The Kat is Back!

Well kinda of any way. I've been pre-posting a lot of book reviews, CD and DVD's in my blogging absence and while trying to recover. So many of you were thinking I was up and about already back to blogging. Mentally I am but physically not quite there yet.

Steve was super great when I begged asked him to update my blog while he was waiting. I had a chance today to review all your wonderful comments and well wishes and have to say Thank you even though it seems so soft. I want to scream it from the heavens. It's funny when you have those missing hours of your life where you don't know what is going on and then to look back at Steve's blog and see WOW that is where all the time went.

Here's an update:

I went into surgery feeling tired of not sleeping well the night before, not due to anxiety but because I was afraid we'd over sleep or the alarm wasn't set that I'd miss my surgery. So every so often I would wake up and ask poor Steve what time it was. Turns out it was almost every hour on the hour til we had to get up.

I went with absolutely no anxiety or stress that whole morning. No real worries at all. I kept praying that every time I would feel it come, that God would whisk it away.

We got to the hospital at 5am and I was taken in to PreOp at 5:30am. They run through all your paperwork, have you get in your hospital gown, cover your head and feet with these wonderful blue paper things and go to the restroom one final time. I was then given some warm comfy blankets and the remote to the TV if I wanted to view it while I waited. At 7:15am, my doctor arrived and asked how breakfast was, and I responded that my pain meds at 12am were wonderful!

He said he was waiting for my anesthesiologist to arrive and we should be ready in about 10 minutes. I got to meet my OR nurse Bonnie who was super nice. At 7:30am my anesthesiologist arrived and had me sign a consent form and told me I would be given all my drugs in the OR!

So they wheeled me down the hall, I said good bye to Steve and asked him to journal my time, (what a blogger huh?) and they wheeled me just a few doors down into a icy cold blue OR. WOW TV really doesn't do these rooms justice. They are like 5 times the size you see on TV in real life.

Everyone said Hi and told me I needed to get on the OR table. I joked and said this would be my first Olympic Event, the OR table jump, and then said, Now I understand why you get the heated blankets, its super cold in here.

They covered me up and my anesthesiologist said, now come the drugs, and I said just make sure I don't remember anything and feel no pain. I don't remember anything until I woke up in the Recovery Room feeling like I was cut in half and I could hardly talk. I had an oxygen mask over my face and was trying to wake up and speak loud enough for the nurse to hear me say PAIN! It was the only thought I could get out of my head. I was shaking uncontrollably and she said she was going to give me something to make that stop.

I just kept saying Pain, and she said, she wouldn't be able to give me anything else for 10 minutes so I had to be patient. She said they were trying to get me out of the Recovery Area and up to my room so I could feel much better.

Shortly after that, I remember them bringing me into my room (private thanks Jesus) and asking if I could move to the other bed, I told them No, so they moved me onto the regular bed and took away my other sheets and gave me more warm blankets.

At that point my room nurse came in and hooked up my IV and pain meds so I could administer them as I needed every 10 minutes (thanks Jesus). They told me where I was and what to do if I needed anything.

I didn't realize I would receive a catheter to help me in this process and was the first question I asked was when that could go. I was told tomorrow morning. Nice!

At that point my brother came in, and set down some flowers he brought and asked how I was feeling. I told him not well, in a lot of pain, and that I had made it! When he saw my pain meds he joked if he could have some too! I told him, I was going to be selfish and not share.

Steve then joined us at that point where I learned all the details of what I had missed. That the doctor did find that my uterus was movable and therefore should be easy to take out, but later found out that is was really infected and disintegrating on the back side which no one could have seen. Not only that but the left ovary was covered with a cyst and completely encased with endometrial tissue that is bound itself to anything and everything it could including my colon and bladder. It was at this point during surgery that he was asked by the attending doctor and nurses if he was going to open me up for the typical hysterectomy and he said No he wanted to go slow and try it this way first.

It turned out it took much longer but he was able to complete this surgery laproscopicly which meant no stitches and I was just derma bonded with glue in three places on my abdomen. I do have stitches on the inside where I had my uterus removed but other than they he felt I should keep my right ovary since in time when menopause came it would take care of any other issues with the possibility of cysts or tissue on that ovary. It was fine except for a small cyst. (Thanks Jesus again!)

I spent the next 23 hours recovering with some great nurses and a wonderful hospital that catered to all my needs. At 12:30pm I was wheeled out of the hospital and headed home on a drive I knew would really test my ability to endure.

It was the roughness of the roads in the mini-van I had chosen to rent thinking it would offer me a much smoother ride, but it didn't. I was able to recline back because my waist was still bent with my legs having to sit up so high on these seats. They were too high.

Not only that after riding in these types of rough roads and freeways out here,( let me tell you that Obama and our governor are not spending the money on repairing out here in California), for almost 2 hours I felt every bump and rough spot in my stomach like an over inflated water balloon.

On top of that, my bladder was so full from the catheter that I had to go to the bathroom so bad I think my eyes were bulging from my head. I seriously could not get home fast enough. That is where Steve got the brunt of what I was feeling. I mean did he seriously know how much pain I was in, despite tears pouring down my face and sobbing. I could not get out of the van fast enough and could not pull myself out of the van because we were parked on an incline on the driveway so gravity was pulling me to the seat and I wanted OUT!

Once I got to the bathroom and upstairs in bed, and completely loaded up on pain meds, I was much better. I think I even apologized to Steve but honestly he really had no idea how much pain I was in, and he moved even slowly to accommodate my needs to get in bed.

Ah but after 2 full days of being home, I am better in some areas and not so much in others. I still feel like I could rip open my tears in my stomach just by getting in and out of bed. That is still my biggest challenge. Showers take their toll on me too and wear me out. No one likes going to bed with wet hair. So I have to at least dry it.

So now that you have all got my side of things, I need to say thanks! Thanks to all those wonderful prayers that kept me covered in God's protection and comfort because I was never afraid of anything. I am thankful I got my private room, great nurses, pain meds on request, and a short time in the hospital as well as laproscopic surgery even though it really tested my doctor.

I even joked when he came to see me, and he asked if my hubby had told me how difficult this surgery was, my comment to him was, "Didn't you say you like challenges?" The look on his face was priceless because you could see that this was more difficult than anything he ever wanted to experience. I just chalk that up to my prayer with my doctor prior to surgery. Even though he said it would be OK, I asked if we could pray anyway. We did, and God answered. Yes, without a doubt, God does answer each and every prayer!

One last piece of news is my book giveaway winners for book pack one and two are:

Anne Phamilyblog won book pack number 1
Alleluiabelle at Humble As I Go won book pack number 2.

Congratulations to all my wonderful winners and may God receive all the glory from all of this. Praise God to the Highest! Hallelujah!