Post-Op Follow Up

Well, all is healing well and I no longer need to keep my incisions covered with bandages. He said that he removed A THIRD of each of my ovaries!! One thing he didn't tell Joe on surgery day was that my left ovary had some scar tissue that was ahering it to my sigmoid colon....which was indicative of maybe an old infection....or the start of endo. But he really didn't feel it was endo. He wants to see me again in 4 weeks for a pelvic exam and to make sure my cervix is patent. (He's gonna stick a q-tip in it.....and that makes me think that might be something that will make me want to kick him in the head! LOL) But until then.....I just wait. He wants to see if I will have AF / ovulate / concieve all on my own. Oh, and I can resume BD in the next week! As soon as I feel like I want to. He talked most about my tilted uterus. I knew I had that but never thought it was a big deal....thought it was pretty common. But he seemed kinda bothered by it. He mentioned if I don't have AF or O on my own possibly going back in and removing MORE of my ovaries! So...that's my "big" update. LOL!

Surgery update!

Ok, here is my surgery update. I had to be at the hosp at 7 AM. DH and I sat in the waiting room until they finally called me back to pre-op holding to get ready at like 7:45 AM. DH wasn’t allowed to come with me. The nurse in pre-op had me get undressed and change into a gown. And then crawl into bed. She hooked me up to all the monitors, started my IV and put those blow up things on my legs to prevent blood clots. After she had me all ready she called the waiting room and had them send DH back. Then the anesthesiologist came to talk to me and ask me a bunch of questions and explain what he would be doing. I asked him if I would have a tube down my throat and tape over my eyes….yes and yes. I always thought that was creepy. LOL! Then, my Dr. came to see me and ask me if I was ok or had any last minute questions. He talked to DH about what kind of pain control would be best after surgery….I think because the nurse had already given me some loopy meds in my IV. This is where things started getting fuzzy. Shortly after that, they wheeled me back to the OR. DH got to walk part of the way before they sent him back to the waiting room. In the OR, I remember them having me scoot off the bed and onto a narrow table/bed. And then I remember them talking to me about what was I going to dream about…..then I lifted up my hand that the IV was in and looked at it because it burned and the nurse that was rubbing my arm and looking comforting at me told the anesthesiologist that I must have felt that medicine…..and then I was GONE! I woke up in phase 1 recovery. As soon as I opened my eyes I saw my nurse and I am such a DORK! The first words out of my mouth were, “My noonie hurts.” LMAO!! She smiled and said, “I’ll get you some pain medicine sweetie.” Something went a little crazy at that point because I started hyperventilating or something. I got real dizzy and I remember the nurse calling the anesthesia Dr. STAT! And then she gave me a breathing treatment and the anesthesia Dr. came in with x-ray people and they took chest x-rays. He put some more “wake up” medicine in my IV and I started feeling A LOT better within about 10 minutes. I never heard anything else of the chest x-ray so I guess all was good there?? Shortly after all that they moved me to phase 2 recovery. That is where I FINALLY got to see DH again! They gave me graham crackers and juice and told me as soon as I ate those and peed that I could go home. That was at about noon. I ate the crackers, no problem. Drank about 3 glasses of juice, no problem. Couldn’t pee, couldn’t pee, couldn’t pee. Finally, at 2:30 pm I was starting to get really frustrated and upset so the nurse hung another IV bag and ran it wide open! Laid a catheter kit by me and said I had a ½ hour to pee or else…. I managed to pee at 3 pm on the dot! LOL!! I was in a lot of pain and very dizzy but I was VERY ready to come home and lay in my own chair with my own blankets and such.

DH said that after my surgery was over and I was in phase 1 recovery the Dr. sent for him to come to a conference room. That REALLY freaked him out because all the other Dr.’s were just coming and talking to the families in the waiting room. But I guess it was no biggie and he was just being more private because he didn’t have any bad news. He said that he was able to dilate my cervix to 16??? Which was GREAT! And no endometriosis. My tubes were clear. The only problem was….he had planned on doing ovarian drilling but when he got in there my ovaries were HUGE! So, he had to do a wedge resection instead. I haven’t been able to talk to him about what all that means. I am supposed to schedule an appt. to see him this week.

I am on Vicodin every 4 hours……I actually need it about every 3. The incisions hurt any time I try to sit down or stand up and my cervix and ovaries are pretty owie all the time. I don’t have ANY of that shoulder gas pain everyone talks about. And I spotted a little yesterday and NO bleeding today. Other than that….I am just sooooo sleepy. I’ve only been awake every 2-3 hours for about 30 min to 1 hr increments.

Sorry this got so long….I tried to be as detailed as possible because I know people who have procedures and surgeries and things coming up like to read other people’s experiences/stories so they have an idea of what to expect. ;) Thank you all for your thoughts and well wishes! I am hoping to go back to work Monday morning. I’ll update y’all when I have my follow up appt and find out when I get to TTC again!

No HSG for me.....AGAIN!

I started spotting again yesterday!! I was SO MAD!!! (Remember, my last HSG was cancelled because I started bleeding the DAY OF!) Well, it was just a TINY bit of spotting this AM so I went ahead and went over to the hosp. and figured I would just ask them there if they still wanted to do it today or if I would need to reschedule AGAIN!

