Wednesday 4 February 2009

I should have been in hospital today!

Today was my original operation date and this time 2 weeks ago I was in theatre!! I'm so glad the date was brought forward now as instead being on the operating table, I'm feeling almost back to normal. I still have to be careful lifting things or of overstretching/bending but otherwise I'm feeling pretty good!! I had my stitches out yesterday which was a relief as they were really starting to pull.......the incisions seems to be feeling a bit more tender now that they're healing but apparently, that's because the nerve endings are also healing......it's not too bad though.

I'm going back to work on Monday and can't wait. I've really missed my workmates as we do have a laugh in work and they're all really nice. I've also missed doing my job lol as I really enjoy it. I can only do light work for the first week or so, so it'll be the office stuff only but that's ok....it's the part I enjoy the most lol.

I managed to get some crafting done yesterday which was nice because it's been a long time since I've felt up to it. I'm hoping to get more done today as I have a few clocks I need to make for people as gifts.
Although I've really missed work, it's been nice being able to spend more time with Tony and the kids as we're usually all like passing ships in the night lol. I've been able to help Daniel with homework that was part of his Art exam, help Tony with some of the paperwork for his business and been going along to Hayleigh's majorette classes with her which was good because I got to sit and have a coffee and a chat with the other mums. I've also been able to spend more time with my friend and she's been so great while I was still feeling rough, offering to take me anywhere I needed to go and picking up anything I needed......I'd have been lost without her.

Well, I'm off to do some crafting and a bit of housework (nothing too heavy of course lol) then I need to get ready to take Hayleigh to her majorette class tonight, I think I'll miss going there when I'm back in work lol.

Bye for now xxx

Friday 30 January 2009

My week since surgery ....part 2!

I wrote so much on my last post that I had to cut it short (if you could call that short lol) so here's the rest.........



I was discharged from the hospital at around 2pm on Thursday (22nd Jan). My mum came in at about 11am and sat with me until my dad and Tony came to drive me home. The drive was pretty uncomfortable, I had to be careful how I put the seatbealt on but I didn't wanna chance not wearing it. For the first few days I was really sore and in quite a bit of pain, I was also VERY swollen, I couldn't even put my own socks on lol. Things have a got a bit easier each day since then and on Sunday (25th Jan) my dad came and collected me and I went to their house for the afternoon and had one of my mum's lovely roast dinners! I needed that because I hadn't really eaten much since I got home, just snacks really.......I even had a glass of wine :))



On Tuesday (27th Jan) I felt alot better when I got up in the morning so decided to have a walk to the local shops, it was supposed to be just for ciggies but I started remembering other things we needed while I was there. Anyways, I ended buying too much and by the time I got halfway home carrying the bags, I was in a lot of pain.........I soon realised why they tell you to take things easy lol. I also learned the hard way that just because you feel like you can do something, doesn't mean you can lol. Since then I've stayed home and rested like I'm supposed to :)

On Thursday I went to see my own Doctor so he could check that everything's healing ok and he said that it is!! He didn't wanna take the stictches out yet so I have to go back next week to have those out. I was hoping that he'd let me go back to work this next Monday but he said it's too soon yet and wants me have at least another week then hopefully I can go back and just do light work.

Well it's now Saturday.......10 days since the operation and I'm feeling alot better, still quite sore and still having some pain but it's bearable and that's great considering I had to be dosed up on strong painkillers just to get through the day before. I'm sleeping a million times better too, before the op I never got a full nights sleep...ever, because I had to get up to take painkillers in the night. I'm planning on spending today doing some crafting....something I haven't done for a long time as I just didn't feel up to it.

Well I'm not gonna make this post as long and as boring as the last one lol so I'm off to start my crafting, I might post some of the results in the next few days......depends how much I manage to get done :)

Bye for now xxxxx

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Sorry this is so late but......my week since surgery!

Well I went into the Royal Liverpool Women's Hospital on Wednesday 21st January......2 weeks ahead of my original date (4th Feb) and had my operation to remove Endometriosis. I had to do a bowel prep on the Tuesday evening (that was fun....NOT lol) so couldn't eat anything after 4pm and could only have clear liquids to drink. I had to drink almost 5 litres of fluids in 6 hours which wasn't nice at all and made me feel really sick and the prep solution was awful...yuk!!


