On the Road Again..

The road to recovery that is. Yes sports fans, yet again, I was in the hospital. I know, this is getting really old.

In the early morning hours of last Thursday, October 9th (think 2:30 a.m.), I was awoken with a horrible pain in my abdominal region. I got up, took some Gas-X & a couple Tylenol & tried to go back to sleep. I slept off and on until 7:00 when I got up to get Aidan off to school. The pain still there, but as you all know I do not listen to my body very well.

I proceeded go back upstairs & lay down until it was time to get ready for work. As I was walking out the door, I called Jerry on his cell (he was in Harrisburg at a class) and blubbered to him about how bad it hurt. What was he going to do at Harrisburg?

I drove to work & when I pulled in the parking lot, I called the surgeon's office. I was hysterical. I have not been that scared in a while. All these thoughts were racing through my mind. "Is something major wrong like last time?" or "Am I just being silly & over-reacting?". I talked to the nurse and then the doctor came back in the office & he instructed me to go to the emergency room immediately.

I went in to the school & cried my way through telling my boss that I was having terrible pain & had to go to emergency. The wonderful women I work with all offered to drive me, but I said it was okay, they were already short-handed & didn't need someone else gone.

When I arrived at the hospital, the doctor had already called and told them I was coming. I was escorted to a room in the back immediately. Just for a reference, this was 10:30 am.

My immediate concern was Aidan getting off the bus. The surgeon came to see me & assured me (because I was still crying hysterically) that I would be home in time to get Aidan off the bus. If Jerry isn't home from Harrisburg & Austin is at football practice, Aidan will be dropped off at home, no one will be there and he has no idea where I am.

I was told I was going to have a CT Scan & I had to drink this awful liquid. At 1:30 I was taken for the scan. They rushed me through that department because transport had let them know that I needed to get home.

I was taken back down to emergency & awaited my test results. By 2:30, they were in. There was a cyst on my right ovary & the right fallopian tube was filled with fluid. WHAT?!?! This sounds totally irrelevant to a perforated ulcer.

At this point, I am a complete & total mess. You know how your mind starts wandering & of course I can only think the absolute worst & after what happened in August, I don't know how much more of this I can emotionally or physically take. Adding on to this is the fact that I am by myself.

The surgeon tells me that he is going to consult with the surgical gynecologist on duty and they would need to get an ultrasound to try to "see exactly what was going on in there".

The ultrasound went okay (I think I was just thankful that they didn't find a baby in there!) and while I was laying there, the obstetrician that delivered Austin came walking in. He informed me that the ultrasound confirmed that there was definitely something out of sorts, and that they would have to do surgery. "All this before 3:20 when I have to leave to get my son off the bus?" I thought to myself. "Maybe it's something they can give me pain medicine for & I can schedule the surgery for a later date.

Ummm...no. My August surgeon, Dr. Bamberger, informed me after I returned to my emergency suite that I would be having surgery that evening & at this point they were all still a little baffled as to what exactly I had going on inside me.

I'm sure I called Jerry again & let him know through my sniffling & crying what was going on. Poor guy, he doesn't know what hit him.

Jerry gets in touch with our neighbor who gets Aidan off the bus, makes sure that Austin has a ride home from football practice, and rushes into the emergency room where I still am.

Approximate time: 4:30 pm. Between now & 8:30 pm I don't really remember what happened. I know Jerry called my mother to tell her what was going on, but I made him tell her that he wouldn't tell her what was going on until she promised that she & Daddy would still go on their trip to California on Saturday. I would have felt terrible if she would have missed going on this trip that she has been looking forward to for months.

I was moved to the surgical "holding area" and was only there for about 15 minutes when they whisked me back to the outskirts of the operating area. Dr. Carlson came out and talked with Jerry & I about what she thought was going to happen in the operating room. She told me that Dr. Bamberger & Dr. Puttler (the ulcer surgeons) were also going to be there in case there would be something else going on inside.

Well, I took all my jewelry off, told my husband that he was the love of my life & that no matter what, he always would be and entered Operating Room Number 3. Time check: 6:55 pm. The lovely woman held the "oxygen" mask on my face, I took deep breaths and off I went to sleep.

I awoke in recovery where Jerry joined me shortly thereafter & informed me that it was indeed my ovary that was infected & also had a cyst & my fallopian tube was filled with fluid as they suspected. For good measure they also removed my appendix. Jerry sat next to me until 9:45 pm and then left to find our children & go home for a much needed nights sleep. After spending a short time in recovery, I was moved to a regular room.

The next morning, (Friday I think) Dr. Carlson came in and said that everything looked fine after the surgery was completed. The right ovary was about the size of a golf ball & the cyst was the size of a baseball. They did not need to do a complete hysterectomy because my other parts looked fine & she didn't want me to have to be on estrogen for the rest of my life.

Dr. Carlson said that with my crappy luck, they weren't taking any chances and that's why they removed my appendix. I said "You should have taken out any unnecessary parts while you were there because I am REALLY tired of this!"

On Monday, October 13 (I know - UNLUCKY!) I came home from the hospital - again. In addition to all the other medication I have to take I have added to my repertoire an antibiotic that I take twice a day until this Monday. They are 875 mg - each. Horse pills I tell you.

So now it's on the recovery road again. I am not allowed to lift anything over 10 pounds & I am not allowed to go back to work until December 2.

I am probably going to be committed next.