Sweet Co-workers!

Look at what my fab co-workers sent me to cheer me up after surgery! Aren't they the sweetest. I can honestly say that I work with the nicest group of doctors and staff that I have ever met. They each called and wished me luck Friday....and I have received several cards in the mail too. How nice...my last employer didn't care if you had surgery...you should be at work anyway! This group is encouraging me to rest, eat well and fully heal before I come back! I should add they are the ones who "forced" me to leave work last week and call my doc to speed up things....they ultrasound wasn't scheduled until 3/12, but because they prodded me so much I had the u/s and pre-op physical and was done with surgery on 3/9. All because they pushed me not to wait for my surgeon (who I adore) to fit me in...get it done now. Which is great because the ovary/cyst combo ruptured as they were trying to get it out. Had I waited, it would have been a nightmare recovery and an "open" surgery vs. laparoscopy. Yikes.

Anyway, thank you to all who have wished me well. Gotta move on to other things on this blog...this surgery is taking up too much space.

Recovering

OK, that is obviously not me recovering from surgery, but I couldn't find a cute recovery picture other than that....and who couldn't fall in love with that cutie?

I made it home from the hospital around 6pm last night. The surgery lasted about 1.5 hours longer than planned, but I survived. I have 3 stab incision about 1 inch long, and one 4 inch long scar in my bikini line (previous c/section line actually) where they pulled the ovary and an another cyst they found out. The overy was pretty bad, the cyst INside it had pretty much killed it, and then they found a lime sized cyst ON it also. So, they went in and put both in a surgical bag to remove them, which is good, because the ovary ruptured on the way out. YIKES. That would have been a night or two stay in the hospital if it weren't contained in the bag. And yes, I know that because 10 years ago back in KS I had a grapefruit size cyst removed in emergency surgery and the damn surgeon didn't put it in a bag and it ruptured....3 days in the hospital on IV antibiotics. Anyway, back to the present....He said it looked bad in there, and it was no wonder I had so much pain. He had to remove a portion of my abdominal wall or peritaneum as it is called because the endometriosis had hardened into almost fibrotic cysty types lumps...and tons of adhesions and endo on my bladder. Endometriosis or endo was found on my left kidney again as well. But most of the work needed was in the lower pelvis this time. He said I had a ton of adhesions from my c/section and from previous abdominal surgeries, so he removed all he could. I love this surgeon. He called me from home last night, with all 3 of his kids in the background just to make sure I was ok and to fill me in since I was too groggy by the time he had to leave the hospital yesterday (he still had office hours to do!). All in all I am doing well....my throat hurt like an SOB last night, better today. The pain is managable with pain pills...hard to sleep. Finally at 3 am I just got up and came and sat in the recliner reading. I noticed I was nodding off, so I turned off the light and was able to get 3 hours straight of sleep...where as in the bed I woke up every hour. So, at least I found a way to rest! The incisions are still covered, but he said there weren't any external sutures, he did all the sewing on the inside of the incision and used skin glue to finish it off. This means little scarring...not that I will every need a bikini or anything! YIKES. OK, I guess the pain meds are making me too chatty so I had better get off here before Matthew wakes up and see if I can get showered first. Thank you for your well wishes everyone....family, friens and bloggers!

For The Love of Bunny!

Matthew has been having bad dreams regarding my surgery today. He has recurringly dreamed about me dying, or not waking up. Last night I ran to Bor*der's book store to buy some post-surgery recovery books, and they had a cute little brown and white soft, cuddly Easter Bunny as a promotional thing. I got it for Matthew. Spur of the moment, I told him it was a magical bunny to take away bad dreams and make sure I made it through surgery all right. He named the bunny Tuxedo (so cute!) and kept him near him all evening. He slept with the bunny last night, and this morning when I got up Matthew was sitting in my recliner watching cartoons hugging the bunny tight. I asked him if he slept good, and he said, "Of course, Tuxedo took away all the bad dreams...he's good like that!" Gulp...giggle, snort. Gah. Ladylike of course! Then I hugged him up and told him I was going to be just fine today. He said, "You don't have to tell me that Mom, Tuxedo already told me you'd do great!" Sigh. I love that little boy.

