Happy Valentines Day to those who celebrate - I hope you all enjoyed a nice day with your significant other. Some people complain about Feb 14 being a 'Hallmark Holiday', or something that is overly commercialised and meaningless. I couldn't disagree more. I think Valentines Day is the same as any other day, but it reminds people to appreciate your partner, something which so often gets overlooked in the daily grind. It also gives men (and women) permission to be gooey and thoughtful which isn't always encouraged (especially for 'manly' men). I am lucky, I quite often get flowers 'just because', or a foot rub at the end of a long day, or taken out to dinner for some us time. Today was no exception - Murray bought me a beautiful bouquet of orange liliums which are now taking pride of place in my lounge room.
Besides being Valentine's Day today, it was also surgery day. I was so nervous this morning, I worked myself into a fair state, getting only 2 hours sleep before we had to leave for the hospital. Once I was admitted to the day surgery wing, I spent some time with the anaesthetist preparing a plan for nausea, as I tend not to react well to general anaesthetics. There was a lot of waiting around, which gave me time to read my medical file, conveniently left at the end of my bed. I discovered that the anaesthetist for my surgery was the same one I had for my D&C back in 2009. I mentioned that to him later and he said that he was glad to be able to be helping me out today.
After I was wheeled into theatre, I had a quick chat with my Dr who was remarkably upbeat considering our history. He suggested that we do a dye test while I was under which I agreed to, and also asked him to have a good look around as I hadn't had a lap done previously. He was happy with that, so under the anaesthetists spell I went. (I forgot how painful the drugs are they put into your system - my arm was killing me!)
I woke up in recovery fairly well, although my eyes were blurry the whole time which was getting me a bit panicked. Once I got back to my room I slept for a fair while, and Murray brought me my gorgeous flowers (Isn't he a good man!). Unfortunately I started to get a lot of pain in my incisions, and after two hours of the pain, the nurses finally realised that they hadn't done my drip properly so I had no pain relief in my system - ouch! If I wasn't in so much pain, I think I would have had a few choice words to say!
Dr Thompson came past to bring good news. Apparently my pelvis is 'pristine' and my tubes are all clear which is positive news. The drilling went well and he even took some photos of what they were doing so I could see! He made three incisions, one in my belly button, and two along my bikini line (one centre, one left).
In the early afternoon, one of the nurses tried to get me to walk to the bathroom, but I got there and nearly passed with intense nausea and dizziness. Got back to bed and the shift change must have happened because the next nurse wanted to try the exact same thing only half an hour later. I don't think so! Later on I managed to walk to the bathroom with Murray being my human crutches, and passed the slightest bit of urine, which was good enough for the nurse to send me home. I felt very hurried, like I was being pushed out of the hospital as quickly as possible (the nurse grabbed my bag and clothes and started handing them to me to put on without asking or anything), so I made sure I pushed back until I felt ready to leave.
Since then, I have been lying on the couch, alternating between sleep and watching tv. The bikini line incisions don't hurt too bad except when I am trying to stand after sitting, but the belly button stitches hurt like nothing else. An intense stinging pain ALL THE TIME! I am only on paracetemol at the moment, I was given Nurofen Plus when we left the hospital, but I don't think I need the codeine, so will stick with panadol for the time being. Going to the toilet has been another unenjoyable experience! I got quite a shock wiping the first time to find myself blue courtesy of the tube dye!
So from here, I have to see my doctor in his rooms on Friday to have the bikini line stitches taken out. We had our known donor counselling on the weekend (another post coming - promise), and apparently we have to wait three months before we can proceed with that, which gives me some time to recover, get an idea of if my cycles will start to regulate by themselves, and possibly lose some weight. Looking at doing an IVF cycle in May/early June and then see where we go from there.
So it is done. For all my protests about doing the surgery, at least we are actively doing something to move forward. At worst, it is another thing we have tried and can check off our infertility list. And maybe it will do something for me. Who knows?
