All Scraped: The Play-by-Play

Yay, it's over!
Beware, it's long and there's lots of surgery-related detail below.

After my last post, I hung around at home for a little bit, changed out of my pajamas into some other pajamas (heh), and we went to the surgery center at about 8:30. I signed a bunch of paperwork and paid the part that insurance won't cover. And then I sat down in the waiting room for a bit.

Because I was the second case, I didn't have to wait in the lobby for very long. I just had time to try to pee a little (still don't know why I was so worried about a catheter!) and sit for a minute, and then I was called back to a big room with little alcoves along the walls with beds in them. Cory stayed in the waiting room while I changed into the giant paper gown (no lucky socks, but they were in my bag under my bed the whole time so they still count) and they hooked me up to the machines for a baseline, and then the nurse went to get him because it was going to be awhile. I ended up waiting probably for a little over an hour in the bed. The thermometer she used on me was awesome - it was like a little roller ball that she rolled over my forehead and down my neck for about two seconds. She also asked if I was anxious and I said yes, but then realized she meant in general, not right that second, so I had to correct myself. Heh.

Also around that time they started me on my IV. That was the worst part of the whole thing. I flinched big time when the catheter went into my vein - I could feel it very well and the nurse had to ask if I was OK and tell me to breathe. Once she got it taped, it took probably 10-15 minutes before it stopped feeling icky. She also asked if I wanted a heater, which I declined but it probably would have been better if I'd accepted because I was already tense from the IV and then I was more tense from being cold. Oh well.

At around 10, the anesthesiologist came to talk to me. She asked me some of the same questions and then gave me an idea of what to expect. "I'll give you a sedative on the way in, and then the OR will be bright and cold, and there will be a lot of bustling around you for about a minute, and then you'll be asleep." Another nurse asked me some of the same questions again (they're nothing if not thorough!) and then I felt a weird burn-y bubbly sensation in the IV and the anesthesiologist said "I'm giving you your sedative!" I said "I know, I can tell!" And then they put up my little side rails and took my glasses and wheeled me into the OR.

They put me up against the very narrow table and asked me to scootch over to it and lie down. The nurse started putting the leg compression wraps on and the anesthesiologist gave me an oxygen mask, and someone gave me a little table to put my elbow on (the bed was that narrow - about the width of my body without my arms), and then the anesthesiologist said "OK, I'm giving you the anesthesia now. Good night!" I thought "ooh, I'm going to count down from ten and see how far I can get before I'm out." I got to seven. :D

Two seconds later, I was waking up from a very comfortable sleep. (Or it was comfortable until I realized I was cramping.) It felt like a lot of mornings when I stay up too late and have to be awake the next morning for work, kind of going in and out of sleep. A nurse noticed when I started stirring and she grabbed Cory and brought him back from the waiting room. She unhooked me from the leg things and took the blood pressure cuff off and those sticky pad things off my chest, and let me go to the bathroom, which I did with no problem. It burned a little, not sure if it was from a catheter or just from the surgery area being inflamed, and there was a bit of watery blood too; I'm assuming it was thinned with the stuff they put into my uterus to inflate it. They gave me some water (my throat was super dry because they blew oxygen down it - no tube or anything) and let me get dressed and go home. I probably could have walked to the car but riding in the wheelchair is the best part so I did that instead.

And then Cory drove me home and I went straight up to bed and slept for about two hours. When I woke up I had some lunch and changed out of the mesh underwear into my own (which felt awesome), and took another nap or two.

I haven't had any pain meds as of yet, but I might take one right before bed. I have some mild cramps but they only just started. No nausea or anything either, which the nurse warned about. I think I'm in good enough shape to go to work tomorrow (which was the plan).

Next steps are "total pelvic rest" (i.e. nothing in the vagina and no baths or hot tubs) for two weeks, and then I call ORM with my next cycle after a month. My immediate next cycle should happen probably on Friday, which means the cycle I'd call them with would be in almost exactly a month, so this timing is actually working pretty well I think. (Unless they say "nope, the NEXT next cycle, in TWO months!")


Just after waking up.