Lesson of the Day: Don't Get an Abscess

I have to learn how to pack my wound. First of all, it is a pain to go to the doctor everyday. Second, I found out today that it could take a couple weeks for the would to close, therefore; the wound could need to be packed for a couple weeks. Third, I could buy a TV for my bedroom instead of paying $20 a day to have them pack my wound.

I asked my husband if he could help, he agreed, but said he might puke. I think he's imagining it to be much worse than it is.

I love the doctor who's been packing my wound most of this week. He's so gentle and just all around super nice. Today I had a different doctor packing the wound, and she went to town in there, poking hard, just all around going nuts. Not really going nuts, but my belly button still hurts.

Let's hope Bill and I are capable of packing this wound!

Edit: I am so proud of myself! I successfully packed my wound! The hardest part was getting the used gauze out - that part took about 30 minutes, most of that time was me courting down and never doing anything. Eventually I got it though. The actually packing was no problem at all...such a non-problem in fact, that I'm worried I didn't pack it enough. Now I'm having a beer to celebrate my victory!

And Now an Abscess

On Friday I noticed that under my belly button incision was red with a small hard area. I called the on call doctor on Saturday, and was advised to use hydrogen peroxide on my wound twice a day and make an appointment for Monday. At the time, I had no pain, just redness. Later that day, the area started to hurt and the incision started leaking an orangish liquid. And probably TMI, but the liquid didn't particularly smell good. On Sunday I had more pain, swelling, and a few episodes of liquid.

I called the RE first thing Monday morning....literally the minute they opened. I wound up holding for 40 minutes! My RE is great, but the receptionists are quite the mess. When I met with my doctor after discovering that I have a unicornuate uterus, the receptionist was like "what does that mean." with a strange look on her face. I can't remember what all she said, but honestly, it's not her job to find out what it means, it's her job to schedule my appointment. And I would be glad to explain it to her, it's just that she made me feel like a weirdo or something. THEN, she kept pronouncing anomalies, ANN-O-MALEYS. How do you work at a doctors office and not know how to pronounce anomaly?! Anyway, this isn't the point of my post...

So right as I'm pulling into the doctors office, I start to smell the liquid from my wound. No big deal, I brought cotton balls, but when I looked down, the liquid was running down my stomach, filled my belly button, getting all over my seat belt. Needless the say, I was freaked! Had that happened at home, I would have probably gone to the ER. I was too scared to even look at the incision site, so I just stuck a cotton ball in and went in to the clinic.

My blood pressure is usually around 115/60 and it was 143/82! Whoa, must've been really shook. A positive side not, I've lost 14 lbs. since Dec. 1, and I'm not even trying!! :)

I went back to see an ob/gyn who informed me that I had an abscess. She cut a few of the sutures out and began to push all of the pus out of the abscess...quite painful. Then she used a lot of peroxide on the wound. After that she packed the wound, which I knew nothing about. They take a q-tip and wrap a piece of gauze around it, push that INTO the incision, then she repeated that twice. Now I am supposed to do this at home. That kind of stuff freaks the shit out of me. I could never be a nurse! So I started crying because it hurt and I did not think I could handle packing my wound at home. Since I don't want to pack the would myself, I have to go to the clinic everyday for 3-5 days to have it packed. ugh bugh! They prescribed antibiotics 4 times per day, and luckily I still have some oxycodone left from surgery.

The bright side to all this is that my post-op appointments was moved up to Feb 21 instead of March 4, therefore; maybe I can get in to see my RE for IVF planning sooner. As of today, she is booked until after my scheduled March 7th appointment, but I'm going to check everyday online to see if she's had a cancellation. Every day that the appointment. is moved up, is hopefully a day sooner to start IVF.

I love that my clinic has everything online. I can see all of my vital signs, lab reports, schedule reschedule or cancel appointments, pay bills, check in for appointments, basically the works. It makes life much easier.

Feeling A Little Lighter

...about one ounce lighter! I don't really know how much my fallopian tube weighed, but it's gone and I don't miss it at all!

I went in for my surgery last Friday. I must have been more nervous than I realized because my heartbeat was 110 as I laid there waiting. Getting my IV didn't help me calm down. I can't stand needles and of course the first attempt to put my IV in didn't work. After I was all set, my husband came back to keep me company.

It seemed like everyone wanted to be part of my surgery - my old gynecologist came, the doctor who did my HSG, the resident who did my pre-op tests, and all kinds of other people. I had 3 surgeons and about 10 other people participating in the surgery.

They rolled me into the operating room and I really don't remember much else until I woke up in recovery. In recovery, I was sleepy, but overall I was feeling ok.

I have a non-functioning rudimentary horn with a fallopian tube attached. No endomitriosis. And according to my RE, I have beautiful ovaries! So my right tube with the hydrosalpinx is gone, and the rudimentary horn and left tube were left in place - even though they're useless, they're not hurting anything either.

Overall I'm feeling good now. In March I will go back to my RE to get everything set for IVF! Can't wait!

I ordered some fiction books about infertility yesterday. I can't wait to read them. They better have happy endings! I also bought my first baby item today! I got a green onesie that says snuggle saurus and has a cute little dinosaur on it! l only paid $1.00 for it!

I was looking into infertility insurance from state to state, just out of curiosity, and found this site really interesting.

http://www.fertilitylifelines.com/payingfortreatment/state-mandatedinsurancelist.jsp

I live in North Carolina, and they have no mandated coverage, which is rather bunk! Luckily, we have Texas insurance so we do have some coverage. If I did not have these fallopian tube issues we would have had to wait 5 years for IVF coverage...out of control.

I will update again after I meet with my RE to get all my IVF stuff set.