We head to the hospital later this morning....I was told to arrive at 10:45am. Surgery is booked for 12:15pm. It is expected to last two hours or slightly more depending on how much endometriosis he is able to get out. Big thank you to my SIL Roxanne for taking on the boy today....seeing as how my MIL flaked out on me yet again. It is more important to do some baking for the neighbor who is in a coma in the hospital...yes, important, but more important than your grandson having a safe, warm environment while his mother is undergoing the knife? Yes, I know, just call me drama queen. Anyway, thanks to Roxy for taking Matthew for the day despite having her own 2 year old girl, a 3.5 year old girl, and having a friend's children coming over: 3.5 year old boy, a 6 year old girl and a 4 month old little boy. Luckily the baby and the little girl won't be there until their mom arrives with them after school! So, hopefully my SIL will survive the day! YIKES. OK, I'm off to the hospital shortly...wish me luck!

Family

As I am preparing for Surgery on Friday I find myself getting mushy and nostalgic. So here is a favorite picture of mine of all the kids together: My nephew Blake, Matthew, Neice Jasmine, Neice Allyse holding Neice Alexsandra. Blake and Ally are siblings. Matthew is my only. Jazzy and Lexi are sisters. I love this group of kids....and it makes me worry I won't be here for them.

Go figure....I guess my son's nightmares that I am going to die are sorta getting to me. Hmmmm. Went through a bunch of pictures tonight and sorted them so that while he is in school next week, and I am recovering, I pray I get some scrapping done. I sorted and have mental layouts done for February 2005 through May 2006. THEN I WILL BE LESS THAN A YEAR BEHIND! Can you believe in less than a year of scrapping I have done 2001-2005 with plans to catch up to mid-2006?????? Yahoooo. I thought it would take me years to catch up. I went online to Walgreens today and printed 155 photos. Think that will last through a 2 week recovery of being couped up at home, on Percocet, unable to drive? God I hope it keeps me from going insane. Luckily I am going to hit the bookstore tomorrow....too bad Jude Devereaux doesn't have anything new out. Although I found a new author I really like: Catherine Anderson....builds a lot of her books (but not all) around a cool family. Will have to look for the few about the Coulter family I haven't read yet. I printed a copy of this photo out for my MIL thinking she would like it. It was October of 2005, but seems to be the last time we actually got all the kids to sit together, and be still. Blake just turned 13 this past week...happy birthday big shot. Matthew turned 6 in January (and reminded me I haven't posted pics yet...he's the blogger police here), Jasmine turned 3 in July, Ally turned 10 in October, and Lexi just turned 2 last month. What a gang. I think we are all done with babies now. I know Lynn is happy with one boy/one girl. I physically can't have anymore without taking all sex out of it and turning it into a science experiment, so we are done. Roxanne has the two little girls, but if she could get away with it she would have one every 2 years....Peter (hubs) luckily put his finger done there! OK, I guess my Percocet and Lunesta decided to kick in all at once and I am rambling, rambling, chitter-chattering along. So I shall end this. Although....can someone tell me how to get a picture into your post other than at the top of the frickin' page?????

Surgery Surgery Surgery

Well, considering I am a nurse, I do not make a very good patient. I am having surgery on Friday to remove a ton of endometriosis and today after an ultrasound it was decided it will also be necessary to remove my left ovary. Oh well...removed the left fallopian tube 2 years ago, so why do I need that ovary. Then, I will do one injection of chemo per month for 6 months to stop the growth of any endometrial cells. Can we say hello hot flashes? This will put me into immediate menopause for the 6 months in hopes of stopping the progression of my severe endometriosis. Sounds like fun you say? Care to join me? Seriously, I went to bed at a little before 10pm, and woke up at midnight. Can we say, me no sleepy while worrying about surgery? Those two hours come after doubling my sleeping pill for the night too. Rozerem....you suck. Just took an Ambien CR, and it isn't doing a thing for me. I am such a sucky patient.

In other news....this switch to beta blogger, well, it bites. I have been trying to log in since Sunday night, and it is so damn slow I never made it to the log in. Anyone else have these problems? Might be that I have to join the rush to vacate the premises to go on over to wordpress or something. I don't know. What do you think?

Matthew was sick all weekend with a fever of 103-104*, crabby ass, runny nose, cough, nightmares, goopy sinus drainage, goopy eye drainage. Made an appointment to take him to the ped today, but cancelled it because he didn't run the fever Monday morning, and seemed better. Thought (big mistake...don't do the thinking thing) it was a virus and it was passing. By 4:45pm (15 minutes before the peds office closed) he was 103* again. Shoot. But, he had no other symptoms. Tylenol and it came down. I am such a bad mom, I am sending him to school in the morning if he is fever free. If his fever only spikes after 4pm, he will be home from school. I used to worry about infected his classmates, but have since decided those little, ummm, darlings are the ones that gave it to him anyway, right? Right.

Ok, well, off to see if this damn beta will actually post this. Crossing my fingers, eyes, toes, legs, you get the drift.