O2 Laparoscopy Surgery Day

The sun is rising, casting a beautiful orange glow across the morning sky. I load the kids in the car and tell my hubby I will drive. You see today is surgery day, and driving is the one thing in this day I can control. I am nervous. I keep reminding myself that Jesus is my rock, and in Him will I trust. I keep having this awful thought that maybe I will die and then my children will be motherless. I am scared. Stiff.

I drop Jaxon off at daycare, he will be happiest there, he loves his second mommy and papa there. When he is there I don't have to worry about him. I kiss him good bye and hold him an extra minute choking back the tears, I love this boy so much, I pray to God above that I don't leave him motherless today. He is my world. I know I know the surgery itself isn't major, my OBGYN has never lost anyone to this surgery, but I do know that people react differently to being put under and sometimes....die.
We arrived at the hospital, myself, my hubby and daughter, shes 9, she can handle being in the waiting room with daddy, we park in valet parking of course, its free. We check in and are escorted up to the waiting area, the place I will be waiting to be called back for my turn under the knife, or laser I suppose. The lady working there explains the process, she gives my hubby a case number to watch the screens to track my progress. First we wait here, then I get called in to change and get an IV, then my family can join me, then I get taken to surgery, then to recovery, then to post op where my family can join me again, and then home. Pretty cool processes.
The waiting are is huge, I look around, all these little nooks with chairs, power outlets for all the electronics everyone has, there is a little kitchen with snacks and drinks, which is lovely but a bummer because I haven't eaten since midnight and am not allowed to.... my tummy growls to remind me of this. Hey at least I got to brush my teeth. Whew.
We find a cozy little corner and sit down, I am observing the room and notice the one and only lady working in this HUGE room full of people keeps looking around, writing notes, looking again and typing on the computer, looking again and repeating over and over.... and soon I find out why. Surgeons come in and out looking for patient families, she takes them directly to each family. She somehow knows who everyone belongs to and where they are sitting. She is amazing! I am in awe!! I could have watched this all day.
The minutes tick by, I find out that we get free wi-fi so I busy myself listing items on ebay that I prepared earlier (you know that maternity clothing thing I do) an hour rolls by, I find a restroom, with a large mirror, I look hideous today. I go back to the waiting room and sit down, watching that lady again, then I see a man walking into the room and I instinctively know he is coming for me. Here he comes, dressed in white, gulp, yup coming closer, and then he says to me, I am here for Mrs. D.....out of the 75 or more people in the room, how does he even know its me? These people are good! Really good.
He takes me to this little waiting room with 5 others, I sit there, a young teen boy comes out dressed in a HUGE hospital gown, it swallows him, a man and a woman next to me start cracking up, they are his parents. The man decides to take pictures of him, the boy turns red, he begs not to have his picture done. I feel the words rising, I can't stop them, "don't do that to the poor boy" I say, he looks at me in relief, I say "at least no facebook!" his dad laughs, "okay son no facebook I promise" the boy smiles and says ok and allows his pic to be taken, poor kid, I know I would take pictures of mine though in that situation.
Then my name is called. I am taken to a room smaller then a tiny closet, an itty bitty thing, it has a long wooden bench in it. I am instructed to put all my clothing into a bag and put on the gown and robe. So I do, then I discover I am bleeding. My period just started. Fine timing, of course I have nothing. What to do.... I wonder.... will I have to walk around.... with no protection?
The nurse comes back, I tell her I think I just started my period, she said you think or are you sure? I said I am sure, she said okay, could you be pregnant? I say "no, I am bleeding" she tells me to pee in a cup anyway, so I do. Then she brings me mesh underwear and a pad. I pull that on, super comfy by the way, I need some of those mesh things.... and then off to a tiny room with a bed I go.
My love and little girl are in there! Whew! It is freezing cold in there. I am shaking, my husband is shaking it's so cold. The nurse brings me a heated blanket, then asks a TON of questions about my meds and health then starts an IV. Dang that fluid she puts in is even colder. She leaves then comes back, "they are coming for you" she says. Oh, my heart begins to pound, I am so nervous. My hubby suggests that he go pick up the baby while I am in surgery so we don't have to drive across the city to pick him up after and interrupt his nap, I agree.
They come for me, I give goodbye kisses (to my girl and hubby I mean) and then off I go, I don't have my glasses so I can't see anything but blur. I get to the white room, yes its WHITE. I meet another nurse and a Nurse Anesthesiologist, I am not sure exactly what they are called. She has gorgeous eyes and eye makeup, I can't see any other part of her face, its covered by a mask, but wow I wish I could do my makeup that way. I ask her if she will be putting a tube down my throat, she says yes and assures me it will be gone before I wake up. I tell her not to let me die. She says she will be there the whole time to make sure I don't.
She starts to put meds into my IV, they burn a little bit, the nurse puts a mask over my face which immediately freaks me out and I push it away, I apologize and let her know I am claustrophobic. She laughs and we talk about that while she holds the mask for me at an angle. So sweet! Then I am dizzy, I ask if I am supposed to be, they say yes it means its working and I will be asleep soon. I suddenly hear a really loud noise in my ears, like a buzzing and ringing, louder, louder, louder, then nothing. Black nothing.

