Mentally
It took me a while to wrap my brain around what happened and figure out how to write this post.
Dr. Potter felt very optimistic that he would save/repair the left side. He did tell us that there's always a chance that they will find a surprise when they got inside. My gut told me they were going to have to take both but my heart was stuck on the hope that it would be repaired and I'd have a shot some day at doing this the "normal" way.
When I heard the hospital staff talking outside my room, I thought well this sucks. I knew it.
After I'd fully come out of anesthesia I asked my recovery nurse to make sure I wasn't hearing things.
The nurse confirmed yes and then my loving husband told me the rest.
Dr. Potter met with him while I was sleeping. When they opened me up the left side was considerably more damaged than the scan had shown. They preformed another HSG to see where the dye would flood to double check the results. The left end was completely sealed no dye could pass and it was extremely enlarged, to the point it was translucent. The right side was able to have some dye go through but it was beyond repair, also being enlarged and blown out. Imagine blowing up a balloon to the point where you could see though it and its almost about to pop. If it had been left in there would be a serious risk of ectopic pregnancy and losing it anyway. My uterus and ovaries look great though.
So this is the hard part, there is no more hope for one day thinking I'm late I might be pregnant or let's try to have another baby. It will always have to be clinical, calculated, frustrating and
Stinking Expensive. My brain tells me "you couldn't get pregnant with your tubes anyway." But my heart screams "this isn't fair, I don't want to pay for a child, I just want to be normal."
It took about 4 days to sink in. There was the
Ugly Cry, I sobbed in the dark and my husband rubbed my back and repeated "I understand".
Physically
When we left the hospital it was 3:30. I slept the whole way home, was put in bed and woke up at 6:30. Hubby had gone to pick up my meds and left my mom to babysit. I requested tortilla soup and she delivered. Funny how mom's are; she made sure I had my robe and slippers, pillows and a step stool to reach my high bed.
There were flowers, magazines and cards. Lunch and Dinners brought. Hot cocoa and RUM. Yes, my friends know me well.
My sister made me this amazing basket, it was so beautiful and pink. I was genuinely touched and started sobbing. Like uncontrollably. What can I say? It was a rough week.
I had two incisions in my belly button, one right above my pelvic bone and one directly over my right ovary. They taped me up from here to kingdom come! Like my entire stomach. I was told to leave them on until my post op (a FULL week) and to sleep sitting up. My anesthesiologist told me that they were going to blow up my abdomen with gas and it usually ends up trapped in the shoulders. He was not kidding. I had so much pain in my right shoulder it felt like someone was trying to rip my arm off. What do you do when you cant move your tummy? You use other parts like your back and arms to maneuver yourself. Well every time I would move my arm it would shift that bubble and blind me with pain. At some points I literally screamed. It was way worse than the actual incisions!
They were just sore and itchy. My bandages didn't last 9 days, by day 5 I was dying to take them off and let my skin breath. Hubby used to be a EMT, he got me waterproof bandages and got me all set up so I could take a decent shower (which was Amazing).
When I had my post op Dec 10, Dr. Potter confirmed what happened in surgery and showed me the pictures. He looked at my incisions, all were healing well but one. Apparently my body was rejecting the stitches and pushing them back through my skin! Frankin-stitches. He had to get his tweezers and pull it out! It didn't hurt but it did freak me out.
He then gave me the A OK to proceed with IVF. We met with Janet to get our list of meds and made a appointment with the financial person Julie. We also had both our blood drawn for genetic screening, we will not be screening our embryos. More big decisions ahead.