Good news minute

As described in the post below, last night was a blast and totally worth the 3 hours of sleep(since I had to get up early to go the dentist and then my 6 week post-op)! Anyway, so everything went great at my post-op and I've got the green light to resume all my normal activities, including exercising- WOOHOO! I've missed my Wii-Fit & Pilates workouts. I'm ready to get out of these maternity pants and back in my regular clothes! (well... I have to admit, the no button/zipper thing rules about maternity pants, they are so comfy!) We'll see how my belly-button handles that, it is still pretty tender, so who knows... last time it took a good 2 months before I could squeeze back into my regular jeans without my belly-button screaming bloody murder...

However, I got some really great news from my doc on the way out... He noticed I was studying (for my "How Not To Kill Your Patients" oh, *ahem*... I mean Pharmacology class) and when he saw my book (I guess I hadn't mentioned going back to school?) and realized I'm going for my RN, he got really excited and told me that when I graduate, I should go work at Integris Baptist Hospital because... their benefits cover IVF!!! I just about crapped a brick when he told me about 2 of his patients (nurses that work at Baptist) that had most of their multiple IVF rounds paid for!!! *GASP!* Seriously, I think I must've said, "You've got to be kidding me!" about 4 times before I believed him. I almost started jumping up and down, for reals. He knew we had pretty much given up all hope of ever having biological children due to the insane costs of IVF, so he was really happy to see me get so excited.

Of course this is all quite a bit in the future, I still have to finish school and actually pass the NCLEX-RN! Not to mention being able to get a job at Integris! BUT, at least now there is still a teeny tiny little bit of hope left... hope that we had pretty much given up on due to expenses and my high risk. Who knows, this may not work out but its nice to at least have the option. Neither one of us has been feeling too excited about taking the adoption route, but we saw it as our only avenue. Now we may have a choice again... *sigh* WOW... that just feels so good to know.

Man... Harry Potter and hope for our reproductive woes all in the same day... WOOT! :)

Tha Sad Tale of a Stubborn Stitch Named Stan.

There was once a stitch by the name of Stan. Stan was born with two missions in life: 1) Hold his assigned incision closed tightly until it had healed and 2) Once finished with his first mission, quietly and quickly dissolve and return to that great big pile of dissolvable stitches in the sky... But no, this stitch was special. You see, Stan was a particularly stubborn stitch. His goal was to be the strongest stitch out there, and do the very best job he could at keeping his assigned home (incision) safely closed up. So zealous was Stan about his first duty, that he began forgetting about (or ignoring, in my opinion) his second duty. One by one, Stan's stitchy buddies began saying farewell as the weeks went by and Stan's home healed and closed tightly. Yet Stan stood steadfast and immovable. Each day Stan's home would check to see if Stan was still there, and sure enough, he was. After a few weeks, something long and metallic began pulling on him every few days, but Stan did his best to hold on... and hold on he did. "Why is my home trying to pull me out?" wondered Stan. Resolved to make his home proud, he held on even tighter, and did his best to be visible and poke his home several times a day to remind it the he, Stan the Stubborn Stitch, was still there... doing his duty.
Today however, was a sad day for Stan the stitch. Countless times, that long metal instrument had failed to pluck him from his home. Today his home tried again, but with a much less formidable enemy... fingers. "Ha!" laughed Stan... "You shall never overcome me, Stan the Stubborn Stitch! I shall stand my ground forev-"
"Yes!" cried Stan's home as all of a sudden Stan found himself trapped between two fingers. "Finally!" the home screamed. And with that, Stan was chucked unceremoniously into a nearby trashcan.

The End :)

My hubby is the BESTESEST!

