This is a part of the actual Ovarian cancer on the Right ovary. It doesn't happen very often that your spouse is in the operating room with you with the camera. Dr. Quinn encouraged Jeff to look at how big my right ovary was. It was tennis ball size when it should be the size of an almond. At this point in the surgery, my Left ovary had already been removed due to its size and it twisting on itself.
On July 15th I entered IMC hospital ready for my abdominal surgery to remove what I thought would just be my uterus and right ovary. I had a CT scan a week prior to surgery and was told that there was no other cancer beside the ovary. I got prepped for surgery and said goodbye to Jeff, my Dad and Grandpa P. I layed on the gurney for a good few hours waiting to have the surgery. Dr. Karen Zempolich spoke with me before we entered the operating room and explained that she will start with a small endoscopic incision and look around. If she needed to, she would do a vertical incision to remove what cancer she could see. I honestly didn't think we would have to do a big incision. The anesthesiologist met with me as well and informed me that if we did have to make a big incision we would have the epidural in the recovery room, but didn't think I would be needing it.
I was surprised when I woke up in recovery sitting up on the edge of the table receiving an epidural and even though I was quite out of it, I knew I had the big incision. When I finally opened my eyes and looked across the room and saw that it was 9 PM I thought their clock was wrong. My surgery was only supposed to be 5 hours at the most, but after talking to my family learned that I had been in surgery for 9 hours! I was taken to my surgical recovery room and saw my parents, husband, and brother and sister there waiting for me. Everyone was surprised by how good I felt and how at 11:30 PM I finally came out of recovery. I tried to ask how my surgery went but nobody would really tell me, they just wanted me to go to sleep and get rest.
The following morning I asked Jeff again about the surgery. He told me it was a lot worse than we expected and that's why the surgery ended up being 9 hours. Once Dr. Zempolich got into my abdomen she saw what she explained looked like "a million pieces of rice thrown inside my abdomen". These were all cancerous and needed to be 'debulked'. Dr. Zempolich also found that the cancer had spread a coating over my diaphragm and liver and uterus and decided to remove my appendix and spleen as these are commonly attacked by Ovarian Cancer.
I woke up from recovery and realized I had a huge tube in my nose along with an oxygen cannula. The tube was placed in order to prevent anything from getting into my stomach. I was placed on an ice chip only diet which was awful because I had to do a bowel cleanse and couldn't eat the day before surgery and by this point I was starving. My mom would sneak in some chicken broth for me to swish around in my mouth in order to get a flavor in my mouth since I was so hungry. This diet lasted at least 4 days until I was given the ok to start a liquid only diet for another few days. I finally was able to have the tube removed which was wonderful! I still wasn't able to eat much but was finally able to advance my diet to a soft one a day or two before I went home which was 9 days after surgery.
I had such a hard time even standing up to get to the bathroom because of the abdominal pain and was lucky enough to have my mom, sister, and Jeff willing to help me shower. I had a drainage tube placed on my left side which I had to empty very frequently. The tube was removed the night before going home and I was so glad, but unfortunately it was too soon and I had to do a ton of wound drainage care at home. At home I had to put layers of gauze and tape a chuck pad over my abdomen and change it every half hour because it would be soaked. It took a good month after surgery to stop draining.
Another really hard part and reason I stayed so long in the hospital is that I couldn't have a bowel movement even with a lot of extra help. I didn't want to go home and get a bowel obstruction on top of all I had done.
During my stay I was lucky enough to get permission to keep Brynnley in the hospital room with me since she was only one month old. My family spent so much time taking turns staying with me during the day and sleeping there at night. I am overwhelmed with the support I have!
