Hysterectomy Recovery: Day 7 & 8 (Surgical Reports)

As to not bore you into oblivion with medical jargon, here are the results of my surgery:

• A total of 13 more endometriosis adhesions were removed; all were found to be benign by pathology

• 1 small fibroid was present and removed along with uterus; found to be benign by pathology

• my left and only ovary had to be freed from new endo growth in the pelvic walls

• both of my ureters had to be freed from new endo growth

• my bladder was found to have irritation; more endo growth around it was removed

Having read through all of this just a little while ago, I think my recovery is about as on-track as it can be. During the first endo excision, they took about 20 adhesions from my entire abdomen, pelvic floor to diaphragm, whereas the majority of the 13 they took this time were in my pelvic region. As you can imagine, that makes such a huge difference in how my body is recovering. Hell, my liver had to be cauterized last time... it was so much more extensive than I can still process myself. I feel like I can wrap my brain about this surgery a little better because it's more typical of what I've read about in other peoples' experiences.

Thank goodness for people who share or else I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am now.

As for day 7 (yesterday) and day 8 (today), I'm doing the best I can be, I'd say. The nausea reared it's ugly head yesterday before lunch but I was ready with that Zofran! It still took me the better part of an hour to feel better though. Today has been easier... Took a shower which wipes me out. Not enough to sleep but enough to not want to engage with unfamiliar media or really talk to anyone. But I'm ok with that. I'm starting to feel a bit more "with it" at the moment.

To switch it up from medication and symptom updates, I've been burning my lovely recovery candles and reading a new book (A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher) every night. I'm only 80 pages from the end at this point! As of this morning, I've watched 20 movies since last Monday (I post every movie I watch in my stories). So having some balance between screen and book are definitely coming into play here. I really should push myself to read some of my older books that have gone unread for years when I'm done with this one. Never a better time than now! 📚 We own many bookshelves that have unnecessary amounts of dust acruing on them. It might be time to change that.

In any case, I'm still processing the information above, and truthfully, when I read through the documents, memories come back to me that I didn't know I had until I reread it. It's so strange but the amount of anesthesia I've endured these last few years have taught me that I have forgotten a LOT of stuff that happens immediately before and after I wake up from the surgery, and sometimes that's for the best. But for now, I'm just quietly processing it all. Staying present the best I can.

<3 E