"Have you ever had Demerol"? I hear a voice ask, I say "yes but it makes me sick in an IV to have very much" and then back to black. This time I think I dreamed about a cat... "Shes waking up" I hear the same voice, I am in a very delicious state of sleep, you know the one where you are waking up but you know you can snooze a bit longer and it feels so good? Yeah that one, I don't feel loopy or sick like everyone said I would, I feel so very sleepy and that's it, just yummy sleep. I wake up a bit more, then a bit more. My vitals are great and soon I am wide awake, I am now shaking so hard, my teeth are chattering, my lip is swollen, I wonder if I bit it in all my shaking, the nurse brings me several warm blankets. I am wheeled to another section, post-op I assume, where a nurse comes in and asks me if I can eat, my throat is suddenly very sore, I tell her no. She says I have to eat crackers or I can't have pain meds. So I do, and I have a Sprite, it makes my throat feel better. I am still shaking, I can't stop, I don't feel cold, but my body is acting like it is. The nurse gives me meds, then ushers in my family, my boy! My sweet baby boy! All smiles and love and kisses, my beautiful girl and my darling hubby. I didn't leave anyone wifeless or motherless. I am so happy. I am still shaking, the nurse says its just a reaction to being put under.
I don't throw up or feel sick, my shaking slows down, so soon I am on my way home. We stop at the pharmacy to fill my pain med script, I stay in the car. There is no way I am walking around, I am still shaking and although my incision site is not sore my tummy feels like I have done a thousand sit ups. Maybe from all the shaking and tightening my muscles.
We get home, the shaking has stopped finally, I sit in a chair and rest. My son wants to see my "owie" on my tummy so I show him, I seem to be turning black and blue! Its awful.
My phone rings, its my OBGYN, he didn't see me at the hospital and calls to check on me, and tells me they were not supposed to let me go home till he saw me. Oops! He tells me he found a lot of endometriosis in my uterus and that I will for sure have to have a partial hysterectomy in the future, preferably before the endo spreads to my ovaries. I say ok, agree to call Monday for a 2 week follow up appointment, then goodbye.
I begin to feel a weird pain at my pelvic line area, right where my C-section scar is, I go look, I have a cut there! What!? I thought they just went through the belly button. I guess not, my sister assured me they make 2 cuts, one into the belly button and one lower. Good to know... I just hope it doesn't weaken my scar for future VBAC attempts. I will have to ask that at my appointment.
I rest. Ginger Ale becomes my friend, (Wal-Mart brand is tasty and only .84 for a big bottle) the pain meds make me a bit sick feeling.
I lay down, I get right back up, the pain is terrible, its gas, all in my side and right shoulder, thankfully I had played Dr. Google ahead of time and knew that I would be filled up with gas and it would hurt after, so I took Gas X, it works really well! For the next couple of nights that is my worst pain, the gas, I have to lay on my back, if I try to lay on my side the gas is awful. My tummy under my belly button hurts for several days, I am very bruised up, my son finds this interesting, he insists I need band aids so I wear a few, that's what 2 years olds like you know, Dora band aids, and airplane ones too.
Our neighborhood has a garage sale day the day after surgery, I take a pain pill and go shopping, my hubby and one of my best girlfriends meet up with me and we run around, well, we drive the golf cart and walk slowly up a few driveways, shes a pregnant nurse who had just worked all night, so we were two exhausted peas in a pod. I go back home and rest.
A few days ago I attempted to put my belly button ring back in, they used dermabond on the site and it got everywhere, including the hole for my ring, so I had to wait till it started chipping away, its rather annoying and itchy stuff! Especially as my belly button shrunk back down, it was rather large afterward. It looked like a small mouth... icky! Its still full of crusty dried up dermabond stuff. Little by little it washes away. Anyway it took about an hour but I finally got my ring back in! YAY!!
I am exactly a week out today, I am feeling pretty good, my belly button hurts a bit and my tummy muscles are still sore like I have worked out, probably from all the shaking, but otherwise I am okay as long as I sit a lot and don't pick Jaxon up to often. I think by time the weekend is over I will be good as new!
Well that's all there is, I think... if something else comes back to me I will make a note. I hope this helps someone out there know a few of the little details. If I had to do it again, I would just rest more the first few days, I really over did it, trying to cook, changing diapers and so forth, my hubby would have done it all, but I didn't want him to go it alone so I tried to pitch in. I wouldn't do that again, I probably would be all better and pain free by now if I had just sat around for 5 days straight. We don't have family close enough to come help us out so it makes sitting around more difficult. But we have made it through, but to those who may be facing this same thing, REST alot! It will help! Oh and one last thing! Stool softeners, 1-2 a day, it really helped a lot and pooping didn't hurt a bit! I was SO afraid of straining and pain meds can constipate a person. So get those too!!
Now on to some summer fun things and re-decorating the bathrooms! Pics below-
Day of:

The Next day below

A couple days out below

Today at one week out (below)