I had my surgery on Wednesday and was discharged home today.
They managed to do the surgery and removed my uterus, both ovaries and both tubes. But they weren't able to remove any lymph nodes because they were too deep. The doctor said that from a visual perspective, there was nothing outside the uterus which is reassuring, however, it is still possible to have a contained cancer that has spread into the lymph nodes.
It will be about 3 or 4 weeks before the pathology report comes back, so I won't know if there is going to be a need for radiation therapy or not, until them. Even if the pathology comes back clean, because they weren't able to sample any of the lymph nodes, they may opt for some high dose radiation treatment anyway.
I'm having huge amounts of pain right now.
My hospital stay was "ok". I wanted a private room and would have had one the first night had it not been for some woman who also needed to be monitored for sleep apnea post op. So because she needed monitoring, they put me and her into the same room together and had on nursing assistant monitor the both of us. I didn't get a single minute of sleep that first night. If it wasn't one of my pumps going off, it was one of hers. And there were people coming in and out all night long to check pumps, empty catheters, refill water jugs, relieve staff etc.
They almost didn't give me a private room the second night either because they said they were full and they weren't going to move people around. I kicked up a huge fuss and told them that I had been promised a private room and that I was paying for a private room and was told that if someone was in a private room that wasn't paying, that they would be moved out and I would be moved in. I got my private room. I guess they got tired of me nattering at them!!
With the exception of one nurse who refused to increase my pain medication as instructed by the pain service people (because in her words "it is too much of a hassle for me!" Meaning her), which ultimately resulted in my having pain 15 out of 10 on a pain scale, the rest of the staff were great.
I'm just waiting for my brother to come back with some fresh produce for me and then I'm going to take something for pain and head to bed. I didn't do much today other than walk a little, shower, get dressed and pack to come home, but I feel like I've done a marathon.
They managed to do the surgery and removed my uterus, both ovaries and both tubes. But they weren't able to remove any lymph nodes because they were too deep. The doctor said that from a visual perspective, there was nothing outside the uterus which is reassuring, however, it is still possible to have a contained cancer that has spread into the lymph nodes.
It will be about 3 or 4 weeks before the pathology report comes back, so I won't know if there is going to be a need for radiation therapy or not, until them. Even if the pathology comes back clean, because they weren't able to sample any of the lymph nodes, they may opt for some high dose radiation treatment anyway.
I'm having huge amounts of pain right now.
My hospital stay was "ok". I wanted a private room and would have had one the first night had it not been for some woman who also needed to be monitored for sleep apnea post op. So because she needed monitoring, they put me and her into the same room together and had on nursing assistant monitor the both of us. I didn't get a single minute of sleep that first night. If it wasn't one of my pumps going off, it was one of hers. And there were people coming in and out all night long to check pumps, empty catheters, refill water jugs, relieve staff etc.
They almost didn't give me a private room the second night either because they said they were full and they weren't going to move people around. I kicked up a huge fuss and told them that I had been promised a private room and that I was paying for a private room and was told that if someone was in a private room that wasn't paying, that they would be moved out and I would be moved in. I got my private room. I guess they got tired of me nattering at them!!
With the exception of one nurse who refused to increase my pain medication as instructed by the pain service people (because in her words "it is too much of a hassle for me!" Meaning her), which ultimately resulted in my having pain 15 out of 10 on a pain scale, the rest of the staff were great.
I'm just waiting for my brother to come back with some fresh produce for me and then I'm going to take something for pain and head to bed. I didn't do much today other than walk a little, shower, get dressed and pack to come home, but I feel like I've done a marathon.
