Recovery and what comes next

I mentioned before that the doctor told me that the pain would not be so bad and that it wouldn't last that long.  He was terribly wrong. The pain was awful.  I never realized how I often I used my ab muscles until it hurt every time I used them.  I had to resort to sleeping in a recliner because I couldn't lie down in bed. Sneezing would make scream out in pain and laughing was completely out of the question.  I watched nothing but disaster movies and scary movies to make sure I wouldn't laugh.  I couldn't stand up and down by myself, which made going to the bathroom a challenge.  It wasn't too bad when my mom was here, but I was horrified when Michael had to help me.  I made him close his eyes the entire time.

The pain medication they gave me made me sick, so I stuck with my over the counter ibuprofen.

I started feeling better and stronger on the 2nd, 10 days after the surgery.  On the 3rd I was able to make Michael cupcakes for his birthday, that I missed on the 1st. I slept in the bed for the first time last night, 15 days later. I will be returning to work on September 12, 20 days later.

As of right now I am able to move around by myself, but sneezing and laughing still causes me some pain. It is hard sleeping, because my sides and stomach are still tender so I am stuck sleeping on my back.  I haven't even tried sex yet, but I hope to soon.  It has been way too long.

Anyways, I went to the doctor today and he just repeated everything I knew. We have 6 months to aggressively try for a baby. We are going to try the least expensive IUI.  My insurance covers it 100%  We can actually start trying with his cycle.

We will be doing the Femara with the IUI again.  So on day 2 or 3 of my cycle I will go into the doctor for a ultrasound to check for cysts. I will take the Femara pills on days 3-7. On day 9 or 10 I will go in for another ultrasound to make sure the medicine worked. The doctor will then instruct me on when to take the trigger shot. The day after the trigger shot we will go in for the insemination.

I am feeling very confident about this.  My Aunt had similar issues and she became pregnant right away. I have also heard lots of success stories. I'll be saying my prayers.

Day of My Surgery

The morning of August 24th I woke up early, around 8:00.  I had lots to do.  I tend to wait to the last minute, so I didn't have my overnight bag packed.  The nurse told me I would be at the hospital for a 23 hour hold.  I was also starving.  Technically I was supposed to stop eating at midnight, but with the cleanse the last meal I ate was around 1:00 the previous afternoon.  This was very bad for my husband.  You know how Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk when he gets angry, well that is me when I get hungry. I stop being rational and tend to do a lot of growling.

My surgery was scheduled for noon and I had to be there at 10:00.  My husband Michael, my mom and my BFF Beckie were all there to support me.  The nurse called me back pretty quickly to take get me changed, take my vitals and to start my IV.  The first two happened without any problems.  The IV was not so easy. Due to the bowel prep and not having anything to drink since midnight I was really dehydrated so he nurse had hard time finding a good vein.  She poked me5 different times in 5 different places before she finally got one to work.

I was able to sit and chat with everyone for about an hour before the doctor came in to review everything and then the anesthesiologist came in to put me to sleep.  The last thing I remember before "going to sleep" is Michael kissing me and telling me he loved me.

The next thing I know is that I am waking up in a strange room with someone screaming. It was very disorientating. I remember crying and telling the nurse that I was I was in a lot of pain.  And then I woke up in the recovery room.  The rest of the afternoon is pretty fuzzy. There was some vomiting and people talking around me.

It turns out I was scheduled to leave that evening. I returned home and it was time to start the recovery.

Surgery: The day before

My first IUI was not a success. My next step was surgery.

I may have mentioned in the past that during an ultrasound the doctor (Dr. B) discovered I had cysts on my ovaries so I had to have them removed.  Dr. B also suspected that I had endometriosis, but he wouldn't be able to tell until the surgery.

I had my pre-op appointment about a week before my surgery. I asked Dr. B what type of pain I could expect and he said that it wouldn't be too bad.  I would mainly have shoulder pain from the air they would be pumping into me and I would be fine after a few days.  I went ahead and made arrangements to take two weeks off from work just in case.

The day before the surgery I had to do a bowel prep.  I really wish I was prepared for what that would entail.  Now I normally do not discuss any type of bathroom shenanigans but hopefully this will help someone.

I took the day off before the surgery and Michael and I went to the movies.  At 3 in the afternoon I was instructed to take 4 Dulcolax tablets and at 5 I had start drinking a mixture of 64 ounces of Gatorade mixed with 238 grams of Miralax. This was a normal dosage to be taken over 7 days and I was very scared.

It took a while for it to kick in, but once it did, lets just say that it was the worse diarrhea I have ever had.  Here are some tips for surviving.

1. I wish I had eaten light meals the couple of days before hand, more fruits and vegetables.
2. Make the Gatorade as cold as possible.
3. If you're allowed to drink liquids, drink as much as possible, it will help the process.
4.  Get some baby wipes. The baby wipes saved me.
5.  Prep your bathroom, you will be spending a lot of time in there.
6. Set up camp close to the bathroom and make sure you have plenty of reading material.

Tomorrow I will tell you about what I remember about the surgery and my recovery.

How we met

One more day until I get confirmation one way or the other. I am distracting myself by reading e-mails Michael sent me.  So I decided to share the story of how we met.

