Be Kind to Yourself - TMI Warning

I say it all the time....in fact, if you have been my friend for any length of time and gone through literally anything you have heard me tell you to be kind to yourself and to listen to your body or to not push yourself.

Have you heard this idiom before?   Physician heal thyself.....it basically means 

Take your own advice stupid!  

So lets back it up a bit...

As many of you know I had surgery on Tuesday, for those of you who don't....well I had surgery on Tuesday!  Here is your warning if you want to bail now.....TMI is about to ensue.  The surgery went fine, though not as planned and today I pushed myself too hard....so there is your synopsis bail now.....

Okay...so if you are still here, you must want the dirty details so here you go!

I was to go on in on Tuesday to have two small Cysts removed from my ovaries, then remove my fallopian tubes to reduce the likelihood of cancer later down the road.   They were also going to do an endometrial ablation to reduce the severity of my periods (they basically stick a laser up your hooha and laser off a few layers!)

I was told that it would be a 90-minute procedure and that if all went well I would stay one night in the hospital and then have 3 weeks off.   I have to tell you guys I was SUPER nervous about the unknown and trying not to read all the google misinformation about surgery!

I went in and met with all the doctors and explained that they would have a hard time with my veins and that I was nervous but ready to go.    They wheeled me in and went right for the back of the hand with no success, they tried one arm which REALLY hurt and then they started freezing me so they could go ahead and dig around.   They had to pull out the ultrasound machine but they did manage to get the IV in my right arm and said..."this medication is going to make you drowsy but you won't fall asleep"....and then I GOT PANICKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sounds all got weird and whooshy...the lights pulsed and my head started to feel funny and then nothing.....

I vaguely remember my doctor yelling my name and shaking my shoulder, and then later I woke up again and I was in recovery and it was a LOT later than I thought it should be.

Turns out my 90-minute surgery took 4 hours and things were REALLY messed up!  When they got in there the small mandarin orange size cysts were now the size of small navel oranges.

not only that but I had so much endometrial tissue that it had fused my ovaries together to my tubes, uterus and part of my bowel....imagine a pile of things covered in that expanding caulk stuff....now try and take it apart!

So yeah....they got about 70% of the cysts, they unfused what they could and they tied up my tubes.   I don't really know what that means for me now....could be drugs for the rest of my life, could be more surgery, maybe i need to start looking at some alternative medicine?   We have a follow up in 6 weeks to talk about it.

So back to today.....I have been resting comfortably at my parents and the Baron's and am so happy to have such a supportive family.   Tom and the girls have come to visit me and this week I hope to transition home for a little bit. 

Tom and I need to finish up a few things still for his fathers memorial.    I can't drive, or lift stuff and the medication makes me pretty darn sleepy, so i have been napping a lot!

Today I decided to venture out for fathers day at church and Car-free days on Main street - which as you know is a big highlight to the start of summer for me.   We took the kids on a walk to try and find hurricane potato

We walked back up to the Cityview booth and by the time I reached the bouncy castle I knew something was wrong.  I was suddenly very weak and dizzy, I was afraid to sit down because I wasn't sure I could get back up.   My face was very red and my heart and head were pounding.   Tom got me to the truck and we quickly drove back to my parents and my heart rate shot up to 116 beats per minute it felt like it was coming out of my chest.    Tom got me an ice pack and I laid down until my heart rate returned to normal and I wasn't dizzy anymore.

   

A very stark and real lesson in not pushing yourself too far to fast!!    

I have been anxious to feel better and resume my daily grind, but this let me know really quickly it's just not time yet.   I am going to try and push the drugs further than 4 hours apart now if I can....so far so good its been 6 hours since I took my last pills and it only hurts a little, I will see if I can make it to bedtime!

Don't forget though....BE KIND TO YOURSELF!