The In's and Out's of Endo

Well, I promised a good excuse for not having posted in a while, and here it is. I went under the knife! Yeppers, I had to have surgery. :( I have
Endometriosis and on August 31st I had a Laparoscopy to diagnose the extent of the disease and to have as much of it removed as possible. Unfortunately I was diagnosed with Stage IV (severe) and had to have quite a bit of work done, including having my appendix removed. For years I've had several bouts of "appendicitis" that never really ended up being appendicitis, and I would end up being sent home from the ER with a huge bill and nothing to show for it except for some painkillers and no conclusive diagnosis. Turns out my appendix was covered in Endo and curled up and adhered to one of my ovaries, nice, huh? :P
The hospital stay was better than expected... I actually did not want to go home! I kept asking if I could take the bed home with me, I guess... I remember it to be quite comfy and made getting up and down a lot easier. The nurses were very sweet and helpful and I have to say that I now understand why they say women love their anesthesiologists. I had a bit of a nervous breakdown right before being wheeled into the OR and my angel of an anesthesiologist hooked me up with some NICE stuff that made me peacefully drift off into "I-don't-give-a-crud" land as I was being wheeled into the OR. I remember the nurses covering me with lots of warm blankets and an oxygen mask being put on my face and then I was g-o-n-e. :)
Recovery was rough... my mom came down for a week and 1/2 to help and thank goodness because I wasn't worth a penny! I will spare you all the details, but I'll just say it was not fun. As time goes by I remember less and less about that first week (probably thanks to all the Percocet I was taking) and thats probably a good thing!
It has now been 3 weeks and thankfully I am doing much better! I am back to work and teaching Seminary full time again and doing well, albeit exhausted, but I know that will pass with time. Whats interesting to me now is that before my surgery I had an "innie" bellybutton. Now that the swelling has gone down and my bellybutton inscision is looking more "normal" I've realized that my once "innie" has become an "outtie." Perhaps with time it will return to its former (innie) self, but for now I will have to be content with my new look... ;)