WARNING: This post has pictures from surgery.
Reminder my first surgery was December 6th, 2018
I don’t remember a lot about this surgery but keep an eye out for my blog titled “the second surgery” because I kept a journal all the way through it.
I was so happy to finally have the surgery that I was smiling ear to ear. I didn’t let the needles or pain bother me. It was the first surgery of the day. My surgery was at a Catholic hospital. Getting ready I had lots of different people coming in to give me meds, ask questions, check on my insurance, I had the Anesthesiologist team, and some members of the church came and prayed over me, Then the most amazing thing, the DR. himself and his team came and prayed over me too.
After the surgery my hair got so tangled and I couldn’t do anything about it myself. Tip: have someone braid your hair before surgery, because its going to be several days before you can wash it.
Unfortunately for the Drs. My surgery took about 6 hours. My husband said my Dr. kept taking breaks to come out and update him. There was a big team in there, the Endo specialist, his boss (came in after his was done with surgeries), a bowl specialist, nurses, and students. The bowl surgeon was there just in case but thank goodness it wasn’t on the bowls, if it was they would have to do surgery and remove part of the bowls and then put them back together.
While I was in recovery, The Dr. took my husband to a room to explain the pictures, he also borrowed his phone to record it for me. My husband cried as the Dr. told him how severe it was because, up until this point we didn’t know if I just had a low pain tolerance or if it was serious. And we found out that I actually have a very high pain tolerance and it was very serious.
After surgery the nurses were so nice. They made me feel very comfortable. They gave me warm towels to keep me from shivering. They constantly checked on me, and kept my meds on schedule. They put these things on my legs that squeezed your legs to keep the circulation moving to prevent blood clots. I’m pretty sure to this day that was my least favorite part of the whole surgery it hurt so bad. (side note; when my dad had his stroke a year agon, he kept ripping his off. it must run in the family). Finally they allowed me to take them off once my husband said he would rub my legs. The pictures below show my husband rubbing my legs and all the towels keeping me warm.
I had lots of people from their church check on me and pray for me. They were all so wonderful. I did have to spend the night because the surgery was so intense and long. They let both my husband and my mom stay with me, that’s out of regulations but because we lived so far away they allowed it. They didn’t have very comfortable chairs and the nurses were in and out all through the night so they didn’t get very good sleep but I was so grateful to have them both there. My mom took these pictures of my husband. reading the bible and sleeping. He also had finals that week so while I was in surgery he had to take them.
The next day I will never forget my husband on one side and the nurse on the other helping me walk down the hallway. gross side notes: The black purse is my medicine that’s going into my stomach, and the nurse is holding my catheter bag. She didn’t warn me I would bleed while walking… so I left a very embracing trail of blood.
Once they let me leave we went through Hardee’s drive thru. apparently that’s all I could talk about for days leading up to surgery. The recovery was hard but it didn’t take long to see progress. The meds were strong and I constantly slept. I needed this chair to help me stand up (It’s a recliner that also stands you up, we borrowed it from my husband’s family and it was a lifesaver) and then I needed help walking to the bathroom for the first couple of days but after that I was quickly able to do it myself.
I was given medicine in a tube going directly into my belly button (under the gauze) to my stomach. We were instructed to take it out once it was empty. My husband took it out right after I had eaten and took my meds. That was a bad choice on my part because I threw it all up when he took it out. It doesn’t hurt when its taken out it was just a very weird feeling and I watched him take it out which was probably the main reason I threw up.
They had 4 incisions, the belly button was the biggest about two fingertips long, the other three were about one finger tip long. Two are under my pant line below but you can see them in the picture above.
Because I was in so much pain before the surgery the pain afterwards didn’t feel that bad. I was up and walking within a couple of days.
I was so sleepy I hardly spent any time awake after surgery. After a few weeks I was able to go back to work. I felt great, like a whole new person. I didn’t have any pain lifting children, cleaning, or bending over.