Just had gush about how wonderful Ben is! He's been taking excellent care of me these past few weeks since my surgery and it has really helped. He's also taken on a 2nd job (part time) every morning, so the poor thing is working 7am to 9pm most days, even on his day off! He wants to help us save up for my tuition this fall and once I'm in the program so I can quit working full time since clinicals will be rough. He is my hero! I wish I could do more but he says I'm doing too much already and he just wants to help me make it through the program quickly. Isn't he the best?!?! I love you baby!!! :)

On a side note: Yesterday was my first day back to work. It went better than I thought but by the end of my shift (9PM) I was in worlds of pain and while I still take Percocet at night I am only getting about 3 hours of sleep due to insomnia problems caused by the high dose steroids I'm on. Today I didn't quite make it through my whole shift at work, the combination of no sleep and pain was just too much. *sigh* I'll have to make up the hours tomorrow (my normal day off) but my doc has put me back on my little happy green pills (for sleep) and said I need to rest as much as I can while not working because sleep deprivation will definitely increase the pain and drag out my recovery. So hooray for sleeping pills.... :)

Clothes are SO overated

Seriously... oh to be a baby and be able to run around in the buff all the time! *sigh* I'm still covered in blistery goodness and very very oh-my-gosh beyond itchy, despite the steroids and creams.

Hmm... not so sure about returning to work this week if it means having to get completely dressed. :)

Second verse same as the first?

Two years ago when I had my first Lap, I encountered a few bumps in the road during recovery. I developed a couple of secondary infections and a horrendous rash all over my belly, chest, and thighs due to what we *thought* was the Dermabond or surgical glue used on my incisions. Prepared with this info, we went into this surgery knowing not to use that and my doc just stuck with regular sutures to close the wounds. I was beyond relieved since that rash (more so than any of the other things) had been the worst of my post-op complications.

Guess what showed up a few days post-op? Oh yeah... the rash. (Not to mention another bout with those other 2 secondary infections again) Are you freaking KIDDING me?!?! I tried hydrocortisone cream for a few days hoping it would just go away but to no avail. I talked to my doc today and he was really surprised to hear about it because not only had he not used the Dermabond, but he'd also switched to a different kind of antiseptic surgical wash that is more hypoallergenic, just in case it had been a combination of things that had caused the rash. I am just as flabbergasted as he is... what in the world is causing this? No clue! Unfortunately, whatever it was is wreaking havoc on my body and it looks like I'm going to have to go back on steroids to make it go away, like last time... which took weeks to clear up :(

Argh...

Since I may never get to experience the real deal...

I thought I'd take a picture of myself sporting a fake baby bump, courtesy of my swollen guts at 2 days post-op! Mind you, this is WITH the abdominal binder ON which helps support everything and keeps your tummy tightly bound up against you.

And because I just couldn't resist...

I'd make a cute pregnant lady, huh? *sigh* Oh well, Ben and I had our laughs, now I'm ready for the swelling to go down because this huge belly is no fun. Thanks Tiff for the maternity pants, I can't even imagine trying to squeeze this into my regular jeans/pants... ouch!

PS> Healing is going slowly... The gas pains in my shoulders/neck/ribs are murder but I've been a good girl and have walked around the house a lot which seems to have helped... a little. My belly is all bruised and hideous looking, but the incisions seem to be healing nicely. Night time is the worst by far as the pain gets crazy and I have to sleep upright, so I don't get much rest, but it'll get better. Just gotta have patience :) Ben is doing a fantabulous job and I am very well taken care of. My hubby is the greatest!

Update

I'm alive folks! Surgery went well and I am now home. Thank goodness for morphine and demerol, I thought I was going to die when I woke up. Still in loads of pain, but its more manageable, phew. I got pretty pictures this time as well, and its amazing when can grow right back in just under 2 years. Endo is such a bum sucky!

More details to follow, for now I must go rest.

WOOT!

Surgery is ON! (Seriously, never been this excited to get hacked into!) Tomorrow is the big day, so I must go finish the preparations. I'll update when the Percocet induced fog clears a bit in a few days. :)

Why I love my puppies...

I can always count on them to make me laugh! This comes in handy especially when I'm having a bad day and feeling like crap... like today :(

Sirius loooooooooves yogurt!


Luna does too! So much so, she ran off with the container stuck on her head!


...then she crawled into her bag of food!

Seriously, how can you not love them?!?! Mini also participated but for some reason I can't upload her picture, but whatever... she had yogurt all over her face too! :) Anyway, my dogs are just the coolest, no? :)

On a side note- surgery is about 2 weeks away and I am sooooooooo looking forward to it (weird, I know) so I can start feeling better. If everything goes without a hitch I shouldn't have to stay more than a day in the hospital, which will get me home to my pups sooner. Sirius is the best non-narcotic painkiller, so I'll be looking forward to getting home to him.

