Happy 10th Surgery

Friday I celebrated a ridiculous milestone; I was having my 10th surgery in 8.5 years. I am including my 3 C-sections, which were worth the incisions because I got to bring home a baby. The latest surgery was an umbilical hernia repair...the easiest surgery to date. Now I did not have this hernia before my May Hysterectomy, but did after. When I asked my OBGYN how I developed this hernia, she kindly said I didn't take it easy enough while recovering from the Hysterectomy. So looking back, the gardening, vacuuming, and grocery shopping I did right after my surgery in May wasn't a great idea. Apparently I should of listened more to Kyle when he obsessively told me to sit down and relax (damn it, I hate it when Kyle is right).

 So I found myself back in a pre-op bay getting hooked up to blood pressure and O2 monitors. Once again I am stripping and putting on the attractive hospital gown, booties, and hair net. Once again I am telling doctors and anesthesiologists my medication list and ALL the previous surgeries. It is all so familiar that I have no fear or anxiety. It is so familiar I have the same pre-op nurse I did for my May surgery. Judy, a 62 year old mother of 4. All her kids went to college but it took her fourth child 6 years to graduate from Missouri Valley. She recognizes me from my brain/VP shunt history. Luckily everything is running on time, and I am in the OR right at 9:00am. No 4 hour wait in a Jayhawk-infested hellhole this time! As I enter the OR I get a few more nurses mentioning  that I look familiar. Soon I am given oxygen, then the sleeping medicine.

I wake up in recovery, and my belly actually hurts. I tell them it is an 8 out 10 on the pain scale. I had really thought this would be an easy and near painless procedure, but my belly tells me different. After an hour, I am moved to a post op room to recover before heading home. The IV meds they were giving me were not working, so I ask for some oral painkillers. When the nurse, not Judy, goes to give me the pill she begins to freak out because there is a lake of blood on the ground. Meanwhile I begin to feel woozy. She is wrestling my with my sheets and IV to see what had happened. Kyle keeps calling my name and before they ask him to leave he insists to the now 3 nurses that I am going to pass out. Unfortunately, he is pretty good at recognizing the "pre-face out face."

Needless to say he was right, and I wake up to 3 nurses and a doctor shaking me and saying "April, you need to wake up." I guess a cap fell off a IV port and my IV was literally draining me of blood. I felt like some poor sap on True Blood. STAT blood tests showed them I didn't lose too much blood, and I was able to go home shortly after. Scared that this nurse's mistake would keep in the hospital over night, I jumped at the chance to go home.

I have no more surgeries on the horizon and that is such a relief. Now I have to figure out what to do in my surgical patient retirement. And United Health Care won't know what to do as I won't meet my deductible next year.