I had panicked and recorded voice notes for my husband and children just in case. I had gone through the children's education and how to submit their work knowing I would be unable to do it post op for a little while and my husband would need to keep on top of that. I had gone through how our finances work again so he could keep up with that too.
Going in for the operation I was convinced it woukd be cancelled. In my head it wasn't going to happen. Even as the nurse put my gown and stocking on me and the team of doctors and anaesthetist spoke to me about the procedure, checked I was having my cervix and ovaries out and got me to sign the consent form, I was sure it woukd still be cancelled.
The porter turned up to the me to anaesthetics and the operating theatre, in my head it still wasn't happening.
Then they put a canula needle in the back of my hand as I lay on the operating bed in the anaesthesia room. An oxygen mask was put on my face and someone pinched my neck. Then the anaesthetist pushed a liquid into my canula and I don't remember anything else.
I woke up to someone telling me to stop pulling my catheter out. I was shaking uncontrollably but not cold and was lying on my side in a hospital bed with a nurse next to me. I had a catheter strapped to my leg, nasal oxygen, a maternity pad stuffed between my legs, a huge belly and a machine squeezing my lower legs. The nurse was checking my blood pressure, temperature and pulse regularly and offered me pain relief but I was OK. This went on a little until the shaking stopped. Then I waited an hour for space on the post op ward.
On the ward the nurses checked my observations vitals regularly but I developed a temperature. First they took blankets off me, then added a fan, then the doctor came and I was given blood tests and a blood gas and put on IV antibiotics. I also had a bee sting injection in my leg to stop blood clots. I was being told to drink lots so went through two jugs of water and a jelly I had brought in. My throat was sore so I was glad to have some boiled mint sweets to help with that. My belly was extremely bloated. The fluorescent strip lights started to give me a migraine so I put my sun glasses on and asked if they could pull my curtains around. They did for a little while but then someone else opened them. I had to keep the nasal oxygen on because my sats dropped too low when they took it away.
I had bad period cramp pain so had IV paracetamol in the evening. Then at night I had more paracetamol tablets for the pain and discomfort. Overnight I started farming which was a relief with the terrible bloating. Apparently to do a laparoscopy they inflate your abdomen with gas. Then they leave the gas in there. So it has to come out.
My migraine got really bad but my eye mask, ear buds and the paracetamol helped.
In the morning the catheter was taken out, the leg squeezes stopped and I needed a wee. I didn't have my wheelchair so had to ask a nurse to get it for me. They took ages so I had to ask again. When they brought it and parked it at the foot end of my bed I honestly didn't know how I was going to get to it. It felt so far and my belly was so bloated, I needed a wee, I had pain and noone was there to help me. I knew I shouldn't be lifting anything heavy but I had no choice but to lift myself to move down the bed without flashing anyone and then lift myself into my wheelchair. In the bathroom I had to lift myself on and off the toilet, made more tricky with them wanting me to put a cardboard bowl into the toilet and pee in that so they could measure it. For the first day or so I was weeing bloody coloured wee. That stopped then and it went back to normal.
I was allowed to go hone because I had farted, my temperature had come down a bit, I had peed enough and I had my injections to have nightly for a week, my antibiotics and my paracetamol for pain relief.
The journey hone was horrific. The pot holes and speed bumps were all magnified by the position of my wheelchair over the rear axle and my bloated belly. I held myself as still as possible with my arms braced on each edge of the car. The seatbelt was up near my chest well away from my belly.
I had little energy and slept a lot for the first week. I had a shower with the help of my carer the day after being home. She took the wound dressings off for me and we discovered I had reacted to the tape used and had some blistering around them. Every movement made my belly hurt. It was so uncomfortable.
Over about 4 days the bloating wore off but then the antibiotics made me sick. That wore off on day 11 post surgery. Then I was recovering from being sick and the operation. With chronic illnesses that is a lot.
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