Okay, so two days post-op. I am still rather sore and achy. I don’t feel full of vim and vigor. Ben is exhausted from being himself plus Mr. Mom. “Riding two horses with one ass” as he likes to say. But it went SO well. I mean, just as perfect as can be. Dr. Marchetta is my new hero. He’s the best guy in the whole world. He was right. (Dr. Cheryl suffered a stunning defeat in this round of Iron Doc.) He found a lot of crud in there. AND HE FIXED IT.
I couldn’t get him to say a stage of endometriosis, but he implied it was about stage 3, i.e., “Quite a lot.” He also said “Your ovaries were heavily involved, with a lot of scarring and two cysts.” Which means all that gunk could cause a lot of hormonal issues, and could generally make me feel horrible! Which is great! Because now it’s fixed!
Also, the crack team at the surgery place (I had this done at the Akron General Wellness Center in Montrose, where many of you may work out. They have surgeries by the ER on the other side.) did a great job dealing with my POTS and my fear of nausea. They tanked me up on fluid beforehand. When I came in, even sitting down, my BP was a wan 103/70. But after two bags of fluid it came up to a rosy 130/80 or so. Also, the anesthesiologist was so nice about my nausea concern. He came in and said, “We’re going to throw the kitchen sink at you.” They gave me two different IV nausea meds while I was still under, and then another pill to take at home. The result? ZERO NAUSEA!! Praise Jesus! I haven’t even felt queazy and am back on normal food as of last night.
There was one scary part, of course. That’s the brief moment when I walked into the OR in my ridiculous gown and slippers and got onto this tiny cot. There was a bank of bright lights and lot of people with masks on looking down at me. I didn’t like the sight of these big holder things to put my legs in. It was starting to feel like an alien autopsy situation. It was also incredibly cold in there, and windy. Dr. Marchetta was actually wearing a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. The nurse said, “It’s supposed to be 67 degrees in here, because it keeps the bugs from growing.” And I said, “It feels more like 57” and Dr. Marchetta said, “Make that 27! And it’s not just the temperature of the air, it’s the velocity!” And I said, “You need winter scrubs, like some kind of thermal L.L.Bean scrubs….” (He was wearing short sleeves!) And he laughed and said, “You’re funny!” (I get extra funny when I’m scared.) I was just thinking that I really really wanted to run away from all this when the guy said, “I’m putting something in your IV now that will make you go to sleep. It will feel warm…”
And that’s the last thing I remember until they were waking me up. I woke up roughly, feeling panicked, and saying I couldn’t breathe. My chest felt so tight and this mask on my face seemed to be smothering me.
Man’s voice: “Your breathing is fine. Your oxygen is 100%.”
Me: “I can’t breathe…My stomach hurts…”
Woman’s voice: “In through your nose. Out through your mouth. That will help you not cough. In through your nose…”
Ben said when he first came to see me, I was crying. He asked why I was crying and I said I didn’t know, I just felt sad. I remember none of this. What I remember is that I was sitting up and reasonably fine when he came in, so he must’ve come in at another time too.
So now I’m sitting here with a tiny, sore incision in my belly button. There’s another tiny incision below that, but it doesn’t hurt at all. My back hurts and I feel quite tired. I still have Percocet, which is my friend. My bedroom is not at all tidy, but it’s beautifully sunny and I have a gorgeous silky black cat dozing by my feet. Cleaning people are down in the kitchen. Shortly I’ll trade with them, go downstairs where it’s clean already, and they will come and impose order on the chaos up here.
Dr. Marchetta called last night and said that by Monday I will feel back to normal, “Only you will feel much, much better!”
I am so excited and happy about the prospect! If I could physically jump for joy, I would do so at this moment.
Yay.
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