First, I want to thank everyone for your kind comments, prayers and concern expressed for my friends on my last couple of posts.  The family of my friend who passed away still needs prayers, of course.  They are very strong, and have a great deal of support, but it is still an incredibly difficult situation as they grieve.  My friends’ baby girl is doing fairly well.  She’s had a few setbacks, and one surgery, but so far so good.  As some of you know, things can be very moment-to-moment, day by day in the NICU, and my friends are living that now.  Please keep praying for them, and I’ll do my best to update on their little girl’s progress. 

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I had a laparoscopy this week.  The doctor found mild endometriosis: one spot on an ovary and a couple of spots on the uterosacral ligaments, all of which were burned away during the procedure.  I’m still quite bloated, but otherwise am feeling pretty good.  I have pictures of my insides, with the areas of endometriosis circled, which is a bit surreal. 

The doctor told me that these spots are about the size of the tip of a pen.  It’s hard to believe that something as small as those tiny dots could have been impacting my fertility, but I guess there’s no way to know for certain.  I’m hopeful that once I have healed from the surgery, that we’ll be able to get pregnant naturally.  But even if that’s not the case, it still feels good to have taken this step, and have more information about what may be going on.  

Some general observations from the surgery (mostly to help me remember, but also for anyone who may be considering a laparoscopy): The bloating caused by the CO2 gas takes awhile to go away.  I actually look like I’m about 2-3 months pregnant due to all of the extra gas.  Strangely, I also weigh about 6-7 pounds more than I did on the morning of the surgery.  I am guessing this is due to water retention.  Most of the pain I feel is in my abdomen, and around the incision areas (the doctor made four incisions total).  It feels like bad gas pain, with some bruising.  I have had some shoulder pain, and having my shoulders rubbed has helped.  The post-op papers I received stated that the shoulder pain should subside in 24 hours, but that has not been the case for me, as my shoulders are still aching two days later.  My throat is sore from the tube and my voice sounds a little strange and hoarse.  One side of my lower lip is sore, with a dark broken blood vessel on the inside of my lip, which I am guessing is from extubation.  I took some of the prescription pain medicine the evening after the surgery, and the next morning, but haven’t needed any since then.  I haven’t had any trouble walking around, and in fact, should probably be walking around more to try to get more of the gas out.  I’m not sure when I’ll be back to running, but the doctor did say that I could do that whenever I felt comfortable enough.  I took a total of three days off work, including the day of the surgery.  I probably could have gone back into the office today (the third day), but because I’m still so bloated I decided not to, and will be doing some work from home.     

Overall, not a bad experience at all.  And now we have a bit more information as to what our problem may be, which is a good thing.  It feels good to have taken this active (albeit small) step towards resolving our infertility, after years of trying without success to conceive.  I’m hopeful.

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