Hi there. Time to play catch up! Todays blog will be all about me. Thats right, me and my recent, or not so recent, health issues. Boys, you may want to turn back as this will be a girlie gross blog! But thanks for stoppin by! So I don't feel like discussing my mothers death today, I will eventually, but not today. So here's what happened right after that.
Mom passed on 11-22-11. After that I had to focus on all the things involved, after a person dies. I had no time for me. So on 12-17-11, my body forced me to focus on me. I had been so busy with mom the last year, I ignored warning signs, and neglected to deal with my female schtuff. Long story short, ever since I had my daughter, my periods had gotten longer and longer. First two weeks, then three weeks the next time. Eventually(over three and a half years)they were lasting four to six weeks. Right. So right after mom passed, I had a continual migraine that lasted for months. I should have been awarded stock in the company that manufactures Excedrine Migraine, for the amount of money we spent on this drug. So one fine day I took said migraine medicine, and was rewarded with hemorraghing for an hour. Yuk. I did not yet realize that it was the acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine that was cause me to uncontrollably gush, so to speak. So three days later, it happened again and my husband was ready to rush me to the hospital. I persuaded him to wait and see if it stopped. It slowed down after about two hours. Hospital visit averted! Keep in mind, my mother had just passed three weeks earlier, a day before thanksgiving, and it was a week until Christmas. I was doing my damndest to avoid hospitals until after the new year. We had all had enough of hospitals. Barring that almost my whole immediate family works in the medical field. Well my body wanted the attention stat!
After the second hemorraghing episode, I promised to call the doctor. I made an appointment for the following Friday. So my husband went with me to the girlie doc. They took some blood, said my blood pressure was up(due to continual migraine), and discussed things like Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, D&C, and Uterine Ablation. The terms hysterectomy also came up. A little footnote, I have had female issues my whole adult life. I had one ovary and fallopian tube removed when I was barely eighteen. I have been burned, frozen, and had various chunks taken out of my "hoochie girl." So I am an old pro at this fixin the female schtuff crap.
I was prepared for a hysterectomy. Just take it all, and be done with it once and for all. I was fine with that. Doc said we usually try these new procedures first, and most women do not need a full hysterectomy. Ok. Better for hormones. Ok, so she recommended scrapin me out, then blowing up a huge balloon, filling it with water, and heating it up so hot, that it burns the lining of the uterus out. Ok, I'll be asleep, right? Yes. Ok, oh and one other thing, you cannot carry a pregnancy to term after we do this procedure. If you get pregnant, you will miscarry. Ok, so can you just go ahead and fix me while your in there? Do not need anymore heartbreak to deal with. Ok. There are three ways to do that. Geez, pick one already, I DO NOT CARE. Make the bleeding stop, and make me feel better. Did I forget to mention that I felt lightheaded and like I was going to pass out all morning, while getting me and my three year old ready/ That I had to lie down on the bed a couple of times to be able to continue? Yeah....
So the doc and nurse said to go downstairs to hospital to get bloodwork done, and they would mark it STAT. So if my hemoglobin was down, they would call me on the off chance that I would need a transfusion. Which wasn't likely. Or so they they thought. My blood pressure went back down while we were there, so I guess they figured I was ok. I got some scripts, and was out of there after my bloodwork.
My hubbie and I grab lunch at Five Guys, because I wanted meat. Then we went to pick out his christmas present at Best Buy. Did I mention that I felt like total dog crap? Ok, so while in best buy, I get the call. The nurse calls and almost yells at me to get to the nearest emergency room now. I asked her what my hemoglobin was, she told me it came back as 5.8. For those of you that have no idea what that means, iit means I should not have been walking around, shopping, and out for lunch. Most people would have been in a coma. So my hub freaks out, and is trying to speed to the nearest hospital, but traffic won't cooperate. I tell him to calm down, I am not dying. I was upset that he would not be persuaded to go ahead and buy his christmas present!
So we get to the hospital, and they repeat my bloodwork, and advise me that I need a transfusion. A big one. Like 4 units. I have never had a transfusion before, but ok, no biggie. My mom had lots throughout the years of hospitalizations that she had to endure, and she was just fine. XX, signed my John Hancock, lets get this transfusion rolling! So hubs calls his mom for backup, and I called my dad at work en route to the hospital. So finally dinner comes. First bag o blood arrived. HeeHee. Stick, poke, poke, got it! So as the first bag starts to drip inside me, I tell my husband, what was once inside someone else, is now entering me. Yup lost my transfusion virginity with hubs watchin. He says I'm a sicko! Then doc decided to give me two, 3-month shots of Depo-Provera to stop the bleeding. Ooww. They were sore for 3 weeks. Then I had to go for a trans vaginal ultrasound. Just sounds creepy right? I had a very young ultrasound tech, who was being very gentle, informative, and considerate. I advised her, honey, that little wand is not going to hurt me, neither is the insertion or removal. Just do what you have to do, and tell me what you see. I think I embarrased her with more chatter of the wand in the "hoochie girl" type(always blame it on the pain meds)but she did tell me that she didn't see any tumors or growths. Thank you!