I got to the hospital at 11am, just on time lol only to find out that there were no beds available on the ward I was supposed to be admitted to so I was taken onto the day ward and told it wasn't worth unpacking as I wouldn't be here long! I was told to change into a gown and get into bed to wait for the doctor to come and see me. She showed up at about 11.45, asked loads of questions then measured me for those lovely compression stockings....nice! haha
She said she'd see me in theatre shortly as I was first on the list for the afternoon surgeries. I tried to read for a bit but ended up dropping off to sleep as I was so tired from not sleeping much the night before. Next thing I knew it was 12.30 and the nurse was waking me up saying they were ready for me....arghhhh!! She checked all my details (and my lovely stockings) then we walked down to theatre where I had wait until they were ready. It must have been about 20 mins before the surgeon came to get me but it felt like hours lol.....I was so nervous!!
They wheeled me down to the operating room (well, a room just outside of it....I never actually saw the operating room) and the doctor in there was making fun of me saying I wasn't very talkative.....I told him "well i'm sorry but I tend to go quiet when I'm scared!!"
I don't know what it was that he gave me before the actual anesthetic but it was great.....made me feel drunk lol! Then I remember him putting this huge needle full of the white anesthetic stuff into my IV then he injected about a quarter of it and left the syringe sticking out of my hand.... I remeber thinking "why didn't he put it all in?".........next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery lol.
I had a massive panic attack as I woke up....something that hasn't happened to me for a long time... I supppose the lack of sleep and overthinking all night caused that lol but it wasn't nice at all. Once I calmed down I started complaining that my nose was insanely itchy.......the nurse said it was because I'd been given alot of morphine.......so that would also explain why I felt no pain whatsoever.......just mushy headed and comfortable lol.
I was taken back to the ward where I fell right back to sleep and slept on and off for what seemed like hours but couldn't have been that long really as I was apparently moved to another room at 6pm. I vaguely (sp) remember being moved then waking up and wondering how long it was to visiting time as I knew Tony was coming in with my mum. When they finally got there it was about 7.15 and apparently my mum had called the hospital and been told I was still sleeping so they came a bit later (visiting was from 6.30). I tried to wake myself up a bit once they got there but I was feeling quite sleepy and was still on oxygen (which was driving me nuts as my nose was still itching like crazy and I couldn't get to it because of the mask). I think it was about 8.15 when I finally felt like I could sit up and have a conversation with them (my daughter Hayleigh was with them too) and they were all laughing at me because they said I was talking rubbish lol. Before they left at about 9.15 my mum helped me to get up and go to the toilet (with my IV stand in tow) which was like a military operation but probably quite funny lol. I also had a wash to try and wake myself up a bit but I couldn't get changed into my own PJ's because of the IV.
At about 10.30pm the nurse came in and removed the IV and brought me a cup of tea and a sandwich, she also took off the oxygen and right away I asked if I could go for a ciggie lol but she said not yet. I think in the end it was about 11pm when they let me go out and have one but I ended up regretting it as it made me really light headed and sick. After that I fell back asleep for a while and when I woke up my stomach was huge on the left side and the incision was bleeding quite a bit. The nurse had a look and said they needed to get the doctor to look as they were worried I could have internal bleeding, my tummy was also quite hard on that side. The doctor was busy with emergencies and they said it could be quite a while before she could get to me and that if I was alseep she wouldn't wake me up and I 'd have to wait.......nice! I now had to force myself to stay awake and ended up going out ofr a few more ciggies while I waited, I was also brought several more cups of tea and each time the nurse stayed to chat.....they were so lovely!!

The doctor eventually showed up at 2.30am, checked my stomach and said it wasn't internal bleeding as my tummy was now soft but that most of the work had been done on the left side and thats why it was so swollen. She changed the dressing on that side which had by now stopped bleeding and I was able to get some sleep.

While I was having my breakfast the next morning, my consultant came to see me to tell me what he'd found and what his plans were for further treatment etc.......here's what he told me:

* My endo was at stage 4 and was more extensive on the left side.

* My womb was tilted in the wrong direction and completely fixed in place with adhesions

* I had extensive endo on the ligaments supporting my womb and also adhesions around those too.

* I had pretty severe endo in my pouch of douglas, on my bowel and on my bladder and urethers (sp?)

* My left ovary was twisted and stuck down which explained the severe pain I'd been having in the weeks before surgery.

* There were 2 small cysts on my right ovary which were removed.

* They changed my Mirena coil during the surgery

* I was in theatre for 4 and half hours....yikes!

He said that he managed to remove all of the endo that he could see which was great news as last time they could only get 80% of it. The bad news was that he wanted me to do another 6 month course of Prostap injections which I'm really not happy about but at this point, and after all he told me.....I'm willing to try anything that will give me a longer break from that horrible, crippling pain. I had the first injection before I left hospital and was prescribed Livial to help with the hot flushes etc that come with the Prostap.

Well I think I've waffled on more than enough for today lol so will post more tomorow about how the rest of the week has been since I came home on Thursday.

Bye for now and if you made it this far thanks for being interested enough to read it all lol

~Big Hugs~ xxxxxxx

Saturday 17 January 2009

Pre-Op over with!

