What I found out at the hospital

[mirthmonkey]

I hope they take care of things soon.

[aliengirl]

Hi everyone,

Just to let you all know that I'm due at the hospital for surgery in 8 hours...

I'm going to try and get some sleep in the meantime.

I'll come back on here to say 'hello' as soon as I'm back home after the surgery.

Wish me luck!!!

[Chosen]

Good luck aliengirl.

[Xale]

Sending you a gigantic basket woven out of tiny four-leaf clovers full of luck!

[hyke]

Good luck AG. Hope you are sleeping well right now.

[Tigger_the_Wing]

Good Luck, AG!
Will be thinking of you!

[aliengirl]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for your kindness and good wishes.

I've been back home for a few days and am just relaxing while I recover. I'm now able to keep food down which has helped a lot. I'm still very 'delicate' and can't move in certain ways, but the pain is fairly mild and managable with regular analgesics now. The incisions are healing nicely and also I'm taking time to re-evaluate my life and work situation as quite a few things fell apart last year and I'm trying to figure out how to move forward.

Regarding the operation, they made 5 incisions (was originally meant to be 3 but there were complications....).

They couldn't get my abdomen to inflate with gas first time round and in the process of trying again they accidentally punctured my bowel. My consultant was very good and got a colonologist to come right away and put in a few stiches to close the puncture.

They tried to drain the cyst thinking it would just collapse and they could remove the shell. Unfortunately the cyst is a stubborn so-and-so, and the walls are very thick so it didn't collapse and couldn't be fully removed.

Also, I have very severe endometriosis. It's made things in my insides very 'sticky' with lots of adhesions. My consultant showed me a pic afterward and my ovaries were virtually stuck to the back of my uterus - which is not where they should be!

They got rid of the worst of the endometriosis and also drained the excess fluid from my swollen ovaries.

I woke up shaking violently but they gave me pethidine which helped. I was on morphine and had to stay overnight, with a drain coming out of my tummy (EWWWW!).

I couldn't keep food down which was horrible. The morphine made me very 'not with it.'. My speech was slurred (and I couldn't speak at all for 4 hours after surgery) and I kept having 'mini hallucinations' and had to even concentrate hard to breathe as it depresses respiration!

My bf found it very amusing that even in my non-verbal state I still managed to sign to him that if he left he'd be in big trouble!

24 hours later I was off morphine and on tablets. I also had to have IV antibiotics due to the bowel matter that had passed through my abdomen after the puncture.

I got a taxi home and was so terrified I'd be sick! Fortunately I managed to 'hold it in'. I basically just slept for most of 2 days and ate little bits of food.

I'm back on 'proper' food now and my energy levels are better and I can stay awake almost all day now.

Haven't ventured out yet and my abdomen is still pretty distended.

I'm due to see an endometriosis specialist to look at taking medication to suppress my periods for a few months to reduce the endometriosis, after which I may need to have further surgery to get rid of the cyst completely and also undo any damage (swelling, adhesions) that has been caused by the rogue endometrial fragments. I've also been told I need to think about whether or not I want to harvest eggs as I'll probably need IVF if I wanted to conceive. My immediate instinct is 'no' as I'm not really a babies person, but it was still a lot of information to have dumped on me in one go, still digesting it all really.

Thanks so much for all your support *hugs everyone!*

[mahler]

Hi AG,
eek I'm late to this thread! I want to send you some good wishes and to say that I'm glad that you are back home now and that you're doing OK! You sound so incredibly brave having to deal with all this stuff-and there is alot to deal with. Hoping that you recover very quickly, that soon you won't have any pain at all. Take care!

[hyke]

Hi AG,

Good to see you here again. I'm sorry that the operation did not go as planned, and that you might need a second one. I'm glad to see you so good after this operation. And I hope a second one will not be needed.

Harvesting eggs, tough decision indeed, if you now see yourself as a no-babies person. There is no knowing how you will be when it comes to that in 10 years. For some it changes, for others it doesn't. What ever you decide. Take your time to think it over. And harvested eggs are no obligation at all of course.

Good to see you here, and great how you still managed to sign what was really important for you, even when other ways of communication were lost to you.

* Gentle virtual hugs *

[Chosen]

Hi aliengirl, I am glad you are back home. I hope you feel better and wont need anymore surgery.