First & Last Biking Ride & Party Time

                                                              March 6, 2016

Two days before my surgery we had a beautiful day, so I talked Joe into loading up the bikes and kids and going to the bike trail.

I had bought a tag along bike for Maddie this year off  Craigslist  We had not used it or even rode our bikes once this winter. A tag along bike attaches to an adults bike. The rider can pedal along, though Maddie could barely touch the pedals. Lennox opted to ride his scooter that day, and Noah was on his bike.

I originally was going to attach the tag along to my bike, but my bike was too short and it did not accommodate it. Joe was stuck pulling the weight.

Break time at one of the many donated swings by a family of a deceased ex-biking snowbird.

It has been a really rough winter for me this year, with getting so very little sleep. We have not spend much time with the grandkids, and Joe was frustrated because we didn't do much this year.  I have felt like a hamster on a hamster wheel, spinning my wheels, just trying to accomplish the basics of daily life, before it was time to go back to another sleepless night. It was nice to have just one day with the kids on the bike trail, knowing that after surgery this was not going to happen again until next year.

Joe takes Lennox for a ride on the tag along.

Then Noah gets a chance to ride with papa. Joe said the boys were much harder because of the weight increase and their moving around much more, which jerked his bike around.

Somehow we forgot my bike's basket. Being our first year without our Nest, it was hard to think of everything. I got out my kangaroo pouch and Mallery rode this way. The only problem was every time I stopped and started, I would bump her head on the handle bars. The pouch is not a real good way to bike with your fury friend.

Our ride was pretty short, as Lennox got tired pretty fast riding his scooter. Noah was upset we had to turn around as he wanted to go to the rock climbing park that he played at last year. Some day they will hopefully all be at the same speed to ride bikes and I will be normal again.

On Monday, my daughter Alisha and I went to Mobile for my pre-op appointment at Dr. Charles Max Roger's office. After blood work and appointment we found the Drury Inn that I had booked for the night before surgery. On arrival we were given coupons for 4 free drinks each. Unfortunately I could not have any alcohol 24 hours before my Abdominal Hysterectomy surgery, so I told my daughter she could have mine. Alisha had just started a diet, so we both gave up our freebies. Later I went down to get something out of my car, and in the lobby there was a free salad bar/pasta dish and other food buffet for free. Yea, I was told it would be best if I had a clear liquid diet for dinner that night and nothing after midnight. Oh and there was free popcorn too. Dang!

I had to be at the Mobil Infirmary Hospital at 6AM the next day on Tuesday March 8. At check in I was taken to outpatient surgery and as my anesthesiologist talked to me, his assistance put my IV in. I had a really bad experience with IV placement when I had an  emergency appendectomy in 2003, with 4 different people trying to insert it. I know I was dehydrated then, but it has always been  a fear it will happen again. At 7:30, the anesthesiologist assistance said it was time to put my party hat on. I looked at her with a question mark look, I am sure. She pulled out the blue sterile surgery hat and put it on my head. Then she said, "See I have my party hat on too"! She really had a way to lighten the mood and put a smile on my face. Next she said, "It's time to go to your party" and started to roll me down the hall! We got to the operating room and then the lights went out! I woke up an hour later, seeing Alisha and Jamie asking how I was feeling. Jamie came to Mobile for the day because his new job is in Mobile.

I spent two nights in the hospital, sleeping under pain medication most the time. I remember both nights, I woke up and looked at my schedule board, only to find I had another hour before my next pain pill. I ate very little while in the hospital, because I felt so nausea, and had a dry mouth. At one point I just about lost it. I asked for a bucket, and said "no" to myself, knowing it would probably hurt like "H".  I set my mind and got control of the situation. This hospital didn't have the best rating according to www.Healthgrades.com, so I was a bit apprehensive about having surgery there. Dr. Charles Max Rogers had great reviews, and he had many years of experience, so I took a leap of faith on the hospital. I can gladly say I felt I had exceptional care and the facilities were great at this hospital. I had a private room with a heated toilet seat and a rain head and horizontal wall sprayer in the shower. I would rate both Dr. Max and Mobile Infirmary Hospital very high.

 The hospital has a hotel on the top floor, and I had reserved a room for Alisha, but her husband told her, I would probably feel better if she stayed with me. She cancelled the hotel room and stayed with me on the jack- knife couch. She didn't get much sleep with the constant traffic of nurse checks and the uncomfortable sleeping situation. I was so glad she stay the first night, as I couldn't get out of bed due to being hooked up to oxygen, (oxygen levels were low), leg pumps on my legs from ankles to knees, (to prevent blood clots), and the IV hook up. During the first day and night I was on morphine. During the night they switch me to Norco, another opiate drug. One of these drugs cause a allergic reaction because I became extremely itchy from head to toe. After 4 hours, they switch me to Percocet. The next day I was taken off the oxygen, and leg pumps and was up and walking. If you are squeamish you may not want to see the next picture. I ask my surgeon, if he could take a picture of my fibroid. On the 2nd day when he came in, he handed his phone and this picture to me.

The scissors are 6 inches for size reference. Most women who have hysterectomies do so mostly because of fibroids, endometriosis, prolapse of uterus or cancer. In the fibroid case's, most women have heavy bleeding and or pain, neither of which I had. My only problem was it got so big that it shut off my urethra, causing me to be unable to go to the bathroom. Then it was off to the emergency room to be catheterized two times. I also self catheterized myself 5 to 6 times, as a urologist showed me how to do it until the mater was taken care of. This is a very rare symptom that I was so blessed to have! Some women have many small fibroids. I had one small one and one very large one. This fibroid was close to10cm or the size of a grapefruit. The small one was 1/2 the size of a pea.

I spent one year off hormones and a vegan diet trying to shrink this fibroid baby. It shrank only to grow back when I restarted my hormones. I tried supplements that were suppose to help shrink it also. I prayed for healing, but nothing seemed to help. My prayers were answered when I found surgeon's hands, whom I felt comfortable enough to cut me open and to remove this mass of muscles. I know God had his hand in this surgery, because my biggest concern was who was going to watch Mallery. Mallery hates going to both my daughters house's, because she hates kids, cats and dogs, which both of them have. I looked for doggy day care, but there were none close by. I thought about boarding her at a veterinary, but that meant leaving her in a kennel all night with no one there and having to give her a rabies shot first. I refuse to give her any shots with her being so sick. It says on the rabies shot information, not to be given to a sick dog, yet it is a law that dogs have to have them to be kenneled or groomed. How crazy are our law's. Years prior, I saw my sister's old dog die the same day he got vaccinations. Two weeks before my surgery, my daughter Alisha, quit her job to work independently again. A few days later her husband was hired to a new job, that would allow him to be home every night, verses home every other week. With all these happenings, Alisha offered to go with me, Joe could stay home with Mallery, and Jamie was able to stay home with their kids. Two weeks prior, none of this would have been possible. God is good and answers prays in ways we don't understand. I originally planned on having my surgery with a Chicago surgeon, but after the 1 1/2 hour ride home from Mobile, I knew we had made the right decision. The 6 hour drive from Chicago to Northern Michigan would have ended, I'm sure, in 2 night stop stays in hotels, just to get back home.