Where I've Been: Surgery Update

It's okay guys, I'm alive. It's been over 3 weeks since I last wrote a post, and over 2 weeks since a post went up. Life has been nuts, and I'm tired, so I'm just going to ramble update you on where I've been, okay? K. Just a warning, it's going to be a long one (that's what he said).

First off, my surgery. Umm, this surgery sucked. Remember how I said that I had a similar surgery three years ago? Well last time it wasn't too bad, and I was back to normal in about a week. Well, that bit me in the butt, hard. What a joke, wait, no, this surgery was no joke. I was down and out for two weeks, and really it should have been three but I had to go back to work, unfortunately. I left the hospital the day of the surgery feeling awful, with my pain at about an 8, even with all the pain meds they'd pumped into me. Needless to say I had some crappy post-op care but I won't get into it, I already spoke to the hospital about that and don't care to re-live it.

Anyways, so I couldn't bend over, my incisions hurt, my head and stomach hurt, and I was so full of gas, which is super duper painful. When they do laparoscopic surgery, they pump you full of tons of air so they can see and move your organs around better. Well, that air makes you so bloated you look 6 months pregnant for days, so that's cute. Know what's even cuter? That I am still bloated (probably like a 3 month stomach now haha) 3 weeks later, and I have to squeeze in a bridesmaid dress this Saturday. Yea, I lost 7 pounds from the surgery, but because my stomach is so bloated, it's taking up extra room so the dress is tight on my butt.

But all that isn't even close to being the worst of it. Brian and I slept on our sectional couch for the week because it's easier to get out of than our bed, plus I couldn't get up the steps. I couldn't even get off the couch or toilet myself, or pull up my own pants, for almost a week. It was so demeaning. I am lucky to have Brian and my family who would come and stay the day with me. So anyways, back to the worst of it. Early in the morning the day after the surgery, I was in the worst pain I have ever been in in my life. I was screaming and crying hysterically. My mom came over and Brian called the emergency line at my doctors, and luckily my doc was the one on call. He told Brian to triple my pain meds that morning, and double it for the next few days. He said keep an eye out for a fever because of possible infection.

I suffered through the next few days on the couch, but then Friday night all night long I had the chills and was sweating like crazy, which only means one thing: fever. So Brian called the emergency line again-- off to the ER for 7 hours for a CT scan, X-Ray, and lots of bloodwork. They did one packet of IV antibiotics, sent me home with two different antibiotics, and told me to come back if I was nauseous and vomiting, or developed a fever again. Welp I left there nauseous and in tons of pain, woke up Sunday nauseous, then Sunday afternoon vomited many times, and had a fever. Ugh, after a call to the doc and the ER, back we went. We waited for 2 hours before I got taken back, then sat on a bed in the freaking hallway for another hour before anyone even put an IV in my arm and gave me fluids. Meanwhile I am crying and in SO. MUCH. PAIN. My head and stomach were killing me and I was so nauseous and dizzy, plus I was dry heaving into one of those pink bed pans every 5 minutes (if I took even a sip of water, that came right up. Cute). Finally, FINALLY, a nurse came, gave me pain meds and nausea meds and took blood. I have never seen Brian this mad in my whole life. He said we are never returning to that hospital unless our arms are literally falling off.

When a doctor finally came to see us (by the way, we are still in the hallway at this point, and remained their our entire stay), he said my white blood count had risen a lot from the high level it was at the day before, and that I needed to be admitted to the hospital. But wait, not that hospital, because it's not the one I had my surgery at; my surgeon needed to be the one to look at me. Apparently surgeons don't like to take over other surgeons cases, who knew? (Okay, I should have, given that I'm a lawyer and I guarantee there's a legal reason behind that) My surgery was done at a hospital in Baltimore an hour away. So I got to take a nice ride in an ambulance down to Baltimore at 2am, while still throwing up ice chips into my pee bucket. At least I had my Kindle Fire to watch some Parks and Rec on, ha.

Luckily, and coincidentally, my really good friend from high school (and now) is an RN and was working at that hospital in the floor below my room that night! She was there to greet me and stayed with me and Brian for like an hour. What a difference from the other hospital! I had a private room and bathroom, TV, and Brian had his own bed. After some quick exams from a doctor and a bunch of nurses and more IV pain meds and antibiotics, I watched TV while Brian got like 3 hours of sleep. There was no way I could sleep, as I had to breathe into a tube thingy every 10 minutes to prevent pneumonia, and they put these compression air things on my legs to prevent clots. Not to mention the fact that I was so nauseous and dizzy, and people kept coming in every half hour. Not that I minded, I was so happy to be getting treatment finally!

In the morning I got an ultrasound (super fun) and more bloodwork, then pretty much waited around with Brian, my mom, and aunt. My doctor got there in the afternoon and pretty much just said I had a nasty infection and that I needed to stay another night. When he left I cried. Plus they had finally given me this seemingly-awesome other nausea medicine that actually helped my nausea (the other medicine couldn't even touch it), but that medicine made me so restless and nervous. I felt like I was in hell and couldn't get out, I was so panicked. So they gave me something to calm me down and I pretty much slept on and off until the next morning, which was much needed since I hadn't slept in almost two days. In the morning they drew more blood and we waited and waited and waited and they finally said I could leave! Woop! We left with two antibiotics and got the heck out of there.

Oh but the story doesn't end there, sorry to those of you that are still reading. Those antibiotics had some of the WORST side effects ever. I will not go into details, because I am sure you can imagine the two side effects I'm talking about (especially us girls), but it has been awful. I got out of the hospital almost two weeks ago now and am still having side effects. My doctor said I'm having a bad reaction to the antibiotics (STILL! I've been off them for a week!) and called me in some more stuff to help.

So why was this surgery so much worse than the last one? Welp, according to the doc, because believe me I asked, it was because my cyst was larger (umm it was huge!) and so they had to literally push organs back where they belonged (yea..) which is why the pain was worse and the recovery longer. Also, I got that stupid infection which prolonged everything, and then on top of that, I don't react well to antibiotics, obviously. All in all, I missed two weeks of work, and I finally went back last Monday. I usually left an hour or two early everyday last week, because I was exhausted. Oh and I had to stay home Wednesday because I felt horrible. I am finally getting to the point where I feel much better, still tired and suffering from one nasty side effect, but I have pretty much resumed normal activities, thank goodness.

The positives:
- I got to recover at the Lake for a weekend. Given, I didn't get to do very much and I napped a bunch, but there's something about getting the heck out of town to recover that is nice.
- I got to watch lots of movies.

The negatives:
- Well besides all of the above, we had to cancel a cookout we were going to host for like 25 friends, boo! We are hoping to reschedule for late September tho, fingers crossed!
- I can never eat Sonic, slushies, or mozzarella sticks ever again. You can probably guess why.

Wow that was long. I don't mean to be a baby about it, but I figured this will explain where I've been for the past three weeks. I wouldn't wish this crap on my worst enemy, I'll tell ya. It may take me a little time to get back in the swing of things, but I will definitely be posting more updates about various stuff and about my blogiversary this week. Oh, and keep an eye out for my birthday wish list next week ;-)

P.S. Sorry for no pictures in this post, but really, would you have wanted any? Didn't think so...