How many times have you wished for something to happen and then out of nowhere it does? So, the last blog that we posted was a bit ranting with not hearing anything from the NHS and then finding out we weren’t even on the waiting list, which was very frustrating!
Funnily enough, the very next morning after I'd had my little whittle on the phone to them, I had a message come through and then a phone call pretty much straight after saying that my laparoscopy was booked in for just before Christmas!!
Obviously this was a bit of a shock as I wasn’t expecting it at all just yet, especially after 16 months of waiting and not hearing a single thing (other than the odd text message asking if I still needed an appointment).
The lady I was talking to told me I would get a message come through to fill in a health questionnaire and that I would also get an appointment come through to attend a pre-op appointment. All of this was done within a matter of days and all I can say is thank god I'm self-employed and have the ability to juggle my diary around because it was all such short notice and I genuinely believe I wouldn't have been able to navigate this so quickly if I was employed.
A few days later I went to my pre-op appointment.
The staff there were really good. I even managed to get in early!! At this appointment I had to pee in a pot, have a swab up my nose & perineum (separate swabs 😊), got my blood pressure, height and weight checked & had some bloods taken.
Now, usually my blood pressure is fine but for some reason, on this day, it was high. It was checked about 4 times and didn’t really change much. This was an issue. If it didn’t come down then they wouldn’t be able to do the op that I needed for things to progress.
For the next week I had to monitor it myself at home & they also gave me a letter to take to the GP just incase I needed to go on medication. At the end of the week, it was fine and normal. It must have been the excitement of having an appointment come through that made it high :)!!
On the day of the appointment……
On the morning of the appointment I packed my bag ready – just a dressing gown & a book (hopefully I would be in and out in the day) and was only allowed to drink water from 7am - 11am with no food and then nothing at all after 11am.
I had been told to get to the hospital for 11am so one of my amazing friends dropped me off that morning (and gave me some jaffa cakes which got demolished the following day).
I made my way to the theatre arrivals area, they checked all my details and took me to where I would be waiting. When I had an operation on my knee years ago, I got to wait in a bed. This time I had a chair and table which is fine if you don’t have to wait around for hours. But I was finally there so can't moan! Again, the staff here were lovely, engaging and were always checking on everyone.
When I got to my bay, the nurse gave me another pot to pee in – they had to check I wasn’t
pregnant (I wish!). After this they gave me some stunning clothes to wear!!
From around 11.30 – 2pm various members of the team came around to introduce themselves & say what part they would have in the surgery.
Firstly I met the anaesthetist – lovely bloke who told me what he would be doing & checked that I wasn’t allergic to anything & had no underlying health conditions.
Then I met the consultant who we have previously spoke to on the phone. Now, from the phone call we had before, I will admit that I wasn’t his biggest fan. When someone tells you that the reason you cant get pregnant is because you’re too fat and need to lose half your body weight, it doesn’t make you particularly like them. But I understand he has a job to do. So he comes in and introduces himself. One of the first things he says is “the weight loss hasn’t gone too well…”. From initially speaking to him 16/18 months ago I have lost a stone and half so I felt like a black eye would suit him at the time but I composed myself knowing that I am running further than I ever have and both of our eating habits have changed for the better but I am the first to admit we both live busy lives and I'm immensely proud we have lost weight so I'm not letting him get me down about trying!
I have done my own research as this is an area I work in and after implementing some of the training I have done I now have more settled & regular periods than I have ever had. I did try and discuss this with him but he didn't seem to want to know about that because hey it must all be down to your BMI not being in a certain range.
Once that comment was out of the way he covered what they were actually planning on doing in the operation. I thought it was going to be a laparoscopy – so they make an incision in your abdomen, fill you with carbon dioxide, basically make me look like a fair balloon and put a camera in through another small incision and have a look around (they wanted to see my tubes). Then he told me they would also be putting a camera up into my womb & inserting dye up there so they can see if it goes into my tubes or not.
This is all fine & I gave consent for him to do whatever he needed to do. At this point, after waiting for what felt like forever to just get to here, I didn’t care what they wanted to do.
Then another couple of members of the team came through, introduced themselves, checked who I was, no underlying health conditions etc asked if I had any questions, then left.
They don’t give you a time for your surgery, its just a case of waiting for them to do one and wait for your turn so I was very glad to have a book with me.
It was finally my turn at around 4pm. I walked down to the theatre with my pillow & went into the operating room. Once I was on the bed, they put a cannula in, gave me some oxygen and then gave me something that made me woozy but didn’t knock me out. After a minute they gave me the anaesthetic, which they said might feel cold as it goes up my arm, and that is the last thing I remember!!
I woke up in the recovery room about 5.20, mouth dry as the Sahara desert and the nurse asking if I was ok. I managed to mumble “water” while fighting to keep my eyes open. After 10/15 mins they took me to the ward where Dave, who had been waiting around for about 90 mins, was able to come in, say hello or in his case "you not slept enough you lazy arse" whilst I was still coming round. Anyone who says I don't have a caring husband, I have no idea what you're talking about! He was told although he can come say hello he then had to leave to wait in a different room. The nurse got me a coffee, sandwich, biscuits & crisps. The coffee was the best thing ever at that moment in time & really helped to wash down my egg mayo sandwich which I was struggling to have because of the Sahara mouth. At this point I had come around enough and felt ok that I just wanted to go home.
The nurses kept coming back and checking my blood pressure very regularly and after being on the ward for about an hour I had made myself get up, have a wee (because they wont let you go home otherwise), got dressed and told them I'm going. One of the nurses came back with some dressings & a letter basically saying that the op went well & everything looked normal!! Amazing!!!
In the brief the nurse did say they had taken a biopsy but she didn’t know why which was a little concerning but hopefully I should get a letter over the next few weeks going over everything.
At the bottom of the letter it says I will have a follow up with the consultant in 6 months & to continue with the weight loss which again feels like another delay having waited this long. I'm aiming to have a call with them in the new year to see if there is any way we can move this on sooner than 6 months before we talk again as I believe we have a 4-5 month wait once we are in the IVF list anyway!
Overall though, we are one step closer so all in all it seems like good news!!
The difficulty in managing some of this is the knocks at every turn and this time around the biggest one definitely feels like the doctor calling me fat...again...but I have now got a point to prove and will continue to lose more weight & be healthier than I ever have been!!