My Surgery May 22nd

In January I went to see Dr. Mairs about what he could do to help me with my terrible periods and I found out that I have fibroid tumors. So finally at the end of April I went in and decided to take care of the problem by having a hysterectomy. I drove the car and dropped it off at Art's body shop to take care of the little fender bender we had. Scott picked me up and we were at the hospital by 6:40. He said, "I guess both you and the car are getting fixed up today." It was pretty funny. I was back in the operating room by 8am. All I remember is being introduced to all the nurses and then waking up in the recovering room around 11am.
The rest of the day all I wanted to do was sleep.  I remember Gerald coming to see me and then Mom and Dad came later.  They went in together with Rosie and Teniele and brought me flowers, balloons and an American Idol (where are then now) Time magazine.  Tami also came by to see me and brought me a gift bag full of all kinds of good things to eat and keep me entertained.   I remember trying to visit but not able to keep my eyes open.  Scott was a good sport and stayed all day with me then went home to get the kids to bed and off to school the next day.

So the day seemed to go by OK except getting a little nauseated from the pain medicine.  However, I didn't have a very good night.  They were not able to keep my pain under control and around 1am I woke up scared because my hands and feet were so swollen I just knew that my kidneys were shutting down.  I think I was having flashbacks to when Kacie was in this hospital.  So I called the nurse and she assured me that it was normal and that my catheter was working just fine.  Around 5:30 she finally got me up and I walked a loop in the hallway.  I was amazed how much better I felt after getting up.  They took out my catheter and IV and I didn't have too much trouble going the bathroom except that it would take me forever because my body or bladder won't relax to let it out.  The doctor came in around 7 or 8 am and talked to me about the surgery.  He said he was able to leave my tubes and ovaries which was a relief and that my uterus was enlarged and he could see the tumors but didn't think there would be any problems with disease or cancer.  He also explained that he put stents in my ureters just during the surgery to prevent cutting in the wrong area and that was the reason for the irritation and feeling that I had to go the bathroom all the time.  He said I could go home anytime that day, and that I wasn't suppose to do any housework or lifting for two weeks.

Morning after....pretty scary!  Mom came by around 10am and stayed for a little while then went to do some errands.  We left the hospital around 4pm then we had to pick up my medicine.  I got sick in the car.  Luckily Mom grabbed some barf bags on our way out of the hospital.  We then went by Scott's parents house to pick up the kids.  Right after we got home, Tami arrived with some stew, rolls and ice cream bars.  She is such an awesome visiting teacher and friend.  She arranged for some other meals to come in too.  Karli and Zac came by Thursday with a meal and we had a good visit and Karli even did my dishes.  Kay May and Jenny Simpson brought dinner Friday.  Julie Bennett brought us a meal on May 29th.  I was pretty sore for two weeks.  I went back to work on June 4th but only lasted until around two.  When I got home Tami had another dinner for us and Joy Phelps came by and helped me mop and vacuum my floors.  When the doctor found out on the 6th, he was pretty surprised and told me to keep it part-time for another week.  He also did something to one of my incisions that turned it black and gave me some antibiotic creme to put on it because it is just not healing right.  It wasn't until about three weeks out that I started feeling like myself again.