Tuesday, September 16, 2003

I am exactly one week post-op today. This entry probably will be kind of short because it’s still not very comfortable to sit at the computer and my brain is a little foggy from the pain meds I’m on.

The day before my surgery was crazy. I had so much to do on very little sleep (I didn’t sleep much the night before) and it seemed like I would never get it all done. Tony’s Mom came in that afternoon to spend the night with us so she could come to the hospital the next morning. We went out to dinner and that took my mind off of things for a while. I was doing really well until the anesthesiologist called at 10:00 p.m. to talk to me about tomorrow. That did it, I started thinking about what I was about to do and I just started crying. I couldn’t stop. Tony wasn’t sure what to do so he went and got his Mom to come in and sit with me. After I got it out of my system I was OK and I slept the rest of the night. At 3:00 we got up, got ready and headed to the hospital. When they took all of us (the patients) back to prep us one older lady asked me what I was having done. She said “You can’t be here for a hysterectomy, you’re way too young for that.” I do look much younger than I am, especially without make-up, I’ll give her that. I told her that I was indeed there for a hysterectomy and her reply was “Oh, I can understand, you’re probably just tired of having a period.” After getting over the initial shock of her comment, I told her that I was having it done because of endometriosis. After that I did pretty well, especially after they gave me the shot to relax me. After my IV was in and they had gone over my medical history with me Tony and his Mom came back. Then my parents arrived and we all just talked until it was time. When they came in to take me to surgery Tony kissed me and then left the room crying. Then my Mom started crying so of course I cried. I don’t remember much after that. When I woke up things were still pretty fuzzy. Once I was taken to my room things got pretty bad. All I could register was pain. They had me on a morphine pump, but that wasn’t helping. My back was killing me. Finally the nurse called my doctor and they gave me a shot of Torridol through my IV and that seemed to help. Once we got my pain under control things were much better. I was itching from the pain meds so they had to put me on Benedryl. They had these pumps on my legs to massage them so that I wouldn’t develop any blood clots, but I hated them, they made my legs itch like crazy, so every chance I got we took them off. At one point I had them off and the nurse came in and I told my Mom to hurry up and hide my legs under the sheets so she wouldn’t see. My Mom said that the first night I got kind of goofy. She said I had her laughing quite a bit. I was moving around a lot and she was worried about that because she said I shouldn’t be able to do the things I was doing. They had me so full of drugs though, I wasn’t feeling any pain. The next morning they removed my catheter and I got a sponge bath. I ate my breakfast and then walked. That day was mostly eating, walking, visiting and napping. The next morning I got to go home, Yay!!! We came home, and I took a nap as soon as we got here. It’s amazing how worn out you get from doing so little. When I woke up my Mom and I had lunch then I took another nap. Tony came home from work and we had dinner and then I went to bed pretty early. Friday I was having muscle spasms in my back so we called the doctor and she gave me some muscle relaxers. They seemed to help a little.

My days are pretty boring right now. I mostly just sit on the couch or sleep. The only times I really get up are to walk around or to go to the bathroom. The anesthesia and the catheter really messed me up though, it takes me about thirty minutes to pee. The pain is a little worse than I expected, but my Mom and Tony seem to think it’s because I was trying to do too much at first. By the end of the day it even hurts to talk. I washed my hair, finally, yesterday. Afterwards I was so wiped out. I couldn’t believe that simple little task took so much out of me. I ate my lunch and then took a four-hour nap. As bad as things seem to be right now, I know that this pain will pass and hopefully in a few weeks I will feel much better. At least the endo is gone.

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After suffering two miscarriages, Polycystic Ovarian Disease, endometriosis, and Grave’s Disease, Amanda chose to have a hysterectomy to relieve her pain. She had surgery on September 9, 2003.

We will be posting regular updates on how she's doing.

Read other entries from her pre-op journal by clicking on the Related Links in the upper right corner of this screen.