done and done

 A friend of mine sent me a new & cuter uterus from iheartguts

A week and a half ago I went through the final step to get through this cancer thing I've got going on.  Last Tuesday I had a hysterectomy.  It was un-fun.

We got to the hospital at 12:00 as we were instructed.  They got me back there and all ready to go and then told me that the procedure before me was running late and instead of going in at 2pm they were hoping to get me in by 4.  Boo

Luckily I had my own little TV on a swivel arm and it was Shark Week so I was entertained.

I think I ended up going in around 3:30ish.  I don't remember much about all that.  I think I remember going into the OR, but I'm pretty sure I'm just making that up.  The stuff they give you to knock you out is nuts.

I woke up at some point afterward, don't remember what time that was.  The nurse was insistent that I pee.  If I could pee than I could go home.  I wasn't sure I wanted to go home.  Ray and I had talked about how I should probably stay the night just in case something went wrong.  We live about 35 minutes away from the hospital, though there is a Kaiser about 20 minutes away that we could go to in an emergency.  But I was also feeling like I wanted to sleep in my own bed.

So I peed.  And I was pretty sure that they left something alive in my stomach and it was trying to claw it's way out.

But the nurse was really excited that I could pee.  Go figure.

They doped me up so I didn't feel anymore pain and sent me on my not-so-merry way.

We got home and I went to bed.  I woke up around 1:00 or so and had to go to the bathroom again.  Ray was fast asleep and I thought, I just have to pee.  I don't want to wake him.  So I made my way to the bathroom and went pee.

And pretty much died.

I wasn't sure I could make it back to the bed, but I did, barely.  I started trying to wake up Ray and explain to him that something was very wrong, but I could barely speak.  I can't begin to explain what the pain was like.  It was unreal.  They told me that they had nicked my bladder during the surgery, but I didn't even think that it would be so incredibly painful.  The advice nurse told Ray to give me both pain medications I had been prescribed and if the pain didn't lessen in a half hour to call back.

We called back and were instructed to head to the ER.  We chose to go to the closer Kaiser because I didn't think I could make the drive out to Santa Clara.  We got the biggest asshole of a doctor EVER.  He was very uninterested and didn't understand why we didn't drive the extra 15 minutes to the hospital where I had the surgery.  He also thought it would be a great idea to aggressively press into my stomach.  I wanted to punch him in the balls.

Finally, after Keystone nurses and asshat doctor did their thing the OB doctor on duty came in and took over and I loved her.  She was calm, gentle and perfect.  I just remember her telling me that she was admitting me.

So we hung out for the day and they inserted a catheter when they finally understood that something about going pee is what was causing the pain.  Sometime during my emergency room visit they sent me in for a CT scan and discovered some fluid hanging around where it shouldn't be and my blood level was low.  At least that's what I understood.

They checked my blood every couple of hour and I got mixed news.  Some nurses said my numbers didn't look good and others said they didn't seem that bad.  My mom thinks that the fluid was actually urine from the nick.  Gross.

Also, they gave me one of those IVs where I could push a button and make the pain go away.  It was so nice.  For the first good while I just kept watching the clock at the foot of the bed waiting for the 20 minutes when I could push the button again.

Finally, they told me 'Oh, you're not going home today.' when I asked and Ray went home and brought back some snacks and earplugs (my room mate snored).  I couldn't eat too much even though they upgraded me from a liquid diet to a regular diet.

My room mate was awesome.  Even though she snored.  She had 6 children and was a retired nurse.  She and her husband were spending their retirement traveling wherever they could.  I got to meet 5 of her kids.  It was a good time.

Good news was I got to go home the next day.  The bad news was I had to take the catheter with me.  It was not fun.  But I was glad to be able to see my babies and sleep in my own bed.  I had five days to let my bladder rest and then I would go take void trial to make sure that everything was working.

Monday I went to my appointment and not only got to leave the catheter there, but I also got news that pathology came back and found no cancer in my uterus.  I am officially cancer free.

It was a good day.