Stage III appendectomy....

It's the day after my laparoscopic surgery and I survived. 
 
I was a ball of nerves yesterday morning. I barley slept and woke up with an overwhelming feeling of dread. I went through the motions, showered with the anti-bacterial soap, put on clean, comfortable clothes and headed to the hospital. I was starving and feeling hollow from the bowel prep the day before. Nothing felt real and somewhere in my head I was thinking I still wasn't having surgery.
 
I arrived at the hospital to be less than greeted by a front desk volunteer. I just wanted to shout at him, "Have some compassion you grumpy, old man!" I took a seat in the lobby and waited for my name to be called to check in for my surgery. From there the day got better. The lovely lady checking me in got me situated. (I watched and listened to the grumpy old man verbally assault an elderly woman checking in too, ugh!) She explained where the lab was for my pre-surgery blood work, explained where to report on the surgery floor. I was in motion.
 
After a quick blood draw and a short elevator ride I found myself being quickly ushered away from my husband into a hospital room to get dressed for surgery. After dressing my naked self into an ugly, green gown, some blue, sticky socks and a very attractive, blue, surgical bonnet, they let my husband join me in the room. We took some funny photos of me and lightened the mood.
 
The nurses were great, they were thorough with IV's and explaining what to expect from the surgery. The anesthesiologist stopped in to meet me and my doctor spent some time with us explaining everything again. He explained how he and his fellow reproductive endocrinologist would be operating with lasers and tiny scissors. They hadn't given me anything for my nerves but I was feeling better. It finally felt real. 
 
They booked out two hours of O.R. time for my surgery and thought it would take less than that. I was worried for my husband that entire time. I got to go to sleep and wake up two hours later with everything finished. He had to wait two hours worrying. Poor guy. 
 
I was wheeled into the O.R. they put something in my IV and I don't even remember getting drowsy. One moment of blackness and it was all over. 
 
Well, story of my life, nothing every really goes as planned. The surgery took about thirty minutes beyond what they planned for. A general surgeon was called in for a surprise appendectomy. That's okay, I didn't need it anyway.
 
My poor husband was informed that they were calling in a general surgeon but wasn't told why. He had to sit and worry for more time than the surgery was allotted. He is so tough for holding it together. 
 
I woke up in recovery (very thirsty) and heard the word appendix, I asked if I had mine taken out and the nurse told me yes. I then informed her that I was going to cry; I cried. I looked at the clock and realized the surgery took longer than it should have. After being awake for about fifteen minutes they wheeled me into the regular hospital room where my husband was waiting for me. 
 
The doctor was running late for his next surgery, but he took the time to print out a lot of photos of my surgery and what they found inside of me. While I was recovering he sat with my husband and went over all of the photos so that my husband could explain everything. He wrote notes on everything too.
 
I was diagnosed with moderate or stage III endometriosis. They found implants on the front and back of my uterus, on my bladder, on my colon. There were basically "powder burns" everywhere. They lasered off all of the implants. I was also covered in adhesions. My sigmoid colon was adhered to my left wall (which explains the lump they found during my colonoscopy), my right ovary was attached to my colon, my bladder and uterus were attached at the bottom. And lastly they discovered my appendix was engulfed in scar tissue and endometrial adhesions and it had to also be removed. 
 
The good news is that what was identified via ultrasound as a chocolate cyst wasn't. My colon attached to my right ovary had looked just like a cyst. I'm sort of happy it did, because I don't know that they would have done the surgery without identifying the cyst in the first place. Things always have a way of working out I guess.
 
Now that I have holes in my abdomen, organs that aren't adhered to things they aren't supposed to be and no more appendix, I'm sore. Very sore. It hurts to pee, cough, laugh and cry. I'm okay as long as I don't have to move around. If I'm standing I'm fine, walking is fine, sitting is fine and laying is fine. But getting from one position to the other is torture. It's hard to sit down, lay down and stand up.
 
I'm usually pretty tough and don't like to take medication but I am grateful for the Vicodin. It's making life a little easier. Sleeping was tough last night, hopefully tonight I can sleep through the night. The shoulder pain from the gas they put inside me was pretty bad for a while too. It seems to have subsided with me taking a few walks throughout the day. My appetite is normal. I still haven't had a bowel movement since the colon prep on Sunday. I'm scared about the pain that may come from having had my bowel detached in two places.
 
The point is, I survived and I'm not crazy. I had moments where I thought I could be a bit of a hypochondriac. Glad I'm not. I even had moments over the last few months where I thought I was having pain from the appendix and I guess I was right then too.
 
What happens now? I go on a continuous birth control and hope that the endometriosis takes it's time growing back. There are no guarantees with this disease. That sucks. I can just hope I'm one of the lucky ones who has had a successful surgery and that hormone therapy helps. I just can't wait for the moment that I can go a week or more without any abdominal pain. I can't wait to have sex and not worry that it's going to hurt. I hope I've gotten some normalcy out of this.