The Balloon from Hell

Yesterday started with an innocent enough mix-up.  I got up at 5:00 to get ready for my surgery, showered, and woke my husband up.  That's when I realized it was actually an hour earlier than I'd thought and my alarm clock had Sprung Forward two days early.  Somehow it had the date wrong, wrong year and everything.  Ok, fine.  Took a nap for an hour and thought it was no big deal.  Maybe it was a sign of worse things to come.

The procedure itself was fine.  My veins behaved beautifully for the IV insertion, I passed out pleasantly (isn't it always pleasant?), and wasn't in too much pain afterward.  My doctor removed some more scar tissue and needed to insert a balloon to promote healing, so had to trim back my septum farther.  The balloon was inserted and 5cc of fluid put in to prevent the uterine walls from fusing back together and forming more scar tissue. 

My husband recorded his conversation with the doctor afterward, and I have yet to listen to it.  I've looked at the detailed drawings, timeline, and uterus pics, though, which is about all I can handle right now.  Looks like I'll be taking estrogen and then estrogen/progesterone this cycle, having a period, and then having another saline infusion sonogram.  I have the option of doing letrozole at the same time as the 3D sono, but I'm not sure where I stand on that.

Back to yesterday.  I hadn't picked up my post-op prescriptions yet because my work week had been busy, so we stopped by the pharmacy.  The resident who'd written the prescriptions hadn't written a quantity for oxycodone, which started a drawn-out drama of trying to get it fixed by phone while we were waiting.  About an hour later, meds in hand, we were able to head home.  Pain and cramping started to set in for real.

Thirty minutes later, I was writhing on the floor in agony.  It sounds totally melodramatic but I'm actually not exaggerating.  Pain meds weren't helping so we headed to my doctor's office 30 minutes away.  Seriously do not know how I made it through the trip, I was so out of my mind with pain.

I saw a fellow, who with my main doctor's blessing removed 2 cc's of the fluid from the balloon.  It gave me immediate relief but not enough, so he removed another cc.  I started bleeding, and the doctor said some of the pain had been from blood building up that couldn't be expelled.  I went home feeling much less pain and no inclination to writhe.

That's when the bleeding picked up.  A couple of hours later, I called the fellow again, and he said I'd have to go to the ER if the bleeding continued to be heavy.  That definitely freaked me out—did not want to go there.  Thankfully, the bleeding tapered some by bedtime and I pretended to sleep.  Couldn't sleep more than 30 minutes at a stretch.

Called the fellow again this morning and the current plan is to removed the balloon tomorrow morning.  We'd planned on removing it on Friday, but I can't deal with this level of pain for that long.  I wouldn't be able to work, for one thing.  The doctors say it's probably been in long enough to do some good, anyway.

I haven't really been able to process the fact that we'll be waiting at least one more month, if not more.  I can't say I'm surprised, though.

Quick Blogger question that's been driving me crazy:  some of the blogs I've followed through Google Friend Connect don't appear on my main Blogger Dashboard page or my Google Reader.  I end up missing those posts and it makes me sad.  Any ideas what's going on?