Discharged from hospital and back home!

I am running a day behind on updates because I did not have the energy, nor was I alert enough, to type yesterday. We are now back home in San Marcos and I have been ordered rest. I am not complaining about the rest one bit!

We got to the hospital at 6 AM yesterday morning and they took me straight into the pre-surgery waiting area. I had already taken a Xanax to help calm me before they started the IV so I was doing pretty good at that point. Next thing I knew, two hours had passed, we had a prayer and the nurses took me one direction and the family the opposite direction. I don't remember anything else until about 12:30-1:00 when they had moved me out of the OR, out of the recovery room, and into the day surgery room. The nurses had a hard time waking me up after the surgery so they called Jordan into the recovery room to try and help them wake me up. Once we got into the day surgery room, I remember a LOT of pain, they gave me morphine, and they let two family members in at a time (so family was rotating turns, except for Jordan). The nurses had expected me to be discharged around 3-4 on Thursday. We were far from discharging at that point. I was in and out for the next 2-3 hours and ended up in an overnight patient room where Jordan and I stayed the night. I was only able to walk from the bed to the wheelchair at that point so going home was not an option. My blood pressure was really low, so the nurses came in several times throughout the night to keep checking on my BP and to give me more pain meds. Other than check ups and pain meds, we both slept pretty good. Poor Jordan, I had to have asked him the same questions about 5 times each. This morning showed great improvement. I was able to walk to the bathroom alone (in my room), got to eat a biscuit and have a glass of real milk :) Then Dr. Jemelka came in to talk with us this morning. We were supposed to have a follow up appointment with her this morning, but that didn't work out due to staying over night. The appointment has been postponed for a couple of weeks.

The surgery ended up taking right around 3 hours. She found that my ovaries were 2x-3x the size they should be, so she did the ovarian wedge resection to make the ovaries a normal functioning size. She also took cultures from my uterus due to concerns with the inflammation.We will have the results of that in a couple of weeks. She found that one of my fallopian tubes was blocked, so she cleared that one out. Lastly, she found three "sections" of endometriosis. She removed the endo. with a laser and "sewed" the areas back together when she was finished. I ended up having 5 incisions in my stomach. The stomach area is very very weak and tender now. It's amazing to find how much of your body movement relies on and uses your stomach muscles.

I am getting a little break from the diet for the next 1-2 weeks, but then she wants me back on it for 6 months. She will then reevaluate the situation.

We are so thankful that the surgery went smoothly and so thankful for your prayers!

Pre-Op Appointment

We made it to Houston just fine, but with yucky weather the whole way! I met with the Dr. and did all of the check in/registration/blood testing/waiting room business. My surgery has been moved up from 12 noon to 8 AM tomorrow. Less time to fast...yay! This liquid only diet is for the birds. I did get news from the Dr. that she wants me to continue the dairy free/gluten free diet for 6 more months :( I know some people like this diet, but it is not for me! I do have permission to eat whatever I want, though, following surgery :) She is wanting me to gain some of the weight back that I have lost over the past 2 months, so hopefully I can manage the diet and weight gain at the same time. This may call for an occasional cheat :)
That's all I have for now. We have to be at the hospital at 6 in the morning.

Thanks for the prayers!

Surgery

As most of you know, I will be having surgery on Thursday in Houston. We will be leaving tomorrow morning to make my pre-op appointment tomorrow afternoon. We will then return home Friday evening.
We have chosen over the past year to keep the struggles of infertility to ourselves and our families. However, when we found out that I would need surgery, we requested the prayers of the church. We still did not give much information, though. Please know that we have only kept things quiet because it is a difficult topic for me to talk about. I know that there are people who have struggled with similar problems for much longer than a year, so I feel a little silly being so down about our struggles. Even so, it is not an easy situation to deal with.

Many have asked why we are going to Houston and what the surgery is for. So, I wanted to share with you what the surgery is about. I have chosen to only share this post (via facebook) with members of the church. We are going to Houston because there is a Dr. there that specializes in the treatment of polycystic ovarian disease (PCOD), which is what I have been diagnosed with, among other issues. You can click the Caritas link below to read about the Dr and her office.
Here is our treatment plan as well as details about the type of surgery I will be having:
-I have been on a dairy free, gluten free diet over the past 7 weeks. This is an anti-inflammatory diet that has hopefully helped with the inflammation of my ovaries.
-I have been using the Creighton Model Charting System. http://www.creightonmodel.com/
-On Thursday the Dr. will do the Ovarian Wedge Resection, Laser surgery for Endometriosis (if she finds that I have endometriosis), selective hystero-salpingography, and a hysteroscopy (scope inside uterus).

The surgery will be laparoscopic and should last 2-3 hours. The recovery time is expected to be 2-4 weeks. Hopefully the recovery will be closer to the 2 week mark than the 4 week. :)

I have included some websites with more information if you are interested.
http://www.naprotechnology.com/surgical.htm
http://www.caritasfertilitycare.com/naprotechnology.php

ANTICIPATED RESULTS

Following the wedge resection, the cycles tend to become more regular again in about 80 percent of cases. Ovulation becomes more effective and Clomid can still be used but, in this case, at much lower doses.

Because women who have polycystic ovaries often have very long cycles, their risk of cancer of uterus and breast in increased. Cancer of the uterus, in particular, may occur in as many as 25 percent of these women. This is due to the continuous, prolonged stimulation of estrogen in the absence of progesterone (which happens with these long and irregular cycles). Progesterone can be administered on a cyclic basis to prevent this from happening.

After a wedge resection and when the cycles become more regular (in 80 percent of the cases), there is a natural regulation of the cycle because ovulation is now occurring more regularly, there are no longer prolonged episodes of estrogen stimulation and progesterone is produced on a regular basis thus preventing cancer of the uterus and breast.

In addition, while the male hormones are often elevated in women with Polycystic Ovarian Disease, and it requires medication to keep them down, these hormone levels decrease with wedge resection.
Finally, this is a procedure which, while improving a woman’s health, also results in regular menstrual cycle with regular ovulation and an improvement in fertility. The pregnancy rate following this procedure is nearly 70 percent in the experience of the Pope Paul VI Institute.

We greatly appreciate your prayers and support at this time. Please also pray that whatever the results may be, we will always trust in the Lord and His plan. We will try to keep you updated when I come out of surgery on Thursday.