Survived surgery!

There hasn't been much to update until now. I was on birth control pills to prevent possible hemorrhage from my heavy periods.

Went in for surgery at 8am on Wednesday. The nurses and doctors at the surgery center are VERY nice! One girl was a student and they asked permission for her to watch the procedure and I had no problem letting her watch. Everyone has to learn! And the doctor told her it was going to be a very interesting procedure with all that I had going on. Possible removal of right tube, left ovary and left tube. Definite removal of cysts and fibroid.

The IV hurt really badly going in and I barely remember being knocked out. I remember them putting a mask on my face and telling me to take deep breaths (they did anesthesia via mask AND IV) and next thing I remember is being told to calm down and that everything was okay. I, apparently, was having a hard time coming out of anesthesia. I didn't do well last time I was put under either.

Wheeled into recovery where I was given a shot of Fentanyl which helped the pain (which was pretty severe) for a brief moment and made me very woozy. The pain came back pretty quickly and they gave me another shot of Fentanyl. Again, woozy and brief respite from the pain. After a bit, they had me get up and get dressed. This made me start vomiting and very nauseous so they gave me some Zofran. Another shot of Fentanyl until they could be sure I'd be able to keep down the Percocet pill they had for me.

Finally, my doctor came over to talk to us about the surgery. He found that my uterus had attached to the abdominal wall. He showed us a ton of pictures and that was by far the coolest picture he had. So he separated the uterus from my abdomen and said that was a fairly easy procedure. Drained and removed all the cysts (there were 4 on my left ovary and 1 on my right). Removed the fibroid which was HUGE. The pictures were insane. Dr. P was pretty impressed with the size of the thing as well. That took him most of the time in surgery, which actually ran longer than the 2 hours allotted for it. But he got it ALL. All that is left of it is a black scab which he said endometrial tissue will grow over it.

And on to the tube/ovary news....

My tubes and ovaries were perfectly healthy and fine!!! There was no blockage on my right tube. Just a little flap of tissue that he easily removed. There is no damage to either tube at all. My left ovary was only 1.5 times the size of a normal one so it definitely shrunk a great deal (thank you devil pills!). But he said he had no reason to remove any of them and that they are in great condition and looking very healthy!!!

I literally burst into tears with relief. I was shocked by this news because he had prepared me going into surgery that I could wake up with ONLY my right ovary. Every time, he opened his mouth, I swear it was like heaven and goodness flowed out!

I've had a pretty rough recovery so far. MUCH worse than surgery in February. I've been beyond blessed by Mr. Sunflower Bud. He's being incredible and taking such awesome care of me. He has to help me up and down out of bed and to the bathroom. He's been shooing the cats out of the bedroom (they want to cuddle up ON my stomach for some reason) and keeping Little Sunflower Bud out of the house as much as possible (she's in major Mommy phase and wants to climb all over me).

From the time I got home, I was literally asleep for 2 hours, awake for 20 minutes, asleep for 2 hours, awake for 20 minutes, etc. Woke up a lot during the night Wednesday night because I was itching so badly. Could not get with it at all all day Thursday. I made it down to the couch for about 40 minutes before I was asking to go back to bed. I couldn't look at my laptop because it made me ill for some reason. When I worked up the courage to get in the shower yesterday afternoon, I discovered that I was covered in hives!!! No wonder I was so itchy!

Turns out, I'm allergic to Percocet. What a sad sad allergy that is. Who wants to be allergic to such a wonderful narcotic? :( Called the doctor and he called in Darvocet and told us to flush the rest of the Percocet and that I'd have to note that on all allergies from now on (boooo). Started taking the Darvocet last night around 6pm and holy cow, what a difference!!! Knocked me out at first but when I woke up, I actually felt human. No more itching (thank you Benadryl!) and I was actually lucid and able to sit on the couch long enough to watch a movie and get on the laptop for a little while. I even slept 7 hours straight last night without waking up to itch! And I was able to eat a whole entire meal last night. I could barely nibble on toast throughout the day on the Percocet.

I go back to see Dr. P in 6 weeks to discuss what's next. It's funny... having been faced with IVF being our only option, doing IUI's just seems like pennies and dimes! I'm fairly certain that IUI is on our plate but the only question will be if it's medicated or unmedicated. Either way, the costs are certainly not as daunting now as it was when we were focused on affording IVF.

I'm on a hormone therapy schedule to build up my lining:
25 days on Premarin, 5 days off, 25 more days of Premarin
Days 13-25 of both months, take Provera

Just 2 months of healing and hormone therapy before we can get back to TTC! I am PSYCHED. I'm so getting pregnant this year. Spring 2011 looks like a lovely time to have a baby, don't you think?