The 3rd Day

Today was the 3rd day; the notoriously most uncomfortable day following a surgery. It's been a rough couple days.

On Friday morning, we were up at 5:30 am. I gingerly showered and tried as best I could to shave my legs with the cramping and discomfort from the seaweed piercing through my abdomen. My nerves were threatening to break through the surface as I got ready for my surgery. We headed to the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine building in the dark hours of the early morning and pulled up to the surgery parking garage. A nurse buzzed us in and we headed up to the surgery floor. Sitting in the waiting area for a nurse to come get us, my nerves got to my stomach and I had to use the restroom. Great, just what I needed, something else to be paranoid about!

The nurse came and got us and walked us into the surgery prep area. They got me into a hospital gown, hooked me up to the iv, and at 7:30 on the dot, we were heading into the operating room. The last thing I remember was scooting from the gurney to the operating table and that was it. Thank God for anesthesia - I slept peacefully throughout the surgery.

The next thing I remember is waking up in quite a bit of pain in the recovery room. The nurse was bending over me, asking me how my pain was on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being extremely painful). "Seven," was all I could say and I drifted back to sleep. The next time I was woken by the nurse my answer was the same; "It hurts," I told her and then asked her to help me roll over into a fetal position. She gave me more pain meds through my iv a few more times before I started feeling ok. They wouldn't let Andrew come in to see my until my pain was under control so he had to sit in the waiting room by himself during this time. I was pretty uncomfortable, but they gradually sat me up in the hospital bed and then transferred me to a chair. It took me longer than usual to bounce back from this operation. The nurse seemed a little worried about me as I was quite pale and seemed pretty out of it. Anything having to do with my female parts is just super sensitive for me - I really dread these appointments and have felt extremely violated this past week. After what seemed like a long time, I was finally able to get a few crackers and a few sips of Sprite down and started to feel a little better. They gave me 2 Percocet to swallow with my Sprite, got me in a wheel chair and escorted me to our car.

I spent the rest of the day Friday and most of Saturday in bed. My bed is the only place I can rest comfortably. I still have a catheter and balloon in my uterus, filled with saline solution, to make sure my uterine walls don't collapse. Having these foreign objects in there is very uncomfortable. I can't lift anything, can't get Greggy in and out of his crib, or even lift him up onto his changing table to change his diaper.

Today being the 3rd day seems stereotypically rough. I woke up in pain and haven't felt good all day. In addition to the cramps and abdominal pain, I've been having problems going to the bathroom (#2). Ugh - as if to add insult to injury I've had that to deal with today too. I'm really looking forward to the future. I'm looking forward to being done with all this reproductive crap, done with the poking, prodding and doctor's appointments. Done with pregnancy and another c-section. Just done. I want my 2nd baby to be here and be healthy. I want our family of 3 (not counting Angel) to be our family of 4 and I want to be done with everything gynecological! Have I mentioned that it sucks being a woman sometimes?