Final Post-Op Appt.

I had my final post-op appointment today. I got to see pictures of my endometriosis, rectum, uterus, ligaments, abdominal wall, etc. I have lots of spots of endometriosis on my abdominal wall, but none look too bad (this is to me who is pretty clueless when it comes to looking at endo) except for the one on my rectum. It is a nodule, and I have scar tissue (presumably from the last time I had the endo scraped out) all over my rectum and uterine ligaments, and it is causing my rectum to change shape due to the scar tissue making adhesions. So I questioned him as to why the hysterectomy was the recommendation instead of just scraping again, and as it turns out, the scraping would take place at the same time, but in order to keep it from being a continuing problem (with recurrences within 5 years), the hysterectomy is needed. If I decline to do this and allow it to continue to build scar tissue, I will likely face bowel problems, incontinence, and possibly urinary incontinence as well. So...let's try to get pregnant!

I did ask if I could schedule a c-section and have the hysterectomy afterwards, and he said that they only do the hysterectomy afterwards if it is emergent with uncontrolled bleeding-type situation. As it turns out, the 6 week recovery time my mom talked about is correct if you had to be opened up and have the hysterectomy, however, nowadays we are lucky enough to have the option to do this laproscopically once the uterus has shrunk back down to it's normal size post-delivery. He said it would basically be the same procedure I just had in November, 1 week recovery time, but I'd be more sore just because they were doing more inside of me than just removing a tube. They'd be removing a uterus, a tube, and an ovary, and scraping out the endo. Sounds good to me!

I really expected to get another bit of bad news today, but it didn't come thankfully. He said he'll see me when I am ready to have the hysterectomy and good luck otherwise. I placed a call today to our financial coordinator at our IVF center to make sure our prior insurance authorization for the cycle was still good (since it's been almost 4 months since our initial consult), and I'm waiting to hear back from her. Period is expected this coming Sunday, and sometime next week I will start on birth control pills if all goes as planned. I talked to my IVF nurse to make sure there was nothing on their end that I needed to take care of before Sunday and there isn't, they will be expecting a call from me on Monday. I'm excited to get started, yes I said that.

I am excited, but I am also scared. I prayed on the way into work tonight that our )His and our) plans be the same for growing our family, and that if it isn't, I pray that He help me find peace with that. I prayed that if He has a plan for us to get pregnant that it be a healthy pregnancy. Please continue to pray for us on this journey.

2 Week Post-Op Appt.

I was all geared up for this appointment today. Yes! The doc can look at my incisions, see I'm healing and give me the blessing to start our IVF cycle. Of course, that wouldn't be how my appointment went.

We were pressed for time since the doc was running late and we had to pick Jack up from school. He started in talking about the endometriosis he found. I was supposed to be able to see pictures, but the pictures hadn't made it over from the hospital where I had my surgery yet. I had relatively superficial endometriosis on my abdominal walls which he said may or may not cause me pain (it really doesn't), but that the endometriosis nodule that I have on my rectum causes it to tent up toward my uterus, and he is sure I am in pain (I am around my periods especially when I go to the bathroom-I hold my breath and try not to scream). His honest recommendation is for us to go ahead, get pregnant, have this last child, and then have a hysterectomy leaving maybe one of my ovaries in so I can still have the hormones, etc. I'm not real upset about this as I look forward to not having to deal with periods anymore, and no more shooting pain my rectum when I go to the bathroom. The only reason it does upset me is that it requires major abdominal surgery. My mom advised me to have it done during my maternity leave since it will require an 8 week recovery period, so then I'm thinking maybe just do a scheduled c-section and have them do the hysterectomy then. This will of course probably screw up our Disney plans, but we could always do it last minute if I was healing well and felt up to it, or we could plan it for late Winter/Spring 2012. This is all IF we get pregnant, which is a big IF. If we don't, I may wait after our IVF cycle to see if it happens on it's own (despite it being unlikely) if I'm not willing to give up just yet, and if it doesn't then schedule the hysterectomy.

That was the surprising news of the day. The other not great news was that Dr. Moro wants us to wait until I get my second period post-op to proceed with our IVF cycle. He advised me that the first will be unpredictable, I won't know when it's going to come, and it will be messy. The second one will be predictable in that it will come about 28 days later. At that point, we can proceed with our cycle. This does not make me happy. I want it when I plan it, and it's all jumbled up now. So, I guess I'm asking for prayers that the first period comes very soon (like if you could pray for tomorrow, that would be awesome, but I know God doesn't work like that) so we can get this show on the road. I guess we'll be looking at the second period sometime in January with any luck, so the procedures part of the IVF cycle maybe in February?

The good news is we can use our healthcare FSA I just enrolled us in to pay the copay!