Well it’s about time I posted. I’m such a slacker sometimes.
The surgery went fine. Very little pain, and it’s a relief to know that I won’t have the problems I’ve had for years, I went from a high chance to no chance of uterine cancer, and I still have my ovaries so no side-effects from HRT.
HOWEVER…there was a little matter involving a previously unknown reaction of mine to NSAIDs. Apparently, I’m one of the few people for whom NSAIDs (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen sodium) cause the platelets to go skeewampus and not clot. Since ibuprofen was part of my post-surgery pain regimen, this caused bleeding into my abdomen. The blood then became infected and I got peritonitis. I had to go in for emergency abdominal surgery a little over a week after the hysterectomy to find the source of the infection and this second recovery is not nearly the cake walk the first recovery was. Ugh. I have an incision a foot long and I don’ feel so hot. Sigh. Still, I feel blessed. Why? Well, lots of reasons. One, my doctor is AWESOME. Very thorough, very caring. Two, now I know about that NSAID thing, which is a pain because it’s banned the most effective painkillers for me, but it’s good because now I know to avoid them and that will avoid things like slow brain-bleeds and other scary reactions. Three, family and people from my church congregation have been AWESOME showing me support and bringing in meals and helping around the house, and that just feels good. I had over 40 people visit me in the hospital (though frankly I can’t remember them all…ahhhh morphine). And Fourth, it helped renew my faith in God. Simply because I could see and feel His hand helping me through this, which gives me something to remember and lean on when I’m dealing with other, harder issues like my depression. Oh, and fifth — it could have been SO MUCH WORSE. Man it’s scary going in for exploratory surgery, not knowing what to expect when you wake up!
So thanks to everyone for your well-wishes and prayers, they helped! Now I just need a way to fight the ennui while in recovery….
Like I just said, I’m glad you’re recovering and they figured out that NSAID thing. It’s weird how some things are perfectly fine for most people, except for those lucky few. It’s good you know. I’ll have to tell you about my “new” food sensitivities sometime…
Take care, and happy (?) recovery!
nova 😀 left a comment for each place now lol. i couldn’t understand all that was wrong but from what i can tell it could’ve been worse :(. hope your getting better and sounds like you have a good neighbor hood