2nd Surgery & Post op

I've been a bit distant on this blog as so much has been happening since the last post I wrote. In August I had my second surgery for the endometriosis. The days before surgery I was scared/nervous as I knew this time round the surgery would be more complex. I had to be in hospital the day before surgery to start the prep and had to be in the ward by 6pm. On arrival everyone was so lovely and my dad took me down to the shop in the hospital to get something to eat for supper as he knew I was fasting from midnight. I didn't have much of an appetite if I'm honest I was mostly nervous about the surgery and I did snack a bit as I knew I had to keep my strength up. The nurse that looked after me that evening was so kind and I had a chat with her as I was feeling a bit emotional and I told her how fed up I was of fighting this illness. I had to have the bowel prep that night and it was an unpleasant experience. It was so uncomfortable and the pain from it was horrible I didn't manage it for long but the nurse said that was okay. 

I had little sleep before the surgery I was finding it hard to relax and the ward was quite noisy. When I got into a good sleep I was woken by the doctor as she wanted to do my bloods before theatre. I was then told it would be best if I went for a shower and got my stockings and gown on as I was first on the theatre list. The clinical nurse J came in to see me as I'd agreed to take part in a research study. The good thing about the endo nurses is you can actually talk to them and you don't have to hide your feelings from them. I found the chat with J helpful as I felt a bit more relaxed and less nervous at this point. 

Next thing I woke up in recovery. I was given pain relief and antisickness medication through the cannula. It was hard to keep my eyes open and I was in the recovery for about half an hour before going back to the ward. I wasn't in that much pain when I woke it was more an uncomfortable feeling as I was bleeding lightly and I had a catheter in. The nurse was a bit concerned as my heart rate was a bit high so they were doing half hourly obs on me. My throat was a bit painful from the breathing tube which was annoying so I kept drinking water to try and get rid of the scratchy feeling. When I was a bit more with it I had phoned my family just to say that I was okay and out of surgery. My parents came to visit a bit later on I was so out of it they were encouraging me to eat something but I didn't have an appetite at all and can't remember half the things I was saying to them. 

The two consultants and registrar came to see me one at a time. They wanted to see how I was doing and also make sure I fully understood how the surgery went. Dr M had came in and sat down and explained that the endometriosis was deep infiltrating (found deep within the tissue or organ) and was extensive. They managed to shave the endo off my bowel and remove most but had to leave a bit as they would've had to change the surgery to a laparotomy and I would've ended up with a colostomy bag but they wanted to avoid this. They did say that if I was to get anymore pain that further surgery would be needed in the future. I was grateful to them for doing the surgery and hopefully being pain free for longer this time. I was told that they'd shaved near a blood vessel and I had to stay in hospital as they needed to observe me just incase I was to become unwell. I had another two sets of bloods done so they could keep a close eye. That night in the ward the local anaesthetic from the incisions started to stop working and my pain was a bit worse than it had been. The nurses were so helpful and gave me oxycodone as tramadol wasn't as effective. The oxycodone worked within 25-30 minutes and I did feel a bit spaced out and like I was flying but I was more comfortable after that. I managed to get some sleep as I was aiming to mobilise out of bed that morning.

The student nurse helped me get out of bed and sit on my chair for a bit. I took it easy getting up but I felt quite unsteady but when I sat on the chair I began to feel okay again. The doctors said it was okay for the nurse to remove my catheter I was so happy when that came out. I was allowed to shower and I managed this independently. I had staff come in and knock to see if I was managing okay which I was. This was the first time I'd properly seen the incisions I had four this time and they were covered with dressings. I felt a lot better after a shower and my appetite had come back I managed most of my lunch and after ward round I was happy to find out that I was allowed to go home to continue my recovery. I was so looking forward to going home to my own bed and getting a proper good nights sleep as I was exhausted.