Surgery
We're home from the hospital. I'm moving very creakily and slowly, but I'm mobile.
I didn't know you could have surgery without bandages or stitches. Glue can reattach the skin edges that needed temporary parting. Another thing I didn't know is how very dry one's mouth becomes after surgery. Sipping water offers only temporary relief. Only this morning did we discover the "care package" that contained a tube of chapstick.
My "iron stomach" came through for me again, and I ate well last night and this morning. I did feel nauseated for a bit there before supper until after one alarmingly noisy burp when I got out of bed the first time. I'm sure the boys in my typing class would have been highly entertained, given what I know of their sense of humor. It was a shame to waste it on Hiromi and the nurse, who probably did not appreciate it nearly as much as they would have.
If you have a highly developed sense of decorum, you might want to stop reading right here, or maybe it's too late already, and you should have stopped reading after the second paragraph.
At the risk of venturing way too far into the TMI category, I'm going to pass on some of the new terms I've learned in the course of this medical adventure. They're that good and fun to say, and I'd hate to have anyone miss out. Hysterectomy is no longer a novel term, but some of the others are a lot more interesting, I also had a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and a para-aortic lymph node biopsy. The pathology report will be ready some time early next week, at which time I will learn for sure whether my endometrial carcinoma is still considered stage 1. They'll figure that out from the lymph node biopsy.
**************
Yesterday morning, before surgery, we were introduced to Meriah, a student who would be observing. I looked at her sharply, the wheels in my mind whirling fast, and just about the time I figured things out, she figured things out too. She is the daughter of Jeree and Cathy from Hutchinson, farmer's market friends--and before that, friends we learned to know when they orchestrated the exchange student program through which our Japanese "sons" came to live with us. Meriah is a third year medical school student, and her rotation right now has her following around Dr. Morgan, the gyn surgeon who performed my surgery. I had no idea how good that would feel--to see a familiar face in the sea of medical professionals who took care of us, especially someone I knew to be a person of faith.
In the surgery room, she showed me where Dr. Morgan would sit to do the surgery, in front of a huge robotic machine--well away from the gurney on which I was to lie. The unit with the surgical instruments was closer to me.
Besides the carcinoma, I also had a baseball-sized tumor (presumably benign), which necessitated a larger incision than was anticipated initially. I'm curious, but not curious enough to have eyeballed the incisions yet.
*************
Hiromi took me to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning, and five other people followed later, to see me ahead of surgery and to be with Hiromi while I was in surgery. My sister Lois and sister-in-law Judy came together and then LaVerne and Oren and Jo also came. They all waited till the doctor's report happened, and Judy and Lois waited till I got back to my room. Marvin (brother-in-law) came later in the day.
Hiromi spent the night on a cot in my room.
************
And that, my friends, is the story of my surgery.
It's time for another dose of pain meds and then bed.
I didn't know you could have surgery without bandages or stitches. Glue can reattach the skin edges that needed temporary parting. Another thing I didn't know is how very dry one's mouth becomes after surgery. Sipping water offers only temporary relief. Only this morning did we discover the "care package" that contained a tube of chapstick.
My "iron stomach" came through for me again, and I ate well last night and this morning. I did feel nauseated for a bit there before supper until after one alarmingly noisy burp when I got out of bed the first time. I'm sure the boys in my typing class would have been highly entertained, given what I know of their sense of humor. It was a shame to waste it on Hiromi and the nurse, who probably did not appreciate it nearly as much as they would have.
If you have a highly developed sense of decorum, you might want to stop reading right here, or maybe it's too late already, and you should have stopped reading after the second paragraph.
At the risk of venturing way too far into the TMI category, I'm going to pass on some of the new terms I've learned in the course of this medical adventure. They're that good and fun to say, and I'd hate to have anyone miss out. Hysterectomy is no longer a novel term, but some of the others are a lot more interesting, I also had a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and a para-aortic lymph node biopsy. The pathology report will be ready some time early next week, at which time I will learn for sure whether my endometrial carcinoma is still considered stage 1. They'll figure that out from the lymph node biopsy.
**************
Yesterday morning, before surgery, we were introduced to Meriah, a student who would be observing. I looked at her sharply, the wheels in my mind whirling fast, and just about the time I figured things out, she figured things out too. She is the daughter of Jeree and Cathy from Hutchinson, farmer's market friends--and before that, friends we learned to know when they orchestrated the exchange student program through which our Japanese "sons" came to live with us. Meriah is a third year medical school student, and her rotation right now has her following around Dr. Morgan, the gyn surgeon who performed my surgery. I had no idea how good that would feel--to see a familiar face in the sea of medical professionals who took care of us, especially someone I knew to be a person of faith.
In the surgery room, she showed me where Dr. Morgan would sit to do the surgery, in front of a huge robotic machine--well away from the gurney on which I was to lie. The unit with the surgical instruments was closer to me.
Besides the carcinoma, I also had a baseball-sized tumor (presumably benign), which necessitated a larger incision than was anticipated initially. I'm curious, but not curious enough to have eyeballed the incisions yet.
*************
Hiromi took me to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning, and five other people followed later, to see me ahead of surgery and to be with Hiromi while I was in surgery. My sister Lois and sister-in-law Judy came together and then LaVerne and Oren and Jo also came. They all waited till the doctor's report happened, and Judy and Lois waited till I got back to my room. Marvin (brother-in-law) came later in the day.
Hiromi spent the night on a cot in my room.
************
And that, my friends, is the story of my surgery.
It's time for another dose of pain meds and then bed.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
7:24 PM
2 Comments:
So good to hear that you are doing well....You should know that Rebecca was also a part of the party in the waiting room. She had brought coffee and donuts and so had stayed with them while LaVerne visited with you and Hiromi. -Jo
By
Anonymous, at 5/14/2015
Oh good--that Rebecca was there too. LaVerne had to leave the room fairly abruptly and probably just didn't get that said, and Hiromi didn't either. I would have loved to be part of that waiting room party! All those good people together.
By
Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige), at 5/15/2015
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