Can I get a "holler" please?

We three are living large. Highschool sweethearts. Married in the Newport Beach LDS Temple. Two kids. Taking life a day at a time!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Surgery

Thursday afternoon I was napping with Mckenzi, felt some sharp pains high on one side of my abdomen, readjusted, and went back to sleep. I woke up 15 minutes later experiencing a super gnarly gall bladder attack - which, by the way, came out of no where! It had been over a month since my last full blown attack because I've been careful to avoid them by eating differently. Anyway, after just 10 minutes of this attack, I knew I couldn't handle waiting it out. So I drove myself to the hospital. Neal was at work, and I left Mckenzi at my mom's.

After arriving, they checked me in pretty quickly (Placentia Linda Hospital), took my labs, and started an IV. Neal showed up about an hour after I got there, the nurse pumped me with the strongest pain meds ever (which helped me feel nothing at all - amazing) but also gave me the awesomest anxiety attack ever cuz I couldn't feel my brain. Hahaha. Neal was a wonderful calming presence during that new experience! I could never be a druggy. I'm too scared of everything, ever. I ended up being allergic to the pain meds (super itchy) so they shot me up with some Benadryl, which immediately made me super relaxed. Mmmmm. I had an ultrasound a few minutes later, after which they decided it'd be good to get the GB out. It was about 6pm or so at this point. Neal went home to be with Mckenzi. I stayed at the hospital. They scheduled my surgery for the next morning. I spent the night for the first time without my little girl, ever. There weren't even any perks, because the nurses had to wake me up every 4 hours for blood pressure etc. Stupid nurses. So much for a full nights rest.

Dr. Dawkalakis showed up around 8am to tell me my surgery wouldn't actually be until 2:30 in the afternoon. After rico suave left (he was totally young and cocky. like someone you'd see on General Hospital) I spent the next few hours bored out of my mind, wishing I hadn't had to stay the night in the hospital. I was pumping my milk, throwing it out, missing my baby, and just anxiously waiting for my surgery!

Neal came to the hospital around 1:30. My grandpa also came and visited me for a little over an hour. He talked and talked about all of his favorite foods. I was sooooo hungry. Fasting before surgery sucks!

Surgery time came. My husband went to the waiting room. I was wheeled off to one of those cold, bright white surgical rooms. All the doctors and nurses came by one by one, super nice, introducing themselves, asking if I was cold, loading blankets on etc etc. Such a different experience than with Kaiser! Kaiser, I hate you. Good doctors and nurses DO exist out there! Thank you PLH for showing me that. They pumped a relaxer in me (mmmmmmm), put a face mask on me, and the last thing I remember is them gently reminding me to breathe in deeply. They were all doing there own thing, no one was standing over me waiting for me to go under, it was just a nice little sleepy time with a man telling me to breathe nice and deep, somewhere in the distance. I was obliged to breathe deeply. It felt good. :)

I woke up in the recovery room not long later, feeling obvious pain in my abdomen, but NOTHING compared to my csection. After my csection, I woke up crying cuz it hurt so bad. This time it hurt, but it was more of a nuisance than something I couldn't handle. But it hurt nonetheless. The nurse gave me more meds. They didn't help. She gave me more. They didn't help at all.

I was wheeled back to my room. No one told Neal I was done. Jerks! He had my phone, so I couldn't call him. He wandered into my room about 20 minutes later, on his own accord, just to see if I was there. What do you know, I was there! My nurse came in (different nurse) asked about my pain, and gave me a teeny tiny bit of morphine. It didn't help. So she gave me one of my vicodine. It didn't seem to help either! Stupid. The pain wasn't unbearable, just annoying and uncomfortable, and I'd rather not feel it, obviously. An hour or two went by, I asked if I could just go home, and the nurse let me. So I went home. I took a vicodine. It didn't really help.

So, I'm not taking my pain meds. I'd rather nurse my little darling girl, than fill my body with poison that doesn't help me at all, and just makes it so I can't nurse her anymore. The pain has been pretty constant, isn't unbearable, and it's pretty manageable. I'm not supposed to do any lifting, but sometimes Mckenzi requires it. Sorry body.

I go in for my check up today. We'll see how things are looking. I have four bruises the size of golfballs where the incisions are, and my belly is pretty distended. Good times. My belly is so ugly. Stretch marks, csection scar, 4 new incisions, awesome bruises, nice and swollen. My husband is so lucky!

9 comments:

Danae Curtis said...

Yikes, no fun! Hope you're feeling better soon!

Shelley said...

I'm so glad the surgery went well and that you aren't in intolarable pain. Good for you for finding a hospital that suited you better than Kaiser! I have Kaiser but haven't had many problems with them. I hope you feel better soon!

Jill said...

This makes me really grateful for the boring, uneventful, uninteresting labor I had.

You're a trooper. I'm glad you have a sweet, supportive husband through all this.

Janae H. said...

I'm glad you finally got that over with and that it was a better experience for you than giving birth. I hope your pain goes away soon!

Emily said...

No fun!! Maybe it was better that it was sooner than later. Glad everything went well and you are home. I hope everything is back to normal and I'm sure Mckenzi is glad to have mama back. Hopefully the last surgery? I can't imagine how hard that must be, especially being a mom. The only surgery-like thing I've ever had is when my wisdom teeth were pulled, lol. I'm a wimp, so it's a good thing.

Mrs. Hornberger said...

Your husband IS lucky! youve been through a lot and you can still make jokes about every thing. and good job for not taking the pain meds. some people get perscribed crazy serious pain pills and take them and nurse at the same time and i cant imagine it being good for babies. youre a champ!

Jessica said...

Dawkalakis is not a real name. It can't be, i refuse to believe it. Too ridiculous.

The Breakwell Family said...

Oh Wendy! Sorry you've had such a rough time of things! I am glad that you got to have your surgery done and over with and hopefully you will be much better after you recover. Hang in there and feel better soon!

Hangin with the Burke's said...

Wendy thank you for posting about your surgery and all the pain you were going thru. I was having similar pain and because of you I went to the doctors and found out that I have gall stones and they set the surgery for Sept. 4th. I just wanted to let you know that I am grateful that you blogged and hopefully my surgery will go as easy as yours! Jennie :)