Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Hysterectomy done-will it help my meniere's?

Well, maybe not complete.   I did get to keep my ovaries which relieves me for numerous reasons.  For one, I'm only 37 and I'm not ready for menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy.  God only knows what that would do my Meniere's.  Which leads me to my second reason for doing it, I have to be on birth control due to severe cramping (think migraine level pain in your lower pelvis.)  For the past 18 months or so, I've been through countless pills trying to find one that doesn't cause migraines.  No luck.  I think that part of the reason I've had it so rough lately is due to this constant change in hormones.  I stopped taking the pill about 10 days ago and had one headache right after I quit them and haven't had one since.  My last reason is that at this point, I have met all my out-of-pocket expenses and this surgery is more or less free.  I'm out of work until the end of this month at least, so I figured why not get it over with. 

I was still considerably nervous about this surgery.  I've never had a body part removed before!  I wanted a sign that I was doing the right thing.  I am okay with not having more children.  As my husband said, we struck gold with the two we have.  Financially we can't afford another child either and with my Meniere's being so bad lately, it would be extremely difficult to take care of a newborn.  I just can't go through the sleepless nights and breastfeeding again.  I was able to keep my ovaries so hopefully now my body will go back to it's normal hormonal pattern.  I've been on birth control more or less since I was 18.  Obviously didn't take them so I could get pregnant and didn't take them while I breastfed each child which was about a year.  I was more concerned about the procedure itself and the risks involved.  I asked for a "sign" from whatever higher power is around us and I got it!  At 3:30 in the morning before my surgery, I woke up with severe cramping and nausea.  I was practically in tears before I was able to get the pain and nausea under control.

The recovery from this surgery was rough.  Worse than the ear surgery and way worse than the ovarian cyst removal.  I had two shots of demerol, two percocets and still couldn't get my pain down to a 4 on the pain scale.  I was also really nauseous.  Despite being given Zofran and a Scopolomine patch.  I had to have my husband pull over as soon as we got out of the parking lot so I could throw up.  Now I'm dealing with bladder spasms and referred pain to my shoulder.  (common in pelvic/abdominal surgeries,)  I was in recovery for 3 hours and probably should've stayed longer. 

I return to my ENT  on the 15th.  I'm hoping against hope that after having this hysterectomy, it'll settle my dizziness.  Probably not, but a girl can hope.  Ok, so I'm doped up on painkillers and should stop and go back to sleep...

2 comments:

  1. Good luck Nicki! I hope everything works out well for you.
    David

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  2. thanks, david! i know it's a weird route to take in hopes it might help with dizziness but as i mentioned there were other reasons to do it anyway. i am incredibly sore today. my stomach is swollen and bruised. ironically, i look like a pregnant woman! i go back to see my ENT on the 15th. it'll probably be too soon for him to let me go back to work. but hopefully by mid-february...fingers crossed!

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