Well that week was a total blur! I’m 1 week out from my surgery, and I’m actually feeling pretty well. (now everyone knock on wood!!) I didn’t talk too much about the surgery (my nerves were so high about it all), so there may actually be people who don’t know what I’m talking about…so let’s back up.
Anyone who reads my blog knows that I have a chronic illness that is very, very complicated and it has many layers to it. POTS effects everything in my body. It’s easy to just explain it away as a “heart condition” but in actuality it is heart, brain, blood pressure, breathing, sleeping, positional, etc etc etc. There is not a system in my body that isn’t impacted by my dysautonomia. So, being a girl (yes…male readers you know where this is going…) and having a large amount of blood loss on a regular basis was really messing with my body. Everything was off and I was unable to recover. People with POTS have been found to have lower amounts of total blood volume anyway…so imagine losing blood on top of not having enough to start with! Luckily for me my team of doctors decided to suggest, and put their stamp of approval on a (dun dun dunnnn) hysterectomy. Now, a lot of people have said “but you’re too young for that!” or “oh you poor thing” but let me just say, please don’t feel sorry for me. I am done having babies, our family is complete, and if you were living in my body from hell (as I so lovingly refer to it), you’d understand. This is the very best thing that I could have have done. This is a HAPPY thing. I am fortunate that they didn’t have to take my ovaries, so no menopause for this girl…not yet anyway! 🙂 They took out everything else…and I mean everything. Did you know that they recommend taking the tubes out now too? Apparently there is a cancer that can pop up there that is really hard to detect and treat in a timely manner…who knew?! So those puppies are gone too.
So, I went in last Thursday morning at 5:30, I was the first surgery of the day…the best time slot to have! Everyone was wonderful. Everyone reviewed my information from Mass General and adjusted my plan accordingly. I was pumped full of extra saline and potassium to keep my POTS at bay. At one point before surgery I heard my team talking about me in the hallway…”she has POTS, but it’s so well managed!” “I wonder how severe it is? She looks good!” That made me feel pretty good. In fact a week before my surgery at my check up at Mass General we talked about backing OFF of some of my meds because I have been doing so well….but, I’m not one to brag! 😉 Anyway…surgery was a success, everything went exactly as it should have, and I woke up a big groggy bundle of fun. From the sounds of it, I “f*ing loooooved” the nurses, I called my dad and tried to talk to him about my vagina being packed with gauze (lord knows my dad must have been HORRIFIED…and trust me, I am now too…) and I went on a rampage to my mom and husband about someone that I clearly find to be distasteful…we’ll just leave it at that! All in all…I kept the recovery area well entertained.
I had to stay in the hospital overnight so make sure everything was okay. I had to show them I could walk, and pee…those were the two requirements. I had visitors that I vaguely remember, I was hopped on meds for most of the night. They brought flowers (and my in-laws sent me a beautiful bouquet!) and magazines and little stuffed animals, I’m a lucky lady! I just want to say to my husband, my mom, Heather, Tim, Kylie and Audrey…anything you heard come out of my mouth that night is NEVER to be repeated! 😉 …and Tim, delete that voicemail!
I went home the next morning and have been slowly starting to recover. I am able to be up right more, and move around more comfortably. I’m off the medication and I’m trying to keep myself busy. I can feel my body start to decondition from being in bed for those few days. It’s CRAZY how quickly POTS can sneak back in and take over. My tachycardia has been back, and my blood pressure has been bottoming out making me insanely dizzy. Both of those symptoms had been under control for a long time. To combat this I’m just trying to stay up right and retrain my body to get back in line. It’ll be a battle until I’m recovered enough to start walking and really working out again. Every day it’s a fight, but I know I can do this…I’ve done it before and I can do it now.
I would be remiss if I didn’t include that this has been a terribly scary ordeal for me. Surgery is complicated for someone with POTS, and I’m SO SO SO lucky that I woke up without any issues or major long term damages or set backs. I’m hopeful that this will all be worth it and my quality of life will only continue to improve!
I’m out of work for 6 weeks to recover…so wish me luck on finding ways to keep myself busy for that long…maybe some online shopping?!… 🙂
Until next time ❤
choosing happiness in the face of chronic illness 