Post Hysterectomy - Trials and Tribulations
*Warning : there are some details involving various body fluids. In order to truly understand what happened it couldn’t be avoided*
In my last post I wrote about the journey which led me to having a hysterectomy. At that time I was two days post op and feeling great. But because life is never fair that did not last long. One week after my surgery I had a post op appointment with my surgeon and I had a fever of 102. My doctor prescribed me an antibiotic but also wanted me to have a CT scan done to see what was going on. After a bad night in which I started (lightly) bleeding I had a CT scan done. Now let’s talk about this CT scan as it was probably one of my least favorite experiences. Ever. I had to drink two bottles of barium water in 2 hours. Two hours of sipping on nasty water - it was not good. Then once I was having the scan they had to inject me with dye. The combination of the two caused me to throw up. I was laying down in a machine and had no way of cleaning myself up. Once the tech realized what happened he told me to wait 15 more seconds to get one more scan done. Oh and hold my breath. It was a long 15 seconds.
Following the CT scan my doctor had instructed them not to let me leave because he wanted to review the scans immediately. After a few minutes he called to tell me I had an abscess, an infection which would need to be drained. I had to be admitted to the hospital that day and have a drain surgically implanted. It was placed, by a radiologist, in my backside right above my butt. Which meant I couldn’t lay on my back or sit down during the time I had the drain. Now as reminder from my last post I had not taken any pain medication following my surgery and up to this point I hadn't taken anything. There was no need as I was in no pain. But when they implanted the drain they gave me fentanyl which is horrible and I felt like shit afterwards. Following having the drain in I had to spend two nights in the hospital. Because I originally thought it would only be one night once I found out it would be two I did not take the news well. I won’t detail that experience for you but feel free to ask my mom about it. I will say she thought the doctors should sedate me so there was that.
After two nights in the hospital I went home, with the drain which my mom (bless her) had to drain for me each night. Good times. After 3 days I thought it would be able to come out and scheduled an appointment to have it removed (we are now 2 weeks post op). However, the night before the appointment I started bleeding profusely. Not only was it scary but by then I was so over all of it. I was bleeding so much that my mom called in ambulance and back to the ER I went. After spending the night in the ER and ICU, receiving a blood transfusion, and having 2 more CT scans they did not know exactly why I was bleeding but figured it had to do with my infection. I eventually stopped bleeding but had to spend another night in the hospital (back in the same room as last time) just to make sure everything was ok. I have to say during both of my hospital stays I felt fine. No fever, no pain, and vitals were fine. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the hospital and not feeling sick. The next day I was stable so I was discharged for a third time and 2 days later they removed the drain. During this ordeal I was staying with my parents but finally 3 weeks after surgery I was able to go home.