Wednesday, November 12, 2008

On the other side...well, partly anyway!

I thought I had better post an update. I had my hysterectomy and BSO on Friday, November 7th, 2008, at St. Joseph's Health Centre in London, Ontario. My surgeon was Dr. George Vilos. I can't say enough about this man...he's a fabulous doctor and man. The entire staff at St. Joseph's from the nurses, to doctors, to the office staff and porters were FABULOUS!!!! I couldn't recommend a better facility. I received the best care anyone could ask for.

I was originally scheduled for a Laparoscopic Assisted Vaginal Hysterectomy (LAVH) and a Bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO). My surgery started out as planned, but part-way through, Dr. Vilos had to change to abdominal. I had very bad endometreosis (I never knew...explains why I never had kids) and my uterus had attached itself to my bladder. This made surgery much more difficult. Dr. Vilos ended up doing a subtotal hysterectomy (with preservation of the cervical stump) instead of a total. During surgery blood started to appear in my urine so Dr. Vilos called in a urologist to do a cystogram (bladdar scan) to ensure there was no tearing of the bladder from removing the uterus. There was no tearing, but definitely some bruising. I had blood in my urine until Sunday when I was released from the hospital. It was really bad on Saturday and Dr. Vilos thinks that was from irritation from the cathetar and because I was on heparin (blood thinner). He told the nurse to remove the cathetar and things started to clear up right way.

I did have a bit of a melt down on Saturday. I was in some major pain and was terrified by the amount of blood in my urine. I imagine some of my emotional state was caused by suddenly having no hormones either! At one point I told my sister I wished I hadn't done the surgery, but she said mom would have wanted me to do it; I knew she was right. During a crying spell and while my sister was consoling me, Dr. Vilos walked into the room. I tried to hide my tears, but he was incredibly caring and sympathetic and kept telling me not to worry, I was going to be fine.

After the cathetar was removed on Sunday, I had to prove I could pee on my own 3 times before they would consider releasing me. Dr. Vilos showed up at my room around 5:00. He asked if I was peeing on my own...I said lots...and he said "go home!" I asked when he wanted to see me again and he said in 6 weeks and not before :)

So now I start on my road to recovery. I still am in a fair amount of pain and imagine I will be for a while. DH has been fabulous waiting on me hand and foot. Since I'm not too sure about tackling our big old staircase, I've been sleeping on my own on a fold-out couch in our TV room in front of the TV and fireplace. It's quite nice and cozy. My cat and 2 dogs have become little nurses. I know they can sense when you're not well, and these 3 haven't left my side. My cat sleeps with me at night and won't leave me until I wake in the morning...it's so sweet.

That's about it for now, I'll update again when I have more news and feel up to it. Thank you to everyone for all your emails, messages and good wishes. and an extra special thank you to DH, Wayne. I couldn't have done this without you!!! xoxo

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