The Hysterectomy from Hell

Hi everyone! I haven't posted in awhile due to the hysterectomy from hell. Last week Monday I checked into St. John's for what was supposed to be a simple vaginal hysterectomy. This requires very little down time and heals quickly. I knew there was a problem as soon as I woke up after surgery.

When I woke up, I was hooked up to a number of machines that shouldn't have been there. Like the oxygen tube that was on my face. Why need oxygen for simple surgery? That was my first clue.

My husband was standing over me, looking worried like I've rarely seen him before in our 18 years of marriage. The nurse present placed a button like device in my hand and explained that any time I felt pain, I was to push the button and morphine would be added into my I.V., which was still attached and again, if the surgery had been the easier form, shouldn't have been there, and I certainly shouldn't have needed morphine. Hmmmm...

I turned my head and was in immediate pain. I pressed the button.

My legs felt like they were in an inflation device. The nurse explained that they were there to prevent blood clots. At this point I knew I was in trouble. I asked what happened. Rick stroked my hair and said, "honey, this really didn't go as planned. You were in surgery for 3 and a half hours instead of half and hour. Then you were in recovery for 3 more hours" (instead of the usual half to one hour). My doctor popped into the room and I found out that when they inserted the laparascope, they saw one of the worst cases of endometriosis they had ever seen. All of my organs in my abdomen were adhered together, and to the sides of my abdomen. It took a lot of time to surgically remove all the endometrial tissue, and they had to open up my abdomen to do this. Then they had to stitch everything into place where it was supposed to be. My doc said she couldn't believe the pain I must have been in and that I was still walking around like this. Anyway, she'd had to take the ovaries and tubes too, since they cause the inflammation of the endometrial tissue, and if any was left behind, it would cause severe problems down the road.

At this point I started to cry and knew I was in big trouble for my recovery. Being a wimp, this was not good.

The rest of the story is pretty awful too. I was in intensive care for three days, then moved to a step down ward in a semi-private room. My catheter had been giving my trouble as I had clearly been severly dehydrated and had lost a lot of blood, so they had been pumping me full of fluids for three days. When this was removed, I literally had to learn to walk again to high-tail it to the bathroom every fifteen minutes as they had found out upon removal that there had been a kink in the line, so the extra fluids were backing up in my tissues. Crap.

My friends Mary and Mary Kay called to see how I was, and it really made me feel better to know people were thinking of me. My mom's group sent beautiful flowers to brighten my room and Rick brought some too. Pastor Greg came and the next day Pastor Mark who again really helped me feel better.

I started to become sick every time I used the morphine. Rick realized it was the morphine, and requested alternate pain medication to see if the vomiting would stop. He was able to get them to change the medication to demerol, and the illness stopped. Great being married to a scientist. So I was finally able to eat solid foods again, which was a condition of going home.

I was dizzy walking again, and trying to do this was terribly painful. I got used to it, and the nurses were amazed at how fast I started to recover. My sister called on the phone everyday, and this day she called and asked it I had "hospital hair". I sure did, and she asked me if I'd taked a shower yet. Nope. She told me the story about her hysterectomy, also abdominal (seems to run in the family) where she was determined to take a shower the next day, and did so even though she had to sit on the floor of the shower (or something like this, I was pretty doped up still). I decided if she could do it, so could I because I felt like h__l. I was pretty proud when I was able to do this.

Discharge occured four days post surgery, and I've never been happier to see my home, and my son Ricky (Em was at church camp). Ricky was stellar on Friday, staying with me and doing everything I asked. This really helped me not have so much pain, and he even monitored my meds to make sure I was on the right stuff, and this was important since I was so dopey. He made and awsome peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch too. Hugging him was the best thing I'd experienced since surgery.

Neighbors came by with flowers, and my friend Mary made dinner for us on Friday, which also fed us on Saturday. Diane and Jo called to see how I was and I so appreciated this. I now know how blessed I am for all of the good people in my life.

Anyway, if anyone ever needs help with this, please feel free to ask. I don't want anyone going through this. Please make sure if you have any pain in your lower abdomen or lower back or both you see your ob-gyn right away. Don't wait like I did.