my urine was blue and so was the little bits of discharge too. It really hurt to laugh when I told mom this...but who knew that 30 some odd years later my childhood copying would come true!!

I went to work yesterday for a few hours. I have a great deal of respect for some of my co-workers and know how busy the middle and end of the month can be so I popped in and helped out. I figure that if I can sit here at the computer I can do the same at work. I may go in again towards the end of the week for a shorter amount of time. We'll see what the rest of the week holds. It actually felt good to put on grown up clothes (thanks SCM The Weekender Pants are too comfy), fix my hair, put on make up and talk to adults!

I've been putting some stuff up on eBay to fund my spending money for an annual girls weekend in October. So far things seem to be getting a lot of traffic so I can only hope that the traffic will bid! I am off to get somemore eBay done!

posted by Northern Mom @ 7:24 a.m.

4 Comments:

At 9:25 a.m., nancy said…

Sounds like you are doing amazingly well!! I am so happy you got to keep your ovaries. Did I really just say that?

Anyway, take it EASY, no need to rush into work.

Nancy
At 10:42 a.m., Silver Creek Mom said…

Your Welcome and NO THANK YOU!

I was glad you got to keep your overies. And I couldn't believe you went into work already. Your one Fast recovering Chickie.

HUGS and see you on our girls weekend.
At 2:39 p.m., twinmomplusone said…

sounds like your recovery is going well, very similar to a c-section ;)

take it easy though!
At 7:41 p.m., BeachMama said…

Wow you are amazing Woman.

Your recovery seems to be going very well, and to go into work. Yowzer. I hope you get your much needed rest and that your incision heals quickly for you.

Hugs