The sun is shining!

Finally!!! The past few days it has finally started to feel like spring/summer and I am so grateful. I have loved feeling the warmth of the sun on my face, seeing bright blue skies, smelling flowers in the wind and hearing the sound of lawns being mowed. I definitely agree with the fact that sunshine makes a difference in people's moods. I feel 100% better than I did last week when it was grey and chilly and snowing/sleeting. Yesterday I even took a lawn chair out into our backyard and read for a while. My face actually got a bit of a sunburn (probably due to the fact that my face hasn't seen ANY sun the past 2 1/2 weeks). But I am okay with that because it means that winter is FINALLY over and summer is almost here. I can't wait! I talked to my Mom on the phone for quite awhile yesterday, and we got talking about flowers and planting. I'm hoping to go out with Nick sometime this week and pick up a few planters so we can have our own flowers to look at on our porch. I love spring!

Yay for flowers!

Our neighbors tree - aren't the blossoms so pretty?

Nothing exciting to report

Wow. I can't believe it's only been a week since I last posted. No wonder I have nothing to say. It feels like time is passing in slow motion for me. I am definitely not one of those people who can stay at home with nothing to do. And no, this is not a reference to all you stay at home moms, because I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for you. Maybe if I felt 100% then I could enjoy not having to work. I could go for a walk, see the sights around the city, meet up with friends.... But no. I can barely enjoy myself on our porch for 2 minutes before having to come back inside. Its the middle of May for goodness sakes, and it is COLD outside. There has even been a little bit of snow these past two days. I want the sun to come back so it can cheer me up from being house-bound. Any body else feel this way?

My past week and a half has been spent watching WAY TOO MUCH tv (but at least it was mostly good, exciting episodes as it was the week of season finales). I have read one and a half books, watched atleast 5 movies, talked on the phone to a few good friends, and SLEPT A TON. On days that I don't get in a 2 hour afternoon nap, I somehow manage to sleep for 10-12 hours that night. It's crazy. I mean, I guess my body is using a lot more energy as it works on healing itself, but seriously? How can I sleep so much!?

It's a good thing our friends will be coming to visit for a few days next week or I would go STIR-CRAZY! This way I have something to look forward to and then when they are here, I will have someone to spend time with during the day while Nick is at work. Yay! I can't wait!

Sorry to be such a downer....but I'm just a little bored. And sore. And wishing for a better looking abdomen, not a swollen scarred one. Next post I'll be more optimistic, I promise :)

ps. it's snowing again.

I'm home

On the way to the hospital

Here's the run-through. My surgery started at 7:45am on Thursday and I was out of recovery and into my room by 11am. Dr. Hoskins came in a couple hours later to let me know how everything went. They removed the small malformed part of my uterus, and part of my right fallopian tube. He said his suspicions were right, that there was definitely an area in the part of removed uterus that had a hardened build up of blood in it that would have been agitating and causing me all the pain. They also took part of the right fallopian tube out to avoid any chance of an ectopic pregnancy on that side. He said everything went well, there were no complications and it should heal just fine. I had 14 staples on the outside with some suturing on the inside. Craziness. I think I was expecting excruciating pain or something because I've been pleasantly surprised that the pain hasn't been tooo bad. Though I'm sure my dear friend, Mr. Morphine, helped quite a bit for those first couple days :) All in all, I'm feeling pretty good. Just a little wiped out. If I'm standing or sitting I feel fine, it's just any movement in between that hurts - anything that requires the use of my abdominal muscles. I just have to be really slow and careful when I stand up or sit down or roll out of bed. The worst part is when I do something unexpectedly like laugh, cough or sneeze. It's brutal!

Mmm...jello... The only good thing about a liquid diet.

The doctor had originally told me I'd be released from the hospital on Sunday morning but I was able to come home a whole day early! I think I was mostly excited to get home and have a proper meal. After three days of being on a liquid diet I was starving! (One of the reasons I am stoked to have my Mom here.) There's nothing better to help out a recovery than some home cooked meals and some TLC from my Mom. I am so grateful to have her here keeping me company and helping out around the house.

