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Hello, and THANK YOU SO MUCH for your kind words regarding my surgery!!! I survived the process and got to come home on Thursday evening. The recovery has been rough, but each day gets a little better.

Tuesday is a vague memory. I remember being in pre-op and talking to the doctors, including having a breakdown during their attempt to get blood out of my left hand. They couldn't get my veins to cooperate, and the intense pain of the nurse rooting around trying to catch the vein combined with the overall stress I was under was too much. I burst into hysterical tears and freaked everyone out. I feel terrible about that now!! Shortly thereafter, I was off to the OR, and I recall them putting a board under my arm and the anesthesiologist saying, "I'm going to give you something to make you a little sleepy." Next are flashes of memory of someone calling my name and asking for my pain level and if I wanted my family yet. All I could say were "Five" and "Not yet." Seriously...how weird is that??? The surgery was over at 9:15 I'm told, and I wasn't able to have them bring DH back to the recovery room until sometime around 10:30.

I vaguely remember going to my room, but I wasn't even remotely coherent until around 3:00 that afternoon, which was the first time I was able to form a sentence. I intentionally stopped my morphine for about an hour and a half so I could wake up enough to call my kids and assure them I was okay. I didn't see them that evening, which is fine, because I barely remember anything else. I do know about 9:30, they had me sit up in bed for awhile, which was nice. After that, though, the gas pain kicked in, and that was the worst pain of my LIFE!!! I had heard the gas they use during surgery will cause pain, but MAN!! At one point, I couldn't even breathe because the pain was so intense. And they give you nothing for it! I barely slept that night because of the pain. Wednesday was just as bad until late that afternoon, when it began to ease up. Wow, it was a rough time of it, though!

I got to see the kids Wednesday evening, and that was a bright spot in the stay. After that, they allowed me to take my first shower since surgery and changed my pain medication. So that night I was pretty happy. :-) I was released on Thursday, but had to stay until DH was off work to pick me up. I'm still getting around VERY slowly and am constantly tired (but that might also have to do with the fact that I lost a lot of blood in surgery and am severely anemic, with my hemoglobin sitting around 8!), but doing okay. I ran a fever last night, which scared everyone, but it broke around 12:30 am and hasn't come back, yet, anyway.

I go to the dr. on Monday to have the staples removed, but that's about the only outing I will have for a couple of weeks. I'd like to make it to the PTA meeting on Tuesday night, but I doubt that happens. We'll see, and I'll also ask the doc if I'm feeling up to it.

I don't think the reality of the surgery has hit me yet, as I don't even think of it as a hysterectomy, but as surgery. Once that hits me, I suspect I'm going to cry for awhile. Right now, I'm not going to think about it. I laughed yesterday and thought I was going to split myself in half!!

So...thanks again for the happy thoughts. They were sooooooo appreciated!!! And I will keep you posted on my recovery. Hopefully it will all go well. Have a great weekend!!!!