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.

Panama City Beach Vacation

We are back from our vacation at Panama City Beach Sunspree resort. It was a wonderful vacation, we even saw another family we knew who have been coming to this resort for the last fourteen years as they like it so much.

Our deep sea fishing excursion was awesome. I actually caught some fish! Two big trigger fish (fudpuckers is Florida-speak)that I was barely able to reel in, and the first was so big Rick had to help me hold the pole or I would have lost the thing. Rick caught a big Red Snapper. The kids caught 5 red snapper between them, Ricky 3 and Emily 2, but had to throw them back since they weren't long enough.

I'll put more pictures on later this week.

Panama City Beach Vacation Update

It's Tuesday afternoon, our third day at the Holiday Inn Sunspree resort in Panama City Beach. We are having very good weather so far, and the resort is wonderful for families. The Beach has very white fine sand, and we've only seen one jellyfish in the three days we've been here. The waves are perfect for surfing on boogie boards, but snorkeling it's a bit rough although the water is perfectly clear. We've done a ton of swimming in both the ocean and the pool. Yesterday we all went parasailing, a first for the kids. The view was magnificent, we were up pretty high and it was also really nice to get out on a boat for awhile.

So far we've been to some interesting "restaurants". The first the boys insisted we go to due to the name itself "Dirty Dick's Crab Shack". It was actually great food, and the atmosphere was pretty much what you'd expect from the name.

Last night it was Pineapple Willy's where we ate out on a pier over the water and watched the sun go down. Really nice atmosphere, and the best Jack Daniel's ribs Rick and I think we've ever had.

Tomorrow is deep sea fishing. If you want a great family resort this is it. There is also a real time pool cam and resort cam if you'd like to see where we are. Just go to google and check for Sunpree resorts, then click on Panama City Beach.

Outta my mind...

Hello all of my blogger friends! I'll be gone next week the 8th through the 15th, and will try to post how our trip is going to Panama City Beach. I'm outta my mind with packing and kids and dogs and things.
I've changed the domain name of my pro blog to http://biotechfiles.com
since the other name is trademarked by an NPR show. They called to see if we could change it, then interviewed me about my content. It was pretty cool.
Check out the blog, I plan on using it in my biology classes in the fall.
Have a lovely week!

Can You Really "Walk Off" Depression?

My friend Mary and I were walking at the OHS track yesterday, and as usual, after I came home I felt much more content and less stressed than before I went. So I started wondering if there was a direct application to depression for talking a good long walk multiple times a week. We call these walks our "Mental Health" sessions, so it might be that the talking is more helpful than the walking. Since I didn't have a clue I did a little research.

1. Recent research involving people aged 24 to 45 showed that a half-hour's exercise (including brisk walking) three to five times a week has the same (or better) effect on depression than prescription drugs by regularly reducing symptoms by 50%.
2. Meditation also seems to work. Richard Davidson, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison had Tibetan monks meditate on "unconditional-loving kindness and compassion". An unusual pattern of gamma brain waves resulted, suggesting the production of dopamine was occurring. This is the chemical that is typically lacking in depressive people.

So then, my right brain asked, is depression at such a high level these days due to couch potato inactivity and watching depressive or violent TV? And my left brain answered, perhaps in past generations more people worked longer and harder at home, on farms, and at other occupations. This would preclude a lot of TV watching, and exercise the body. There also didn't used to be much direct bloody violence on TV until the last 15 years or so.

That's my hypothesis anyway. If you want to join in our mental health walking sessions, we meet at OHS track at 8 a.m. Mon, Wed and Fri. I'll be out of it for a few weeks tho, we're on vacation next week and I'm having surgery (girl stuff) on the 16th of June. Happy walking and talking.

Emily's Fender Bender

There are some really nice people in this city. Yesterday, Emily had her first fender bender. She was turning off of the exit ramp from I-44 onto 141, and the person in front of her on the exit ramp stopped suddenly. She had been doing a quick head check to the left and hit him. The guy got out and so did I. He was so nice, he saw she was a young kid, and I told him she was learning. He told me he had a teenage girl too, and she had done the same thing last year. Anyway, luckily we hit his trailer hitch, and there was no damage to his truck. The guy was very nice about it, didn't get upset at all and was very understanding. Poor Emily was in tears and had to stop driving for awhile. My poor little van didn't fare as well as the truck, but fortunately it is just a little ding in the bumper. It's ok tho. I'm keeping that thing until it starts falling apart and I can go on "Pimp My Ride" (my ultimate dream is a teacher van with a xerox machine, computer, and lab all inside. Oh, and don't forget the plasma t.v.) I also need pimp lights on the wheels and the undercarriage. Talk about complete fulfillment in life. That would be it for me.