My cute Mom and my favorite homecooked meal: Cheddar chowder
& cornmeal muffins

I asked the Dr to explain again how all of these changes will work and how this will affect my ability to get pregnant. He said that on any given month one or both of your ovaries are producing eggs, and it's basically a race to see who wins the race and actually ovualtes. Yes, on some months the right ovary will ovulate and won't have anywhere to go, so I just won't be able to get pregnant that month. He said that the left side will be ovulating enough that it won't make much of a difference - my odds really aren't even decreased. So that is encouraging. The one thing he did tell me though, is that because of the surgery/removal of part of my uterus that side of my uterus is compromised slightly. There will be scar tissue on that side so it isn't as strong as the rest of it. Because of that he said I will need to have C-sections whenever I have a baby. We wouldn't want to risk it tearing or having bleeding to complicate labour. That would obviously be a risk for me and the possibility of any subsequent kids. So it's kind of wierd to already know that I will never get to experience labour. I'm a little disappointed, but I guess there are pros and cons both ways - I'll just have to look forward to the pros.

I just wanted to let everyone know how much I love you and appreciate all your prayers and concern. It means a lot to know I have so many people cheering for me. Thanks for all the notes of encouragement, emails, phone calls, visits and of course goodies!

The gorgeous orchid Christa brought me, and the tulips Nick's parents brought (my favorite).

Wish me luck...

Well tomorrow's another big day for me, so I figured I would do a post updating everyone on my situation. I'll give a quick recap, but just so you know this is practically a novel and there aren't any fun pictures to go along with it.


In January I had a laparoscopy done to check my ovaries/uterus because I've been having these sharp stabbing pains sporadically for the past year and a half. Before that it was off and on for a couple years. My doctor kept brushing it off, saying it wasn't a big deal and nothing like a cyst was showing up on an ultrasound (except once, a tiny one a couple years ago that has been taken care of). He thought the pain was maybe ovulation pains or something. Yet we still haven't been able to get pregnant (and I didn't know if that was related or not). So and after quite a few doctor visits, I just asked if I could go see a specialist to get another opinion.


So in January I saw a great ObGyn and he did a laparoscopy to check things out. He took a bunch of pictures with the scope, and determined, that part of my uterus isn't formed properly. Apparently, when women are growing and forming in the womb a uterus starts out in two parts, and grows together. Well, mine didn't attach together properly so the left side continued to grow and form normally and the right side stayed small and gimpy. It doesn't have much blood flow to it, so that's why it's been getting agitated and causing me sharp aching pains.The doctor said that the small right part of my uterus needs to be removed and it was scheduled the end of April to be done laparoscopically. My doctor called me a couple weeks ago and said that as he's been looking over my case, and studying the pictures he wants to go in with a proper incision and do an actual surgery to remove the piece of uterus.


He explained that because it is obviously such an important part, he'd rather go in with his hands and be able to make sure everything is okay and we don't miss anything. That way everything will be stitched together perfectly so it can heal well and I have the best chances of being healthy and being able to carry a baby someday. The doctor does assure me that everything should be fine and we should have no problem getting pregnant later. We just need to take care of this first so I will have the best environment for a baby to grow in, and of course for me to get rid of those pains.


So now it's actually going to be quite the ordeal and I have to take a month off of work to recover. It's considered major abdominal surgery, kind of the equivalent of a caesarean but with additional cutting and stitches inside (and obviously without the baby to bring home).The surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, May 7, and I have to be up before 5am to be at the hospital by 6am! I'll be in the hospital until Sunday then just relaxing at home for a few weeks. My Mom is coming up on Friday, and will be here until Wednesday to keep me company and take care of me. I'm really excited for that, and for the fact that I'll get her all to myself on Mother's Day even though we won't be doing much.


If anybody actually made it to the end of this ginormous post, I give you props. Thanks for listening to me blabber on about myself ;) I'll update next week once I'm back home again. Wish me luck...