Hold up....back story.... LOL! Two years ago I had to have a LEEP done for an abnormal pap. Well, I was one of the rare few that ended up hemorraging a week later and ended up spending a week in the hospital on IV ATB and Morphine!!! Ever since then whenever I DO have AF it is so excrutiatingly painful that I am on Percocet. What happens is that I cramp REALLY REALLY HARD and I have all this pressure on my cervix (feels like I am in labor and I have that overwhelming need to push) but yet I don't bleed AT ALL! Wierd right?!?! Well, I have been telling Dr.'s for TWO YEARS that I think there is scar tissue in my cervix and that is "blocking" the blood from coming out and that is why I am in so much pain. I have had pelvic exams and u/s's out the wazoo and they all say the same thing....."Nope...your cervix looks great! No reason you shouldn't have AF like any other girl." and then they send me on my way.

Ok....back to today. LOL! So, they say that they don't think a little bit of spotting is worth cancelling over and go ahead and get me all ready for the Dr. to come in and do his thing. He comes in and inserts the speculum and starts to insert the cathetar and I about came unglued!! I started crying! It felt like someone was ripping my insides out! He attempted a few more times with the cathetar and you could tell him and the radiologist were really puzzeled. He said, "Sweetie, this part shouldn't hurt that bad and we are having a really hard time getting the cathetar in. I am so sorry!!" He tried to open up my cervix a little and then he goes, "OH! THAT'S THE PROBLEM!" and the radiologist goes over and looks up my cooch with him and says, "Ohhhh! Now it makes sense!" What? What makes sense?? My Dr. said, "Sweetie, I can only get the cathetar in about 1/4 - 1/2 of an inch....your cervix is totally closed with scar tissue!!" NO SHIT?!?!?! I explained to him what had happened with the LEEP and with my periods since then and he said, "Now it makes TOTAL sense!" (Btw...he is my new Dr. so he wasn't aware of all the other Dr.'s blowing me off about this before.) So, we weren't able to do the HSG today but I feel SO GOOD that FINALLY what I have been saying for 2 years now has been VALIDATED! And I am NOT crazy! Damn, I wish Dr.'s would listen to us when we KNOW what is going on with our own bodies!

So, here's the new plan... He wants to schedule surgery for next Friday...yea, Friday the 13th....LOL! He is going to do everything all at once.....dilate my cervix and clear out the scar tissue....look around for endometriosis and clear that out if there is any....do the HSG.....and ovarian drilling! All under the wonderful comfort of SLEEP! ;-)

I am so happy to have validation and such a great new plan!! And I only have to wait a week! He wants to do it ASAP before I have a chance for AF to come and hurt me again! LOL! YAY!!

Why you don't post incomplete news....

Ok....I've been sick since my last post so I haven't had a chance to update.....so here is what has happened since "Oh Happy Day" LOL

Debbie (from the Dr's office) called me back at about 1:30 - 2:00 PM (after faxing me the SA results) and said that the lab had just called Chelsea (another girl in the office) and said that they are sending over a new “result” for it and all it says is that it has to be repeated and that THIS new report supersedes any and all previous reports. Debbie has no clue why they are saying this and they didn’t tell Chelsea. Debbie says she is going to call the lab and ask and call me back.

At about 2:45 PM Dr. himself called. He said that the total count was low (low being 23 MILLION in 2 cc’s of specimen) and that is partly because the sample was little and the sample was little because of the method of collection. He would prefer to see ATLEAST 3 cc’s to feel it is an accurate analysis. He said the sperm that ARE there are “GREAT” just that it would be better to have MORE. He said that it is likely if we can get me to ovulate that we COULD conceive naturally (keeping in mind that it only takes ONE sperm) but if we confirm I ovulate and time BD appropriately for 3 - 4 months with no conception…..then he recommends IUI (and he can do this…no RE). He said that it is HIGHLY likely if we collect under better circumstances (no lab screw ups) that those counts will improve and he would like to repeat it in 2 weeks. If counts still come back low it is very probable that there is a tube slightly twisted or a varicose vein pressing on a tube….both VERY easily diagnosed and corrected. THEN, after all that, I asked him what about what the lab was saying about it having to be repeated and that superseding any and all results sent before??? He said he was not aware of that, that he called me first thing after walking through the door and no one had told him about that. Now he needs to go find out what that is all about and he will call me back.

Well, he nor Debbie ever called me back and at this point I was tired of worrying about it...especially if the results that we did have were "worst case scenario" so I figured I would just wait until my appt. today (Monday 3/2) to find out. So, I went to my appt. today and they said they never found out what the problem was. Grrrr. He wants us just to repeat the SA anyway to see what kind of results we get this time. And nothing much else to report. My HSG is this Thursday and then I have another appt. scheduled with him next Wednesday. I am HOPING that THAT is the appt. I will finally get my scripts for Provera and Femara!!! (as long as I have pretty tubes) Oh, I did find out, tho, that OB/GYN's aren't allowed to prescribe/give HCG triggers anymore. You have to be "certified in fertility treatment"....AKA an RE. Grrrr. But I am not too worried about that.....I may not even need it.