Shrike's Surgery Summary

As I already mentioned, via text message from the hospital, everything went very well with Shrike's surgery this morning, both medically and otherwise.

We drove down last night and stayed at a hotel not far from the hospital, stopping on the way for dinner at Carraba's and a little trip to Home Depot, just to give Peeper a chance to stretch her little legs.

While there, Shrike bought her a singing Elmo Christmas stocking which, by the time we got to our hotel, was lucky to have not been thrown out of the window. But Peeper loves it, so we will learn to love it, too.

She was up later than we would have liked last night, but not really that much later than normal, so whatcha gonna do?

Other than be really tired, come five o'clock in the damn morning.

She did pretty well with getting up and dressed - well, with being moved to my lap and diapers, dressed and piggytailed while nursing - and we headed off to the hospital. When we got there, I put Peeper in the not-an-Ergo, where she stayed most of the time.

After checking in with three different locations (a drill that we already knew, from Peeper's dental work) they took Shrike back alone to "get her ready," which meant "put her in funny clothes and stick an IV in her." For some reason, that took about 30 or 45 minutes, during which time, Peeper and I just kind of hung out. When she went back, Peeper was not too happy about it, and kept asking for her, which was sweet, but sad.

When it was time to go back and wait with her, just as I was heading back there, I heard someone say, "Hey!" behind me - and it was Dr. E, just arriving. She said she just had to change clothes, and she'd be right over to talk to us, and sure enough she came by not too long after that.

She went over risks and such (lalala I'm not listening!) and assured us that the study is still enrolling and prescreening lots more patients, and told us that Shrike would be in the OR for about two hours, including about a half-hour of intstrument set up, because it's all very high-tech (hysteroscopy), "like a really fancy video game."

Then things happened quickly, and the anesthesioligist came by and a nurse with final instructions, and then it was time to kiss her bye-bye and send her on her way.

This time, Peeper took it even less well, and cried for her!

I guess she could sense that everyone was a little nervous, because she kisses her good bye for work almost everyday and is very matter of fact about it, but not today.

That was even sweeter and even sadder, but I managed not to cry (much) myself, and we headed over the cafeteria for some breakfast.

After eating and browsing the gift shop, we sat down and Peeper nursed (still in the not-an-Ergo) and fell asleep, where she stayed for the next, oh, two hours or so, through one move to a different waiting area, one incoming phone call, one incoming text, one conference with the two doctors, and one outgoing phone call. She was zonked.

Dr E and one of her buddies, who assisted with the operation, both came out to talk to me. She introduced me to Dr O, who said, "I think I've met you before." I told her that was pretty sure she'd met me up close and personal, at some point during our Peeper-making. She might have even done one of my IUIs, but was certainly there for at least an ultrasound or two.

Anyway, Dr E was downright giddy about how well everything had gone with the surgery. She'd told us that there was a chance that, if the fibroid was partially in the uterine wall, that that portion could work its way out and require a second surgery, but it turns out that not only was none of it in the wall, but it was on a "stalk" which meant that it was very easy to remove the whole thing without a lot of cutting.

She also said that, before they left the OR, Shrike was awake(ish) and joking around - saying that "Hey, I delivered a bouncing baby fibroid!"

Given what a cranky-pants Peeper was after her anesthesia, I sure was glad to hear that!

It was almost another hour before we were allowed to go back and see her, and Peeper slept until about five minutes before they called us, which worked out just perfectly.

When we finally got to see Shrike, she was awake and said she felt really good, all things considered. Peeper sat in her lap for a while (and then out and back in and the came to me to nurse, then back to Mommy. . . .) and then, before too long, we were free to go.

Peeper insisted on riding in the wheelchair with Mommy, and waiting with her while I went to get the car. Even then, she didn't want to get out of it, until I lured her into the car with her new Elmo.

She really did amazingly well, especially considering that she'd only had about four hours sleep when we got her up, and that there wasn't much to do. That whole sleeping-for-two-hours things was a big plus.

She did get fussy in the car, right before we stopped for lunch (or, maybe that's why we stopped just then), and when we got about thirty minutes from home.

Then, about ten minutes away, she fell asleep.

Which would have be okay, but the plan was to drop her at Shrike's parents for a while, so we could nap. After much debating and discussing, I ended up nursing her in the car for a while, while she slept, then woke her up and pissed her off, and almost just took her home, but couldn't get her into the carseat, because she was crying and begging to nurse, so we just went in, where she got down and went off to play with toys, and the dogs, and try to go upstairs . . . .

So Shrike and I came home and slept for about three hours, until they brought her home. Then she fell asleep at 6:40 pm. She's woken a few times and nursed back down, but, as of midnight, she is (knock wood) still asleep.

Shrike's sleeping too and has promised to get up with her in the morning, if she sleeps through and gets up early, and I've been up late. (Which, I suppose, I have.)

Sometime during that couple of hours that Shrike was up, Dr E called to check on her. She'd meant to see her again after she finished with her second surgery of the day, but we'd already left. She seemed surprised that Shrike was ready to go that soon, and that she was feeling as good as she is.

Shrike talked to her for a while, and also said that she just seemed very, very happy about how well it all went.

She also said that she'd emailed the study coordinator and updated her, and that the word is that we're still on track to prescreen in mid/late November (after being back off the pill for one cycle) and to start the IVF cycle in mid January.

Woo Hoo!!!