Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Upcoming Surgery





It's been a while since my last blog post.  Things have been very busy with school, and especially with activities.  I feel slightly more prepared than last year, but still not quite as prepared as I'd hoped.  It seems like I'm always just a day ahead, sometimes just a morning ahead.  But so far, so good.

My surgery is one week from today and the doctor will be removing the septum in my uterus.  The doctors will insert one camera through my belly button and one camera up through the cervix, which will also have the little pair of scissors that will cut away at the septum.  They are also going to do the HSG test where they insert dye into my uterus and watch as it goes out the fallopian tubes to make sure there is no blockage.  It's a painful test and he said they could just get it out of the way while I was asleep.  Sounds good to me!

After the surgery they insert a uteran shaped balloon into my uterus to keep the walls from collapsing on each other and healing together.  After a couple of days (I think), the doctor will remove it.  I'll also be on antibiotics intravenously through the surgery and then orally afterwards.  The biggest risk with the surgery is scar tissue, which could cause infertility.

I took Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off next week, and hopefully I should be back on Monday.  It's an outpatient surgery and we should only be in the hospital for a couple of hours.  He said once they have me ready to be wheeled back, it will be about an hour and a half before the doctor will go out to get Stephen.  Then I have to wake up from the anesthesia, and after that I can go home.

I've been under anesthesia enough times that I'm not worried about that part.  Although I do cry every time I come out.  But the nurses laugh when I call that a side effect.  Last time my heart rate was low and I kept setting off the alarms, but my blood pressure was also low and the nurse said that was ok.  Every time I would fall asleep, my heart rate would drop too low and the alarms on the machines I was hooked up to would go off.

We'll have to wait 2 - 3 months after the surgery before we can start trying to have a baby again.  At that point the doctor will start the clomid, which will help treat the PCOS, a whole DIFFERENT issue. Statistically, I am definitely an abnormality.  Uterine septum? Got it. PCOS? Got it?  Vaginal septum? Had it (removed as a teenager, apparently a third unrelated issue).  Tuberculosis?  Had it.  Meningitis? Had it.  Scabies? Had it.  Undiagnosed for several months because it was "atypical."  Erythema nodosum (lumps on the legs)? Had it.  Abnormal growth on my mouth?  Had it.  There was wax from my wisdom tooth removal that did not dissolve like it was supposed to and my body formed a casing around it.  All I knew was there was a lump in my cheek.  Doctors said we could biopsy it every year or they could just take it out, so they took it out.  So like I said, I am a walking statistical anomaly.  Just means I'm special, right?