Surgery

And, so, part of the reason that Joe and I could not take our usual July trip is because on July 23rd, I had a hysterectomy. The surgery was scheduled in April, but at that time, the first they could get me in was June. Guilt overwhelmed me at the prospect of being gone for a quarter-end, so I had them push it out to July. Sigh...

Without going into too much detail (TMI!), I will just say that I have always had my challenges as a woman. But, the last few years things had gotten worse and part of that was contributed to the fact that I had fibroids. I asked my doctor last year about a hysterectomy, but it seemed kind of "unnatural" and so I didn't do it. But, after another year, I had finally had enough!

The procedure, itself, was not bad. They do it without even making an incision on the outside at all. When I woke up in recovery, I had a bit of pain - like cramps - but other than being uncomfortable for a few hours, I really didn't have much trouble. I did have to spend the night in the hospital, which was fine. Joe stayed with me, so I don't think he got a ton of sleep, but neither did I.

I came home on Thursday after walking around the floor at the hospital and going to the bathroom on my own. My worst day, by far, was Friday. I felt somewhat nauseous and I had a lot of pain in my back. I spent the entire day sleeping.

I did my best to follow the doctor's orders as closely as I could. I rested, I walked when he said I should, and I didn't drive for 3 weeks. My first drive was back to the doctor for a check-up. I think I had a mild infection because he gave me antibiotic cream and I had some symptoms of an infection (although I never felt bad). The cream was somewhat worse than the infection, but I powered through it all and by the 5th, 6th, and 7th weeks of my leave, I was feeling pretty good.

I did quite a bit of reading and also that was when I really started catching up on my pictures and blog. The last couple of weeks, I even did some scrapbooking. But as they say, all good things must come to an end and so on September 8th I went back to work.