I had my pre-op on September 8 with Dr. Greene from Group Health. He's the same doctor that went out of his way to get a second concurring opinion to get my surgery approved. He had me sign a bunch of consent forms, and gave me a brief run-down on how the surgery would work. He also informed me that he would be my surgeon, which I suspected anyway. From there I went to St. Joseph Medical Center, where the surgery would be performed, and had a pre-screening with an RN. Aside from being absolutely nuts (but in a good way), she went over what to expect while in the hospital, how I'd probably feel coming out of surgery, etc. The attitudes of the people I dealt with put me at ease. Everyone was super friendly, very informative, and willing to answer any questions I had.
September 15 at 6:30 in the morning I checked in at St. Joe's, and was taken into the pre-op room. My mom and my wife were allowed to go back with me, but I was only allowed to have 2 people at a time in with me. I had quite the group with me. My mom, my wife, her mother, and our 12-year-old. I got to put on one of those dreaded gowns, and lay on a gurney watching TV while I had my vital signs taken, verified my signature on all the forms I'd signed the week before, and wait for the anesthesiologist. There was some dispute over the surgery itself, and we had the doctor come in to talk about it. After some discussion both with the doctor and among ourselves, we decided that only the uterus would be removed, and the ovaries and tubes would remain intact. The doctor's reasoning behind this was that I "didn't mind" the extra testosterone being produced by the cysts on my ovaries, and he didn't see any reason to make me menopausal and have to be prescribed hormones. I kind of think he's a little more on the ball than I gave him credit for. After he left, the anesthesiologist came in, explained briefly who he was and what he was doing, and started my IV. It took him 2 tries, but he found a good vein in the back of my left hand. A bag of saline was hung, and shortly after that they began to wheel me towards the OR. Somewhere along the way the anesthesiologist injected the nighty-night stuff into my IV, and I don't really remember much after that. I have a brief memory of the doctor asking if I was ready, and me saying "I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Deville," followed by a brief conversation as to what movie that was from and who said it, which I couldn't remember. The next thing I know, I'm waking up in the recovery room.
When I came to, the doctor was standing next to me, and said they'd all agreed that that line was from "Sunset Boulevard," that everything went well, and they were working on getting me a room. My throat was pretty raspy, and I had cotton mouth like you wouldn't believe. I asked a nurse if they had a throat lozenge or something, and she found a hard candy for me to suck on to try and ease the dryness in my mouth and throat. I drifted in and out of consciousness, catching snippets of conversation between the nurses and the floor they were trying to send me to. Eventually I was wheeled up to a room, and they had me switch from the gurney to the actual hospital bed. I guess I did it too fast, because I had a HUGE wave of nausea wash over me, but it passed quickly. My IV was attatched to one of those electronic metering devices, and another nurse came in to install the morphine dispenser. It was set to where I could hit the button every 8 minutes, but in all honesty I only used it maybe 3 times an hour. For the first 24 hours I did a LOT of napping. Kind of a case of awake an hour, asleep an hour. I was kept on a clear liquid diet, but that night my wife had someone bring her dinner, and I ate some of that with no problems, and by the time everyone left that night I was drinking black coffee with no problems either. The nurses had me get up and take my first walk around the unit at 8 that night, which I had no problems with either. The worst part was the catheter. Those things are damned uncomfortable. Nevermind the fact that they wanted me to keep sitting up (which put far too much pressure on that blasted tube) and cough to help clear out my lungs. Thank God they took that thing out at 6 the next morning, along with the packing they'd stuffed into my vagina. They also removed my morphine dispenser and IV bag (although they left the needle itself in), and I was encouraged to walk about and use the restroom on my own. They brought me another clear liquid tray for breakfast, but when I asked for some fruit and coffee decided to change my diet for lunch. The rest of the morning was pretty much the same routine of napping and having my vitals taken. Shortly before lunch I was visited by the doctor again, who said I was doing well enough to go home that afternoon. The nurses gave me permission to get dressed, and my lunch showed up. I've never been so happy to see a grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of tomato soup in my life. Man cannot live by broth alone! I called home to get my ride over there to deliver me from the land of sterilization, and a nurse brought me the release forms to sign. My ride showed up about 1, and they wheeled me down to the car in a wheel chair, and away we went.
The first day or two at home I was still pretty groggy, and took quite a few naps. But at least I was able to do so in my own home, and have a goddamn cigarette when I woke up. I really didn't have much pain at all. It was mostly a cramping sensation. I also didn't have any bleeding worth speaking of. I didn't have any real trouble getting around, and was able to go up and down the stairs and get myself food and drink pretty much at will.
At this point, a week post-op, I really don't have any pain any longer. If I move too fast, or in the wrong direction, I'll get a "hey stupid, don't do that" twinge, but that's it. I've been doing a whole lot of nothing, so I'm not dealing with a whole lot of fatigue either. My sleep schedule has sorted itself back out, and I'm sleeping and waking normally. I haven't taken any pain pills since about the second or third day home, and haven't felt the need for them. In fact, I still haven't filled the prescriptions I was given when I was released. I was prescribed percocet, naproxen, and a stool softener, but haven't felt the need for any of them, although I did take a few of my wife's percocet the first couple of days. I will be filling the prescription just to replace the percocet I took, but aside from that I'm doing great. I had far less pain and discomfort than I expected, and I don't feel anywhere near as tired or run down as I thought I would. I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that all I had removed was my uterus, so there were no abdominal incisions for a laproscope. But all in all, I'd say it was a pretty easy experience, and I'd do it again in a second.