As many of you know, yesterday was the day I went in to get my tubes "tied". I didn't sleep well the night before; my anxiety levels were high. I'd never been put under anesthesia before, and I was worried about it going wrong.
Both of my parents accompanied me to the hospital and waited with me until a nurse called me back to get me ready. When the nurse had checked my vitals, inserted my IV and had me undress and redress, my mom came back and sat with me. I had an incredibly wonderful and personable nurse, for which I was grateful. Having my parents come with me greatly decreased my stress levels.
My surgeon came by and once again gave me all the warnings he's required to give and asked me if I was sure I still wanted to go through with it. I said that I was and then I asked if it would be possible for him to take some pictures of my guts while I was unconscious, because I love guts. He totally didn't even hesitate when he said he'd make sure to do that. I almost cried I was so excited. GUTS!
Everything happened as efficiently and promptly as they'd promised, which I definitely didn't expect. Hospitals tend to be notorious for having people wait due to a high traffic volume of patients.
Surgery itself I obviously can't tell you much about, since I was asleep for all of it. I remember the staff chatting with me and telling me exactly what they were about to do. I remember the first medicine administered through my IV to make me start relaxing. I remember an oxygen mask, and that was that.
The first thing I asked when I woke up was, "Did I pee?" (I'd been very concerned that I might do that and how embarrassing it would be.) Then I rolled over slightly and tried to throw up (probably due to the nausea and the tube they'd just removed from my throat.) Lastly, I said, "No more miscarriages ever," cried a little, and passed out again. I don't know if this is a normal thing for people coming out of anesthesia, but no one said anything.
I spent the rest of yesterday drifting in and out of sleep at my parent's house and making sure not to rip the gauze off the two incision sites. I'm still pretty groggy, light headed, and disoriented today, but I'm overall quite pleased with how everything went.
Originally I was going to use this second blog as a way of further explaining my choice, but I've decided it's not necessary. The majority of my friends and family have given me their support, even if they don't fully understand. I think that's the best I can ask for, and I realize that it's been mostly just a difficult concept for a lot of people to grasp. It's unconventional, which coincidentally is the one word that I find best describes me.
After all is said and done, I'm so grateful to all of you who prayed for me or sent me good vibes and texts. I'm humbled to have received so many messages from women who felt my story was something they could relate to.
Lastly, I think I should clarify that "fallopianologist" isn't actually a word. I just made it up and liked the sound of it. Sorry if I confused anyone. :)
ALSO I GOT TO SEE MY GUTS!
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It's a scary process going in and out of anesthesia. Much like flying the scary bits for the passenger (or patient) is the start and end. While the pilot (doc) have to be ready for every possible thing.
ReplyDeleteGUTS! Almost a year later and everything is exactly where they should be :)