Post-Op Update

I meant to update you the day after surgery with how it went and how my day in hospital was. However, I found that I couldn’t get my head around how I felt or what I was going to do because of what the surgeon found.

I’ll start with my day in hospital and we’ll go from there. I had to arrive at the hospital at 7 am which in itself was a task having not worked for over a month, but we made it. I was taken up to a lovely private room with it’s own telly and an en -suite. After a while two nurses came to do a couple of checks and take my bloods again. A little bit after that the surgeon and the anesthetist came to see me to get me to sign disclaimers and check my allergies. I was told I would be going into surgery about at about 9.30 am and by this time it was probably only 7.45 am so I had quite a while to wait so I just chilled and read my book until they came to get me. I had my name and date of birth checked so many times its a miracle they didn’t know it off by heart. I then went down to the anesthetic room and was prepared for surgery. I had a cannula put in my hand and oxygen which made me woozy and then they put me under.

When I woke up there was a few nurses around me as it had taken them a while to wake me up and they couldn’t get my blood pressure stabilised but this was sorted very quickly. I then asked a nurse if the surgeon had found any Endometriosis and she said no. To be completely honest with you, I burst into tears. This was my worst case scenario. I knew that if i had endometriosis I could get treatment and the right medications but all of that has gone out the window now. I went back up to my room and I was still in bits. All the nurses were lovely and so supportive, one even told me her daughter had it but it had only been found on a second laparoscopy. I had some lunch and dosed for a while and then I was told I could go home soon which I got excited about and phoned my family because I needed support and couldn’t wait to see them. They then came and told me that actually I would have to wait around until I had seen my surgeon which took about an hour. When he came to see me I was still upset that nothing had been found. He told me had had found a few adhesions (scarring) on my colon but no Endometriosis. I asked him what the pain was from and he said he didn’t know and that now I have had surgery it may just go. I asked him if there was anything else I could do to work out what it was and he just said to speak to my GP. After he had spoken to me I was even more upset and angry because I felt like now they’ve done the surgery they are done with me because I may not fit into their department anymore.

By the time i’d got home that day i felt mentally numb and like I didn’t know where to turn and to an extent i still don’t. I have since spoken to my GP and they have told me keep tricycling and see what happens, they also said they can’t diagnose me over the phone which of course I understand but they also aren’t seeing any patients at all so I feel like there is nothing else I can do. I can’t afford to keep going privately to different departments and i also don’t know which department i should be in touch with. I’ve spoken to a few different people and some suggest it could be hormonal or my nervous system. I just feel like I don’t know where to start. It also pushes me to get back into work but without a diagnosis I can’t get any special arrangements for me or get an employer to understand what i’m going through.

Pain wise, I am still getting the same pains on top of the soreness from my surgery. Today is the first day I have put anything other than pyjamas on but i’m slowly starting to feel a little better but no better than I did pre-surgery. If anyone has any suggestions on where I should go next or anything to do to try and ease the pain other than painkillers please let me know.

Thanks for listening.

Grace x