Bad month

The end of January was not pleasant. Georgie and I had picked up the wandering crud. Both of us had terrible coughs with fever and I had a sinus thing going on as well. The Doctors wanted to do surgery on January 31 to excise more tissue from the tumor sight and remove my ovaries, but I didn't feel like it was a good idea to do surgery when I felt so terrible. I called to cancel the surgery and then received a call from my surgeon. He didn't want to wait on the surgery. He felt that the urgency to get that extra skin and tissue removed was more serious than the possibility of pneumonia. So we went ahead with the surgery as planned.



The surgery was suppose to be about two hours but turned in to six. When he removed my left ovary and tube the side of my uterus took exception and began to bleed. He had to get in there with stitches to get it stopped. So because I had lost so much blood they made me stay in the hospital over night. They felt that I was doing pretty well by that evening and sent me home.



We came back to Vernal rather than me staying with my family. My mom is sick with a terrible cold and everyone else works so there wouldn't be anyone to help take care of me and George anyway so we came home. Geo had to work the next day so my daughter Miquel took George and I slept the day away in my chair.



The next morning about 3:00 am I started having a terrible pain when I breathed deeply. So I stopped breathing deeply but then I was not getting enough oxygen. I was getting worse by the hour. Geo got up about 8:00 am and checked on me. He was freaked out. I didn't think it was anything but a bubble from the ooferectomy(they fill the abdominal cavity with air so they can see what they are doing) but he was insistent that we go to a doctor. I called the surgeons office to see what they thought and the nurse said "YOU GO TO THE ER" So we got a sitter for George and went to Roosevelt ER.



After many tests and several tries to get an IV going they told us they thought I had a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung). They wanted to get me going on blood thinners and possibly a transfusion, because my hermaticrit was at 24, normal is 36. No wonder they couldn't get an IV going I didn't have enough blood in my veins to even find them. Plus every time someone came into the room they were taking more blood (or so it seemed).



I was admitted to the hospital about 5:00 pm. The med/surg doc came to see me after he had studied all the tests and talked with a few of my doctors. He said that he had looked at the films of my lungs and while there were areas of collapsed lung he didn't feel that it was a PE. But he was really concerned that I hadn't had a bowel movement since before surgery, so four days. So he had the nurse do whatever it took to get me going in three hours and changed my diet to clear liquids. It didn't take that long only about 30 min. and I never stopped going for the duration of my stay there.



By the next day I still didn't feel any different than when they had admitted me. I was still in pain and couldn't breathe and was incredibly weak. They came in and gave me a transfusion at about 1:00 pm and when they were done I felt much better. Still in pain and breathless but not so weak. But the pain was only if I moved and the doc felt that it was post op pain rather than the PE. Especially since the pain was on the opposite side of the questionable PE.

We had another CT scan of my lungs a week after all of this. The doc called this morning and said that he didn't see any clots but there is still spots of collapsed lung or not aerating lung and fluid around my lungs. He wants me to have another x-ray in two weeks to make sure it is not getting worse. We also went to a post op visit with my surgeon the same day. He said the tests had all come back negative for cancer and so they feel pretty confident that they got what they needed.

I am feeling much better everyday. At times I still feel short of breathe but for the most part I am not in pain. Haven't taken a pain pill in more than a week. I am getting my hair back, even my eye lashes are coming in thick. I wish that the hair on my legs and pits where not growing again but alas I think they grow faster than any other hair on my body.

We have been really blessed in that when we have needed something there has been someone to help. It is amazing to me that the Lord is so mindful of our every need and provides the needed help exactly when it is needed. Thank you to all you angels out there that do the Lords work lovingly and quietly.