So I haven't cried, gotten upset or anything, until my daddy shows up. He left work to come and check on his baby girl. That's when I lost it. It hit me. I am in the hospital for the first time in my life without my mother by my side. I reverted to a five year old child and cried like a baby in my daddy and hubbie's arms. I have always been the strong one just like my mom. Not today. So it took approximately 12 hours for 4 bags of other peoples blood to slowly drip their way into me. We got to go home at three in the morning.
So I take it easy for a week or so, and then it's Christmas. First one without mom. Then New Years, and then mom and dads anniversary. So then we go back to the doctor, to discuss surgery, and sign consent forms. So they are going to try to shove a gold coil into the end of my fallopian tube, which will cause scarring, and "fix" me. She explains the D&C, Ablation, and Novasure(gold coil.) My husband asks since I only had one fallopian tube, if we got a discount. Doc did not think we were funny. She previously did not think we were funny when we asked if I could have surgery in 2011 not 2012, so we only had to pay one max deductible. No such luck. Everybody had the same angle.
So I'm cool with a lil inside bling. GOLD? Waaaaaay cool. So then I have to go for pre-admission testing. More stick, stick, poke, poke, drain. At least my hemoglobin is up to 10.5! Yaay for others peoples blood and their decision to donate. So all that is left is surgery.
Now between the last doc visit and the day of surgery, i get emotional. Emotional about ending the period in my life where I am fertile. Where I can pop out babies, wait a minute, we did not want anymore kids anyway! Why am I upset? Because as any woman who has been through this will tell you, it's simply the absence of the option. I am moving into the next phase of my adult female life. It is a very emotional decision. Did I want to try to have another baby? Did I want to have to endure non successful conceiving months, months of Clomid(fertility drug), and daily charting of my temperature to guage ovulation? No, No, and No. We have our little miracle baby. Two big kids and a three and a half year old are quite enough thank you! So my poor husband is exasperated by this point! I have been wearing him out with worry about me since Thanksgiving. He just wanted me fixed and all better.
So the day of surgery arrives with my husband, father, and mother in law in attendance. They take me back to wait. The doc was running late. I made sure the nurses inform my cheering section, so they didn't worry further. So the doc finally gets there, and away we go. I wake up to the thought of "It's over!" Little did I know, my family was worried sick.
The procedure(s) were only supposed to take an hour to an hour and a half. I was in surgery for four hours. So what happened you ask? Are you sitting on the edge of your seats, waiting for the next big revelation? Well, when she got in there, my uterus was bigger than she thought(more fluid to fill and heat), the uterine lining was thicker than she thought(longer burning), and there was a nice unexpected suprise waiting on her. Hope she ate lunch! I had a partially septate uterus. A what? A huh? My uterus was heart shaped. so instead of one big womb, i had a big growth(there since birth)down the middle, that made mine look like a gigantic heart instead of a circle. So she took it out. Cut, cut, snip, snip. That will be an extra $3000 please! I also learned that a normal uterus takes 14 cc's of fluid to fill for the ablation procedure, mine took 44 cc's. Guess momma was always right when she said the women in our family had child bearing hips! She also had to cut a piece of my fallopian tube out, because there wa too much scarring to get the gold bling inserted. Snip, Snip. Nobody came out to tell my family why it was taking so long. My hub was chomping at the bit. He laid the doctor out for not sending someone out to inform them. Four hours instead of one and a half? Yeah he was a little bit pissed. So after I was threatned with having to spend the night if I didn't feel like leaving yet(it was way after closing time of the out patient surgery ward)I groggily got dressed, and went home to convalesce in bed. I ended up with a scraped burned and cut uterus, a chopped up fallopian tube, and before pictures of my pretty heart shaped uterus. So I ended up with three external incisions, and three internal. I hurt. I hurt for a while.
I must say that i have the most loving, caring, wonderful husband in the whole wide world! He took care of the three year old, cooked, cleaned, and lifted until I was feeling better! So if any of you have to go through anything similar, there's my experience! When it rains, it pours!
A blog about the wild and wonderful adventures of one crazy lil' gal from West Virginia!
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