...has come to an end!!
Yesterday I went in for tubal cauterization on the one side that just wouldn't quit. The surgical center was lovely, all the staff friendly, and the whole thing went swimmingly! I came away with only one tiny incision.
(Going into it I was more than a little nervous because of my last experience with laproscopic surgery, but that was an entirely different set of circumstances involving a gangrenous gall bladder and trying to recover while nursing a 6 week old, and more holes poked in me than your average pin cushion. It didn't go well.)
I felt wonderful yesterday!! Well, wonderful with regular doses of percocet, but still just wonderful! The only thing that was a little odd was that when I first woke up from the surgery, my jaw muscles were SORE, like chewing bubble gum for 12 hours kind of sore. I asked the nurse about it, and she asked the nurse who worked with the anesthesiologist. She said it was a slight reaction to one of the medicines, that sometimes it can do that. So, I went on my merry drugged way and didn't really think anything more of it.
I am extremely fortunate to have a very dear friend who is also an anesthesiologist. When I talked to her later that night, she explained that there is a muscle relaxer that is given that can have that effect on patients, but we didn't really go into further details.
At 5am today I awoke in PAIN. Everything muscle above my belly button hurt like I had done isolation exercises on just that muscle for hours the day before. I whimpered and groaned my way out of bed and into the bathroom where I quickly took another percocet and tried to figure out what the heck was going on with my body. I did a little stretching, but it was so painful that I just whimpered and groaned back to bed and let the percocet put me back to sleep.
When I finally got out of bed again at 7 to take Lilyanna downstairs, nothing was better. It hurt to breathe, move, laugh, cough, and even swallow. I've never been as aware that my tongue is made up of muscles as I am today. I emailed my dear friend and asked if this was possibly related to the whole jaw thing from the day before. This was her response:
Dear Emilia,
Your intuition is right - it is exactly the same thing as your
jaw muscle effect. I was thinking of mentioning to you yesterday that
you got "lucky" it was only your jaw muscles and you don't feel
overall achy "like you had the flu". You are right to feel that
every muscle got an isolation work-out. The way this relaxant works
is it EXCITES every neuromuscular junction until they're pooped out.
Which means ALL your muscles twitch/spasm before they relax.
If it makes you feel any better, they normally say
"muscular/athlethic" people have this problem more than flabby couch
potatoes ( since you're into silver linings ;) )
Hmmm - you know, from now on, if (Heaven forbid!) you're going
to have surgery, we need to talk about what they'll be doing, and then
we are going to form an anesthetic plan for you. :)
Next time, tell them you had an adverse reaction to
"succinylcholine" and please don't use it!
Yesterday I went in for tubal cauterization on the one side that just wouldn't quit. The surgical center was lovely, all the staff friendly, and the whole thing went swimmingly! I came away with only one tiny incision.
(Going into it I was more than a little nervous because of my last experience with laproscopic surgery, but that was an entirely different set of circumstances involving a gangrenous gall bladder and trying to recover while nursing a 6 week old, and more holes poked in me than your average pin cushion. It didn't go well.)
I felt wonderful yesterday!! Well, wonderful with regular doses of percocet, but still just wonderful! The only thing that was a little odd was that when I first woke up from the surgery, my jaw muscles were SORE, like chewing bubble gum for 12 hours kind of sore. I asked the nurse about it, and she asked the nurse who worked with the anesthesiologist. She said it was a slight reaction to one of the medicines, that sometimes it can do that. So, I went on my merry drugged way and didn't really think anything more of it.
I am extremely fortunate to have a very dear friend who is also an anesthesiologist. When I talked to her later that night, she explained that there is a muscle relaxer that is given that can have that effect on patients, but we didn't really go into further details.
At 5am today I awoke in PAIN. Everything muscle above my belly button hurt like I had done isolation exercises on just that muscle for hours the day before. I whimpered and groaned my way out of bed and into the bathroom where I quickly took another percocet and tried to figure out what the heck was going on with my body. I did a little stretching, but it was so painful that I just whimpered and groaned back to bed and let the percocet put me back to sleep.
When I finally got out of bed again at 7 to take Lilyanna downstairs, nothing was better. It hurt to breathe, move, laugh, cough, and even swallow. I've never been as aware that my tongue is made up of muscles as I am today. I emailed my dear friend and asked if this was possibly related to the whole jaw thing from the day before. This was her response:
Dear Emilia,
Your intuition is right - it is exactly the same thing as your
jaw muscle effect. I was thinking of mentioning to you yesterday that
you got "lucky" it was only your jaw muscles and you don't feel
overall achy "like you had the flu". You are right to feel that
every muscle got an isolation work-out. The way this relaxant works
is it EXCITES every neuromuscular junction until they're pooped out.
Which means ALL your muscles twitch/spasm before they relax.
If it makes you feel any better, they normally say
"muscular/athlethic" people have this problem more than flabby couch
potatoes ( since you're into silver linings ;) )
Hmmm - you know, from now on, if (Heaven forbid!) you're going
to have surgery, we need to talk about what they'll be doing, and then
we are going to form an anesthetic plan for you. :)
Next time, tell them you had an adverse reaction to
"succinylcholine" and please don't use it!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How awesome is my friend, Sukhvinder, for being there for me through my medical mysteries, btw? I love and adore that lady!
AND how awesome is it that I'm in complete agonizing pain because I'm "muscular/athletic"?? It's a small victory, but still.
AND AND AND I don't ever have to take birth control pills again!!!! Hooray hooray hooray!!
So, you know, a little adverse reaction to anesthesia aside, everything went very well yesterday and it is not a surgery to be nervous about.
The End.
4 comments:
Thanks for the insight on that surgery...it is on my to do list for next year! Hope you continue to recover quickly and wishing you donuts and hot cocoa!
Grr...blogger ate my comment. :/
Glad things went well, glad it worked, but I'm sorry for the complication. Definitely no fun. How lucky you are to have a friend that can help identify what happened!
Glad the procedure went well. So sorry about the weird side effects. I seem to also find myself in that small percentage of people who react to meds/procedures in the strangest ways. Me and morphine should never be put together again. Hope your recovery keeps going swimmingly, friend.
Ooo! Anne Marie, I'm sorry to hear about you and morphine! Morphine derivatives are my favorite post surgical treat! ;)
Thanks all for your well wishes.
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