Full surgery story

I'm still in plenty of pain, but nothing that I haven't had before with csections.

I woke up very early Tuesday morning with a little girl that couldn't go to sleep. So dh got up with her and went and helped her lay down. He stayed there for a while and came back to sleep around 2am. I was half awake and a little while later, I felt a really funny feeling in my chest area and lungs. I couldn't breathe right and didn't know if it was some weird anxiety thing or if it was indigestion or something like that. So I sat up and it slowed down so I tried to lay down again. It came back and it was worse. It was at the base of my ribs, just underneath the tip of them. I didn't know if it was my heart or what. I couldn't talk without wheezing and naturally when I told the doctor on the nurseline for my doctor's office, they said to immediately go in to the ER. My inlaws came over and stayed while dh drove me to Vancouver to SWMC. Adventist is down the street but we haven't felt completely comfortable there before. Honestly, it was closer to my family and if anything was wrong, I'd rather be closer to them. I was feeling fine and kind of bothered that Jason wouldn't let me drive myself there. I felt like a big fraud and had nothing wrong with me since the pain went away.

We got to the ER around 3am and soon enough I was back in a room. They tried to stick me with a needle to get bloodwork and the first time, the vein slipped away and digging for it didn't seem to help. Same with the second time. The third time they did it in my hand and that hurt like nothing else. So much burning! Anyways, they got their blood after digging in my hand for it like the other two times. I ended up having to be taken for a chest xray, ultrasound, and more bloodwork.

I was joking with them that I knew it was for nothing and probably just an anxiety attack. They said they wanted to be careful and not miss anything. Guess having cancer before makes my doctors cautious. They don't want to miss a thing. Dr. Shotness came in and told me it could be gallstones and possibly my gallbladder was inflamed. My pancreas enzymes were elevated but my liver was fine. The surgeon was on the fence about me doing it that day. But Jason and I both agreed that since he was on vacation, C was on sprink break, that it was a good time to do it. So they immediately found me a bed upstairs and within an hour, I was admitted to have my gallbladder taken out.

It was a nice cozy little room in a remolded area of the hospital and thank heavens, it was all to myself. I didn't know when my surgery was going to happen, it depended on the surgeon's schedule. He came up and visited with me and said he would fit me in when he could and it probably wouldn't happen till late afternoon or evening. Bishop Peacock was working in Vancouver, so we snagged him on lunch break and he came and helped give me a blessing.

Around 12:30pm or so, we get word that they had an open spot on the schedule and would take me in. I was so pleased! I was bored, starving, and I hated waiting. Turns out another surgeon had some free time and would do the surgery instead of Dr. Dally like we thought. Worked out even better, it was Dr. Kilway, the surgeon who diagnosed me with cancer and did my mastectomy. I was happy to see him and he answered every question Jason and I had about the surgery. I remember getting some calming down drugs before going into the OR because I knew my anxiety level was through the roof. That helped a lot. I got in the OR around 1:20pm and I didn't remember anything else until I woke up in recovery. It was hard to swallow then, like my throat was paralyzed halfway. Normal stuff.

Usually I struggle to keep my eyes open after waking up. After about 15 minutes, I was much better and could work to keep them from dropping all the time like before. I could feel that it was an easier recovery. Jason was waiting for me in my room and he stayed with me for awhile after that. So I was grateful for that. I was worried about the girls, but in the morning time when I was waiting for a room upstairs, he had gone home and taken the girls and his mom to her house so that they were taken care of all day.

Holy crap, I'm starting to hurt. I'm off to lay down.