Vein Surgery...

With the birth of Colton and the hospitalization of Colton earlier this year, we spent a lot of money on medical bills and were quickly approaching our out of pocket maximum with our health insurance. Yes, you read that right, our out of pocket maximum. Sheesh!

So I decided it was the time to see a doctor about a hideous vein that I have always had on the back of my leg. After a couple of appointments and an ultrasound, it turns out that not only was it hideous, but there was also some leakage, so we were set to remove this thing. The only problem was that it was attached to a nerve, so if the doctor shot it up with the killing stuff (normal plan of action) it would also kill my nerve, so that was not going to work. Which meant I actually had to have surgery to remove this vein.

So last Thursday John and I headed to the hospital at 7:00 in the morning (the time my doctor’s office told me to be there) and checked in. Even though this was a very simple, common procedure, I was still super nervous because I’ve never had surgery before. What made my nerves worse was that the hospital didn’t have me scheduled until 12:15, and there was an emergency that came in that morning, so my surgery was going to be even later! After some pushing from me, I finally went back around 12:45 and they started getting me ready.

The nurses were fantastic back there and finally around 3:00 I was ready to go in. I remember being wheeled into the operating room, but that’s it! The next thing I remember was waking up in recovery about an hour and a half later. Once I was awake, they brought John in and I got dressed and we headed out. I was so groggy and slept the whole way home. Once John got me settled into bed, he took all the kids out to get me pain medicine, the kids dinner, and me some fries and a frosty (I hadn’t eaten since 9:00 PM the night before!). I slept some more and finally around 7:30 I was able to get up and eat and move around.

I was (and still am) surprised at the amount of pain I have had. While my leg is sore and looks horrible, I really expected more pain. I have been walking around and going up and down steps since the night after my surgery.

The worst part about the whole thing was that I couldn’t nurse Colton for 24 hours after my surgery, and he doesn’t take a bottle anymore, so poor John was up with him a few times at night and he was a pistol! And on top of that, Ryan had some kind of a stomach thing, so he was throwing up every 40 minutes. So John would deal with Colton and I would take care of Ryan and put the laundry in, etc. It was a horrible night, but thankfully, Ryan was done being sick by morning and was fine the rest of the day!

I’m still recovering…I often forget that it hurts to bend my knee (the incision spots are still really sore) and it’s hard not wrestling around with the kids. But it is getting so much better every day and I can’t wait to see what my leg looks like after all this bruising is gone!