The Surgery (Part 2)...

Our arrival to the hospital consisted of checking into the surgery department, completing (more) paperwork, and transitioning into the pre-op. area to begin preparation for surgery. The first step of course was to change into the ever so fashionable hospital gown, but only after cleansing from head to toe (literally) with these niffy little rag wipes designed to remove and minimize any post-op. infections... it was like a sponge-bath party in a package, woo hoo. After some down time of hanging with my husband (and eventually my parents) in my pre-op. waiting room, things started to take a bit of a difficult turn... But first, I of course had to take a pre-surgery selfie, you know, just to keep things light-hearted and interesting (I mean really, who does that?!)...

All smiles at this point :)

So, the difficulty began when it was time for the nurses to get my IV started. Nurse 1: Try 1 = fail, couldn't find my vein. Nurse 1: Try 2 = fail again, couldn't find my vein even after some "jigging" back and forth of the needle in my hand (yea, that was fun). Nurse 2: Try 1: fail, with some more "jigging" back and forth of the needle. Nurse 2: Try 2: success, or so we thought. It seemed as if the needle was in properly in my vein, until about 10min. later when my hand started to blow up and they realized that the needle had actually gone through my vein. Time to wrap my hand and whole arm in a warm blanket for a bit to break up the IV fluids. A while later, Nurse 3: Try 1: finally success!... after deciding to place the needle in my arm rather than my hand. Throughout all of my medical ventures, I've never had anyone have any difficulty finding a vein. Problem this time was, apparently I was significantly dehydrated due to the oh-so-fun cleanse I had to do the night before. Anyways, at this point the IV was in and we were ready to rock and roll as they wheeled me out to surgery. Amazingly, throughout the whole pre-op. process (even with the IV fiasco ), I was surprisingly calm and at peace - and anyone who knows my neurotic self knows that this is the complete opposite of what you'd (and even me) would expect. And honestly, the only reason for this was truly the peace and strength that the Lord gave me on this day... and that's something that I will forever be grateful to Him for, as this was a huge piece in successfully getting me through the day.

Three and half hours worth of surgery later, I was moved out into the post-op. holding area, while the nurses worked to get my pain management under control; and then I was moved into my recovery room where I was reunited with my husband (who was another amazing source of peace and calm for me throughout the entire process) and my parents (who were also greatly supportive). The next four-ish hours or so (yes, that long!) consisted of flooding me with fluids, and conducting multiple bladder scans until I could FINALLY go to the bathroom, before being able to be released - again, apparently because I was soooo dehydrated prior to surgery (no fun).

After that, the next few days were spent recovering and building myself back up to being able to move around and sit up again on my own with no pain (took awhile after abdominal surgery). From there, it was laser focus ahead to making a baby - medically speaking of course ;)