Goodbye good friend :-)

So, I've been having some health issues lately that I've tried to keep "hush, hush" due to them being of a personal nature. But, many of you have heard of my surgery so I figured I might as well just get over myself and blog about it. I told Chad part of me would rather have people thinking I'm going in for plastic surgery than having a hysterectomy - lol! What can I say?...I'm a weirdo. ;-)

My uterus has become my friend and my enemy over the past 10 years. It allowed me to become pregnant 3 times...and carry each child to term...and deliver 3 perfectly healthy babies. It has served me very very well. But, it came time to say goodbye to my friend as it recently became a thorn in my side (or thorn in my center??).

For a long time, I had thought I had normal "G.I." problems...pretty regular cramping in my lower abdomen that annoyed the heck out of me and I tried to ignore it for years. But after a year of uncomfortable abdominal swelling, increasingly worse cramping, and serious lower back pain among other issues I won't go in to, a good friend told me I needed to GO TO THE DOCTOR. And so I did.

When the doctor brought Chad and I in to his office 3 weeks ago, I was shaking in my boots...thought for sure he must've found cancer. So, when he said I had Adenomyosis, I wanted to whoop and holler! The phrase "keep it classy, Fleming Island" ran through my head though, thx to my friend Shannon, and instead, I calmly breathed a sigh of relief and asked "What the heck is Adenomyosis?? (Turns out it's a fairly common problem among women my age, but unfortunately mine was more progressed than most - my uterus was larger than a woman who is 12 weeks pregnant...not good.) And when he told me I needed a hysterectomy, I about fell out of my chair. I'm pretty sure I sputtered and said "Are you kidding??? I'm only 30 years old!". But, he wasn't kidding and after receiving a 2nd opinion and a Colonoscopy to confirm that this wasn't GI related, I said "ok". (side note - the colonoscopy revealed that the hospitalization during my pregnancy with Lillie was due to my uterus - NOT GI problems.) So, Two weeks later, I went in for surgery...feeling very at peace with this decision and very ready for better days ahead. :-)

The day before my surgery, I had about 2 minutes of tears...2 minutes of boo-hoo'ing with my hand over my womb thinking how sad I was to lose this piece of me that had helped to breathe life and love in to our family and our home. But, after those two minutes, I knew it was time to move on. Time to look ahead. Time to be done with these issues.

Recovery was initially tougher than what I expected...I required 5 catheters in 48 hours (awake for them all...fun stuff). Apparently my uterus had done some damage to the nerves attached to my bladder which wound up impeding my healing progress and certainly discouraged me. BUT - those issues are finally resolved and aside from another week of bed rest, and some soreness, I'm doing good. :-) So thankful to say all those symptoms I was having prior to surgery are GONE!

I knew I was blessed with friends and family, but sometimes I have to pinch myself and thank God for giving me friends and family who make life so fulfilling. Thank you all for the babysitting, flowers, meals, magazines, bedside visits, texts, phone calls, emails, cards, prayers, hospital visits, etc etc etc!

Ok...enough about Uteruses right?! I promise - no more blog posts about female body parts again! ;-p