Well, I had my pre-op appointment yesterday and everything went ok so now it's just a case of getting through the next few days until I go in. I'll be admitted at 11am on Wednesday then will have my operation at about 12.30 - 1pm, I feel a bit better over it all now after talking to the nurse and having alot of questions answered, but still pretty nervous.

I'm not feeling to great today and I'm in quite a bit of pain.......I got different painkillers from the doctor a week or so ago which seemed to be working better. They're the same brand and strength but they seem to work quicker because they're soluable (sp) ones so I've had a a good week or so of actually feeling almost normal but today it's all back a vengance :(

I'm supposed to be going out tonight to my workmates 21st Birthday but I'll have see how the day goes first as I'm off to work soon and have a busy 4 hour shift to get through. If I do manage to get there I won't be staying late.

Anyways, I better get this shift over with....bye for now xxxx

Tuesday 13 January 2009

New operation date!!!!

I had a call from the hospital today and my date has been brought forward to 21st January!!!!! I'm releived to get it all over with sooner but scared to death now lol, there's so much I need to do before then so I can rest properly afterwards. I have to go for my pre-op this Friday 16th Jan then I finish work on Monday 19th, luckily my manager was great about changing everything at such short notice. I just hope this one works better than the last and I get longer out of it.

Sunday 11 January 2009

Well not much has happened in the last week really worth writing about. I've been working all week and today was my day off which started with a nice lie in until 11.30am lol. Once I got up and got myself ready, we went to my Mum & Dad's for dinner. I had a couple of glasses of wine with dinner but not too much as I'm taking painkillers, then after dinner we played on the Wii which was hilarious. We hooked up 4 controllers and had competitions on Carnival Games.....of course the kids kicked our asses lol.

Just 3 weeks and 2 days to go before I go in to hospital for my operation and I've got alot to do before then. I need to give my craft room a good sorting out because I'll be spending alot of time in here while I'm off work and at the moment I can't even find the floor ;o) We've managed to get the hallway in the house decorated (well nearly) and I need to spring clean early as I need the house gleaming so I'm not tempted to start cleaning up when I supposed to be resting. I've bought myself a stack of books and magazines for when I come home (some for the hospital too) and a load of crossword books so I should be able to keep pretty occupied. I've booked the last of my holidays from work to tie in with my time off so I'll get more time paid as most of it will be unpaid :( I've given up hoping for an earlier date now and have resigned myself to 4th feb date....at least I'll have time to prepare!

Hopefully the next time I post I'll have something more interesting to say lol, see you soon xxxxx

Sunday 4 January 2009

Hello and welcome!!

Hello and welcome! Hi everyone and welcome to my blog. I've been thinking about doing one for a while but wasn't sure I'd have enough interesting stuff to post, but maybe now I will :)) I don't think I'll be giving to too many people the addy to start with lol so if you're here you must be one of my privilaged few haha!!

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas and wish you all the best for the new year. Personally, I'm glad to see the back of 2008 as it really wasn't a good year for us. Tony has come very close to losing his business a few times and we're now waiting on news that will either save it or push him into finishing it.....fingers crossed for us please lol. If the news is bad, it could also mean me having to give up the job I love as I would need to look for full time work.......fingers crossed again (has everyone got enough fingers?) haha!

So here's what I've got lined up for this year that will hopefully make it better than the last one lol.

The news we're waiting on over Tony's business is that he's put in a bid for a contract that will give them approx. 3 years guaranteed work on a pretty decent wage too :)

In just over 4 weeks I'll be going into hospital for an op to remove Endometriosis. I'm hoping it will be the last but I doubt it will and for some reason I'm really scared this time (this will be the 7th one) probably because my doc has scared me by telling me it will be the biggest and most complicated one lol. I'm on the list for an earlier date if there's a cancellation which would be great but I ain't holding my breath! (Any fingers left? lol) I'm hoping this will be one of the good things as once I get over the op, it should make things alot easier for me for a while, and the longer the better!

I've been asked to run a support group for Endometriosis as there isn't one in my area so I'm waiting for news on when I can get started. At the moment the charity are looking for a venue and getting together a list of names of women that are interested (apparently there's alot!) so I'm hoping to be up and running somewhere around March/April. I'll also be getting involved with raising funds and awareness for the charity (Endometriosis UK)

We're hoping to travel to the USA sometime in the summer to visit my friend Jeanne and her family. We didn't make it last year because of the problems with Tony's business so I'm really hoping we can pull it off this year. I love it over there and we always have a brilliant time.......I think I need to start crossing my toes now lol.

Another goal we have is to get the work on our house finished. It seems like it's been going on for years (probably because it has :o) lol) so all being well by this time next year the whole lot will be done.

So............ with all this coming up this year, I should have plenty to write about.........watch this space :))