Thursday, October 02, 2014

Post Surgery Update: Week Three

Wow, three weeks have gone by since my surgery. Some days it seems like a lifetime ago and then I laugh and my abdomen hurts and I'm reminded that it wasn't that long ago at all.

I had my post-op appointment with the doctor on Wednesday. It was supposed to be on Tuesday but when we showed up for the appointment the receptionist told me that someone had called the week before to cancel. I told her no, no one called me. She insisted that they did. I showed her my incoming call list on my iPhone and she was very apologetic. Apparently someone thinks they called me, but they clearly did not. Poor Alan. Since I'm still not able to drive very well (I found this out by trying to do it and not feeing so great afterward), he has to be my chauffeur, which means changing his morning schedule to accommodate back-to-back appointments. I'm sure his team loves him.



Anyhow, the pathology report came back on my uterus and Fallopian tubes and I was elated to hear that I did have something wrong with me that was causing all of my pain that led to the surgery in the first place. If you recall, following the surgery my doc indicated she saw no sign of endometriosis when she had me open. This was pretty disappointing to hear because I was clearly having problems and I really hate being a medical conundrum. Well, it turns out the reason there wasn't any visible problems is because I had Adenomyosis.



Basically, all of the endometrial lining that we had assumed had attached itself to my ovaries and appendix had actually lodged itself in the muscle walls of my uterus. See below.



This diagnosis finally explains (1) why the endometriosis wasn't visible, and (2) my terrible, chronic pain.

We also learned that my fibroids were benign and that my fallopian tubes had no trace of cancer, so I've been given the all clear on the that front.

Unfortunately I am suffering from some sort of infection so a dose of antibiotics is coming my way. [note to self: follow up with doc on antibiotics.]

Technically speaking, today I'm almost half way through my disability period. I've come a long way in this time, but not as far as I think my doctor thought I should be. I'm still having a lot of abdominal pain, and my incision hurts like a bugger. I've been trying to lead my life regularly, including a trip out to wine country (more on that later), but everything I do exhausts me and causes pain so ... I'm not sure I'm halfway there. When we're about three weeks out we're going to revisit my recovery to see if I need to extend my leave. Basically, the issues that would keep me from going back to work are: (1) inability to drive, (2) exhaustion from not sleeping through the night due to pain, (3) none of my clothes fitting due to swelly belly, and (4) general pain all day.