I am going to try and get Michael to write up his version of how we came to be. I think it will be interesting to see it from both of points of view. Maybe it will become a regular segment, "He said/She said".

It all began November 17, 2004. I was a member of an online dating site called American Singles.  I had just gotten home from another bad date and decided that I was done with dating and I was signing on to cancel my membership.  Before I did, I saw I had a message from a cute solider just saying hi and introducing myself.  He was stationed in Iraq, so I figured why not. He would probably make a nice pen pal. So I wrote him back and this was the very first e-mail he sent to me.

Hi LaTisha,

Thank you for writing me back.

What kind of stuff do you do for fun? Were you ever married or have kids? What kind of work do you do?

It really isn't to bad being over here. I miss my son but that's really about it. I'm looking into doing another year over here.

I was married for almost 10 years. My ex started having an affair and decided she didn't want to be married anymore. We share custody of our son. He usually spends a week with me and then a week with her.

My favorite author is probably Tom Clancy, but I just finished reading a book called cold zero by Christopher Whitcomb. He was a sniper with the FBIs hostage rescue team and the book is his story. It was a great book. I read it in like 5 days or something.

Next month will be 11yrs I have been in the national guard or reserves. I was never active duty.

Thanks again for writing me back,

Michael

Pretty generic.  It was his second e-mail that his sense of humor started shining through and I got a glimpse of his personality.

Hi Latisha,

I have to admit I went back and checked out your profile again. You are beautiful, and tall, and you have enough authors that you like that I am thinking you must read alot. Usually a sign of someone bright enough to carry on a decent conversation. So where is the catch? Are you crazy? It's ok you can tell me. I'm just messin around. It's 3:30 in the morning and I am getting tired so there is no telling what may come out of my mouth right now. Tom Clancy is great. A couple of movies were made from his series of books. The sum of all fears, with Ben Affleck was the last one. I have some of Dean Kootz books. They were sent to me over here but I havnt gotten around to reading them. I know a few people that read alot of Cornwell, and Grafton and really seem to like them.

My son is 9. He is probably the only thing I miss form home. Of course I miss the rest of my family but it isnt the same. When I'm not off playing war, I am an estimator for an air conditioner contractor.  For fun I love the beach. Day and night. I like clubs. I can dance well enough to fake it. I play pool for fun. Will never claim to be good at it but I have moments where I amaze myself. I think what I enjoy the most is just staying home and finding something to do. Go jogging, or watch tv, or play cards. I have the most fun drinking beer and watching football with my best friend. What kind of movies do you like? I think my favorite right now are the 2 bad boy movies and black hawk down. Are you a pretty good cook? Anything imparticular that you are really good at making? I'm pretty good on the grill, but can make about anything if I try.

I shouldnt drag this out to much. I have no idea if you are reading this at work or something. I dont want to keep you from anything.

Hope to hear from ya soon,

Michael

Anyway we wrote back and forth usually multiple times in one day.  Then Michael started calling on the phone when he could.  I never knew you could fall in love with someone that you had never met in person. But it happened even though it was something neither one of really wanted.  Michael was writing to multiple girls at the time getting them to send him stuff, looking forward to coming home and being single and I was just fed up with the male species.

To be continued

2 more sleeps

2 more sleeps until I get to wake up and take a pregnancy test.  I haven't even bought a test yet.  I am pretty sure I am going to start any day now, so I haven't wanted to waste the money.  I will probaby wait until Friday afternoon to buy a test. I know it isn't good to be pessimistic but the pain from being let down month after month is overwhelming.  I have a feeling this month will be even worse since I was my first IUI.

I wish DH was more supportive.  He knows when the test date is since he was there when the doctor told me when I could take the test and he hasn't said anything to me at all. He hasn't give me any words of encouragement or even asked how I was doing. It would be nice if he would even acknowledge that this could be a stressful time.

Oh well 2 more days and then we are taking 2 months off, for my surgery in August.

In other news.  I have an interview tomorrow, withhin the same company just a different department.  I currently work in a 401K call center and I hate spending 8 hours of the day on the telephone.  I am interviewing for an administritave assistant position for the director of a different department. I am not sure if it is exactly what I want. I am praying on it to make the right decision.

3 days until test day

Just a few more days to go until I can take a pregnancy test. I am pretty sure I will get a negative result, so I am not even sure if I will even bother buying a test.  I probably will though, just because I like to torture to myself.

I decided to distract myself this week, by getting super organized with my coupons.  I made up a spread sheet and organizeed the list by product type and expiration date.  Instead of just throwing the coupons into an envelope I bought a 3 ring binder and organized the coupons by product type.



I think that if I actually stuck to my grocery list I wouldn't have spent as much. But I spent $174.38 and saved $47.08.  But since I shop at Winn Dixie, the next time fill my fas tank it will be discounted $1.30 a gallon so I think it evens out.

Give me Chocolate

I started having intense cravings for chocolate today and that only happens when I am PMSing.  I guess that means I wasn't successful this time. I guess there is still a chance that it was successful and that these are just stress cravings.  I sent MB to the store to get me some chocolate cake.  I pretty much have spent the evening fighting off tears because I feel like we failed this time.

I am feeling pretty down today so this is going to be short.