Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Life after hysterectomy is so not easy... It's been  7 months and I'm still just as much as a mess as I was right after surgery! Does this get easier??? Ugh!

I literally don't sleep at night, sometimes for weeks at a time, I don't know how much more of this I can take it cannot be Healthy!!

My new friend is gonna help me find some other avenues for stress and anxiety maybe it will help me sleep? Yoga? Etc who knows!

Wish me luck

Tara

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Why I got a TOTAL hysterectomy

Why did I get a Total hysterectomy?? 

It all started about 2 years ago... We had been hit by an F5 tornado and had to move to a temporary house that was 45 minutes from our home. We had been under a lot of stress. I'm a type 1 diabetic. I had PCOS since I was a teenager. I started getting sick shortly after the tornado.  I had bad bad vaginal bleeding to the point that when I stood up blood would come gushing out of me. I had bad "cramps" in my back and my abdomen. It literally felt like something was going to fall out of my vagina. I worked at a doctors office then, they ordered me a ultrasound to see the cause of the pain and abnormal bleeding.  When I had my U/S results back it showed a "MASS" and they weren't able to find my Right ovary. They scheduled me with a GYN and I did the genetic testing to see if I was a positive carrier. ( Cancer runs big in my family) I went to the gyn and he told me I had ADENMYOSIS AND ENDOMETRIOSIS. 

I ended up in the ER several times because the pain and the vaginal bleeding was so bad. The pain was so bad I'd get nauseous and vomit. I couldn't walk and I would get weird sporadic fevers. They would do CT scans they would do US they did all kinds of stuff and chalked it up to endometriosis. 6 months of this and one day I'm at work rooming patients, going through a tampon every 20 min and my pain is so bad that even on a lortab I could hardly walk or function. ( I'm very sensitive to meds so to hurt on a lortab meant something was terribly wrong) My lap was scheduled for the next week. My doctor gave me percoset and sent me home, I slept all day, they pain was bearable for the next week as long as I took pain pill every 4 hours. 

The day of surgery 9-29-13 the doctor told my husband and my parents that the surgery should take around 45 min to an hour.  I was back there for in surgery for 3 hours. My husband said he was so scared that I had died on the table at that point they hadn't heard anything. I woke up at 7 pm ( surgery was at 1) I was in a lot of pain, woke up moaning and thirsty and sore throat from the tube.  The nurse gave me meds and a Popsicle. I said is it really 7 at night? she said yes you've been in recovery for a few hours. I said oh, well when can I see my family and go home? She said well actually we are admitting you, you're husband went home to get clothes and the rest of your family is waiting for us to take you to your room. I said admitting?? WHY? She then told me " Well your surgery was a lot more complicated than he originally thought.  Your appendix was wrapped around your right ovary and adhered to abdominal wall. Your ovary is 7 times bigger than it should be, your appendix was about to  burst. He removed it, and then he removed over 75 lesions from the endo. You will have to at least stay over night since you had appendix out" I was like WHAT?? But out of it enough that I didn't really understand. I was still very sick, nauseated and in a lot of pain. That night was a very rough night, my husband fed me ice chips the entire night b/c that's all i could keep down. He never slept until day 3. He is a life savior. 

I was in the hospital for three days. I kept having some breathing issues and a bad cough. I told them I was getting pneumonia and they did xray but said I was fine. They sent me home on a Monday. I slept the whole day, then I had a 105 temp and literally felt like death. I was vomiting, I couldn't breath, and I had the very high fever.  We went back to ER and they did a CT scan and I had double pnumonia and pleurisy. Got IV antibiotics, and IV Tylenol to slow my fever down. I finally got better. 

I went back for my three week checkup.  He told me that the endo was really bad, and that it would grow back within 6 months.  My options are to get pregnant or have a hysterectomy.  We wanted another child.  I started taking fertility meds to help me get pregnant. We got pregnant in December.  We were happy.  I miscarried in January, I'm still dealing with that.  I would have a new born right now if it had all worked out. I'm still in a bad place with this. 

My endo started coming back in April.  Started with twinges of pain, it progressed to horrible debilitating pain.  I had my total davinci hysterectomy 6-19-14.  

I'm feeling so much better pain wise.. But not I'm in Surgical menopause and I can't take HRT b/c I'm diabetic... 

this blog is to document my journey with surgical menopause. 

I'll write more tomorrow. thanks for reading! 
Tara