On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
 |
| The "unknown" flower that we planted last summer is starting to bloom. |
The day after the surgery, the surgeon called back and told me one of the pathology reports came back. Something was missing in that lab test - it sounded like there wasn't enough tissue for the lab to identify something. The surgeon said it could mean either there's still some remain inside my uterus, or there just wasn't enough tissue left inside me at the time of the surgery because I was already bleeding and passing clots and tissue before the surgery. She wanted me to go back to get a blood draw asap to see if my hcg was dropping. She said if it dropped by a lot then we can assume everything is going in the right direction.
I went back to the hospital that afternoon for the blood draw. Both of my arms were very sore and had bruises due to IV/many pokes from the day before. I had to extend my right arm "upward" to push a vein up from my upper arm so the nurse could draw blood from a less-bruised area. The result got posted on kp.org within an hour. My pre-surgery hcg was 6847, Friday's hcg was just 883. A nurse called me and told me the result and asked me to go back on Monday to repeat the blood draw. Dr. Lim called back Friday evening and told me that it's a very good sign that it had a huge drop.
The post-surgery bleeding is still here. It's day 5 after the surgery, and I still have some bleeding but it's very minimal. It's more like spotting now. The first two days after the surgery, I had bleeding that saturated about 1/3 to 1/2 of a period pad every 3 hours. I told Dr. Lim about this and she said it's fine. She said she'd be more concerned if it was saturating an entire pad every hour. Dr. Lim has shown much compassion and I'm glad she was my surgeon that day.
The post-surgery pain is surprisingly very easy to manage. I felt absolutely no pain the night of the surgery. That's probably due to all of the different medicines I was under. I slept very well that night. First good night's sleep in several weeks. Friday evening was when I started feeling some pain and pressure whenever I moved. There was more pain on Saturday. I personally think it's probably because my body was weaning off the narcotics so I was feeling more pain. I took Tylenol before bedtime on Friday. For Saturday, I also took it in the afternoon and before bedtime. The pain was almost gone by Sunday. I only felt some "pulling" and a bit of cramp-like pain once. I haven't taken anything since Saturday night.
The only real concern I had was constipation. I didn't have any bowel movements on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The post-surgery care checklist mentioned constipation was a common thing after this type of surgery. I was told if there's no bowel movement within 48 hours after surgery, contact the doctor and I could get some prescription for it. Sunday was the deadline I set for myself. Luckily I was able to poop by Sunday afternoon. So I didn't call.
While the post-surgery pain is near non-existent, I've been getting headaches and my eyes have been very sore from crying. I sometimes wake up screaming and crying like I was re-living that night again. Sometimes I wake up feeling like I'm still in the operation room. I dream about two specific moments almost everyday: (1) the night I was rushed to the hospital, and (2) the moment Dr. Lim was pressing the oxygen mask on me while telling me to take deep breaths.
Yesterday (5/24, Monday), on our anniversary and Duke's birthday, I went back to the hospital for another blood draw. My hcg was down at 187. I felt nauseous as soon as I walked into the hospital. I couldn't help but had images of pre-surgery playing in my head, and nausea lasted for a few hours after I left the building.
Today (Tuesday), a nurse called back to check on me. She also told me the doctor would like me to repeat the blood draw every Monday until the hcg gets down to 0. She asked how I was feeling and asked about my mental health specifically. I told her "I don't know." My voice cracked as I said that. I really don't know. On one hand, I know feeling sad and all kinds of negative feelings is normal after a life event like this. On the other hand, I don't know to what degree, and for how long that this emptiness and constant dreaming about that night is normal. She immediately offered a referral for counseling. I told her I don't know when is a good time to talk with someone, but I think both W and I need it. So she referred me for counseling and we'll go from there.
Comments
Post a Comment