Being me of course recovery did NOT goes as planned

SEEMS LIKE THE PERFECT IMAGE FOR THIS POST!

5 APR 2011

In my last post I talked about the surgery I had on Wednesday 18 March. Over the next few days I developed bad lower abdominal pain that got worse each day. I persevered thinking it would go away. On top of this I started to get hot sweats, I would be roasting and look like I had been drenched by a bucket of water, yet I had no temperature?

By Sunday I thought I better contact Dr J and she told me to go to emergency straight away. I had sent H off to visit his parents and did not want to stress him and tell him to come back so I waited for his return then told him what was going on. At about 5 pm we headed to emergency at a public hospital. (although I have top hospital cover, to present at emergency at a private hospital there is a charge of about $200 that you get nothing back on, also any tests done while in emergency, you are also out of pocket the full amount, with the amount of money we have spent on IVF so far we just could not afford this extra expense).

I was very sick when we got there and kept fainting but the lady at admin told me there was no where to lay down. Triage then saw me and told me that my case was an urgent one and the wait would be about 30 mins and again told me there was nowhere to lay down. H propped me up in the chair and I kept blacking out in pain - the 30 minute wait was 4 hours. After an exam the Dr wanted to contact Dr J and discuss my history, I was finally put in a bed and on fluids and pain killers (unfortunately they totally butchered the cannula and my one good vain, it hurt so much I could not move my arm). I told them I had not eaten since 1pm and they told me not to eat in case I needed surgery.

The emergency Dr comes back and asks me why I did not tell them I had stitches in my bowel? Ummm because this was news to me. She proceeded to tell me that during surgery my bowel had been nicked and then stitched and now they were worried my bowel was leaking. I freaked out for several reasons, mainly because Dr J is such a great & thorough Dr I could not believe I would not have been told about this this when wee went through everything post op?  At this stage they were going to transfer me to the private hospital where I had the surgery and that way I could see Dr J, I was happy with this.

A heap of various specialist all came and poked, prodded & examined me and I also had an MRI with dye contrast. I was then told they did not want to transfer me and they would treat me. By this stage it was 2am, so I just agreed. By 4am I was finally taken to a room for the night to get some sleep but the nurses kept waking me every hour for obs. By 7am after having no sleep for 24 hours and nothing to eat I had a massive migraine as well. The surgeon that was supposed to come & see me at 8am never showed up. I took my migraine mediation and got an ice pack. I was then sent for a very invasive test with dye that was so revolting I will not describe it.

By midday the specialists arrived to say the test showed no leak in the bowel BUT the test was not 100% so I was to stay for several day's for observation. I did not feel good about these Dr's I did not know, I was exhausted & in pain and I just wanted to go home & sleep so against the Dr's wishes I for the first time in my life rebelled & discharged myself . We called Dr J as soon as we got home and was horrified when we told her what they told me about my bowel being nicked during surgery. Dr J assured me this did not happen and if it had I would not have been allowed to leave the hospital. I was upset about being told the wrong info and having stressed for 24 hours about leaks and the possibility of having bowel surgery. Dr J told me to get some rest and come in  straight away the next morning.

Dr J ordered tests and examined me herself and consulted with some fellow surgeons. The outcome of this was to have another laparoscopy. So one week after my first lap I was wheeled back to theatre for my second.

Although I did not feel like laughing the trip to pre op from my room was hysterical thanks to a disorderly orderly (anyone seen that classic Jerry Lewis film?) the guy took ten minutes to get the bed out of the hospital room (helps if you open both doors!), could not steer the bed properly and kept stopping & starting & putting brakes on & off (I knew something was off as the nurse was getting very short with him). When we made it to the lift he wheeled me out on every floor the lift stopped on even though the nurse and H kept saying to him "we want level 2". H told me that the cords attached to the bed were not rolled up and at one stage got wrapped around a trolley and we had that attached to the bed following us for half the trip. Many things like this ensued and to kick it off this guy who loved using the brakes so much did not switch them on when he left me in pre

When I woke up I was told that where they had removed the endometriosis & adhesions from the bowel wall, for some reason a section of the bowel had become attached to itself and they had to separate it. They also found some type of nodule they removed and think both of these things were causing the pain. For the next day I was on a drip for pain relief with a button you just pushed anytime you were in pain (great invention!) The next few days were very painful and I was told that was to be expected after 2 surgeries in a week.

I stayed in hospital till Saturday & was sent home on a regime of pain killers, anti-inflammatory, anit-biotics - lets face it I rattled. Over the week the pain from the two procedures settled down and last Friday I went to see Dr J for a check up. Happy with my progress I was told if I was feeling up to it we could start our next round of IVF.

So as of Saturday I stopped taking provera and am now waiting for period to arrive so we can finally get this show on the road ( I have only been waiting since Feb to do this cycle!) Although the past few weeks have been awful, I would have eventually needed this procedure anyway to remove the endometriosis and adhesions. I could have done without the complications though! So hopefully the ovarian drilling and removal of everything else, coupled with H having the aspiration procedure done will result in a successful & much longed for positive outcome. I know I am hoping & praying........

Surely its time now for something good to happen!