Success!

We survived the wedding today! Ben didn't get much rest again last night so I was a bit worried, but we even made it on time! I spent a little while yesterday working on his JP bag cover which turned out quite well! I sewed 2 white washcloths and some velcro to create a pouch, and once his JP bag and tube were nice and concealed, we safety pinned it to his pants! Here is a picture since I know you are all dying to see how that turned out! ;)

Ben's dad, Ben, and the infamous JP bag (covered up!)

He doesn't look like he just got out of the hospital, huh? I'm proud of my babe, he's a trooper! The sealing was beautiful and it was fun taking pics afterwards. Here are a few:

The Fam

It's BACK!!!

My bellybutton, that is!!! I've been fretting over it staying a shriveled up raisin forever and fearing what my doctor might try next to "fix it" for days... What if he decided to put something else on it(that made it foam, change color/texture, and hurt for DAYS!) or simply picked up a pair of pliers and yanked it out? (I know, I know, doctors don't do that, but still...) That appt. on Thursday seemed to be coming much to quickly and my bellybutton was NOT reverting to its old self... I've been trying to scrub it off (gently, ouch!) but to no avail... its refused up till just now! I took a look at it and realized that the black "stuff" (looked like a huge scab, ew) was just barely hanging on by a thread and when I touched it, *poof* it fell right off! HOORAY!!! I was so estatic that I got my camera and took a picture of it, fully intending to post it here, thats how proud I was! Then upon closer inspection, I realized it still looks pretty gross, seeing as remnants of that "rash/infection" are still very much present... so I will spare you the sight. But yay, I've got my bellybutton back! It's still an outtie, by the way, but WHO CARES? At least its no longer a raisin!!!! :)

Oh, The Fun Goes On..And On...And Oooon...

Hmm, so the glue I spoke of last time seems to have worked quite a number on me. On top of that, I managed to get an infection in one of my inscisions (belly button) and have been feeling not-so-great for the past week and a half. Ended up going back to my doc who after telling me he had never seen anything like this before (yeah, thats reassuring!)promptly put me on some antibiotics and steroids. Its been less than a week and we are finally starting to see some progress, woohoo! Unfortunately my belly button looks like a shriveled little raisin now, due to some medicine he put on it last week... *sigh* First an outtie, and now a somewhat more innie, but shriveled up and black (no joke, the stuff made it turn black!) like a raisin... I wonder what more is in store for my belly button? I guess only time will tell. I have my 6 week post-op next week... my goal is to not have any new complications for my doc by then! Can I pull it off? Stay tuned!

Wound Woes

So you know how I mentioned that my inscisions were starting to look "normal" again? Um... that wasn't entirely true, but I just didn't feel like going into detail at the time. In reality, I've been having some problems with these little suckers. First off, they were closed with surgical glue, and just my luck, I seem to be one of those rare cases where you're actually allergic to the adhesive. For two weeks now I've been battling a nasty rash around my belly button inscision and unfortunately the hydrocortisone has not helped much. More unfortunate still is the fact that now this lovely rash has spread to my other inscisions... grrr. Kowing that the glue is the culprit, I've been working on trying to get the stuff off a little at a time each day by soaking them in warm Epsom salt compresses. Today I managed to peel off the last of the glue that was covering my 2 side inscisions and what should have been relief quickly turned into horror when I realized that as the glue came off... my inscisions split open, *GASP*!!!
Um, I'm pretty good about keeping calm when I see blood on others, but when its coming from me, and more importantly, from surgical wounds... well, lets just say I wasn't a poster child for "staying cool, calm, and collected." The room started spinning, my legs turned to jelly, and all of a sudden I was on the floor... heehee, I almost passed out! I called Ben who came running upstairs and wisked me off to lay down for a bit while he tended to my inscisions. We tried some of those little butterfly strips, but they didn't work. In the end I settled for some plain bandaids. The bleeding has subsided and I am pretty sure I'll be just fine... just not a nice sight.

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... ;)