Surgery follow up

My follow up phone call with Dr. E went well.  I don't need any more surgery.  Hooray!  She reviewed the path report with me and explained that she removed several of the black spots from different areas, and they were confirmed to be carbon deposits from my previous surgery (vaporization of endo).  Even though each spot is my body's immune response to a foreign body, she said they will not affect fertility.  (**big relief here**)  I did a bit of light googling later and read that in that situation there is minimal ongoing inflammation, so that put my mind at ease more.

I did have five confirmed spots of endo: 2 behind the bladder, 2 on my rectum, and on my right posterior broad ligament.  They were each small, so it's stage I.  Again, they were all new spots since last surgery.  There was one lesion on my left ovary that she wasn't sure about, but it turned out not to be endo because it only met part of the requirements for endo.  But it's gone, along with the others.  :)

I forgot to ask Dr. E what percentage of patients get new endo growth after a NaPro fellow surgery.  My case doesn't count as a "recurrence" of endo, so I don't fall under the NaPro fellow stats of 22% chance of recurrence after vaporization or 7% chance of recurrence after excision. I've actually never seen stats for patients like me who regrow endo in new spots...  I'll have to ask Dr. K what her experience has been.

I haven't done any cycle reviews with Dr. K since my November surgery, and I haven't asked PPVI for the results from DH's semen culture from December.  I plan to do that before this cycle ends in case she wants to change the antibiotic we would take at the beginning of next cycle.  My culture results from surgery indicate the antibiotic I had been taking is the correct one for the infection I (still) have, but we'll need to know what showed up on DH's culture in case it gives us more info. (Last time we did a semen culture it showed different results from mine.)

Surgery was post-peak last cycle, and we're avoiding this cycle so I can heal (doctor's orders). We'll be back to TTC next cycle.  Recovery continues to go well; I took my last ibuprofen three days ago. I can't fully bend forward at the waist, but I can squat to pick things up from the ground, so that's a welcome improvement.  :)

Recovery at home

The spirometer.  I take a deep breath, and it tells me
how much air I inspired.  There's some prune juice in the
 background.  Good stuff.

It's been a week and a half since my surgery, and I feel really good.  This recovery is so much better and faster than my previous robotic lap two years ago.  I guess the size of the main incision and how much endo is removed makes a big difference in how you feel afterward.  Two years ago, I had the hit-by-a-bus feeling for almost two weeks after surgery.  This time around, I felt almost normal just four days post-op.  Of course, by "feeling normal" I mean while sitting comfortably in a reclining chair happily medicated on two types of pain meds.  Once I had to get up and walk, it was another story.  ;)  About that time I could start to sleep on my side instead of on my back, so my quality of sleep improved greatly (I don't sleep on my back normally).  The first week I was faithfully using the spirometer they gave me in the hospital to do my breathing exercises to fully inflate my lungs.  I had never used a spirometer before, but my breathing post-surgery has been noticeably better than after my lap in November.  The shoulder pain (referred pain from the gas used during surgery) hasn't been too bad and tends to recur when the previous dose of ibuprofen is wearing off.  Already I can bend forward slightly at the waist, which I didn't expect to happen this soon.  I took my last opioid two days ago and have been managing well with ibuprofen alone.

I am a little nervous for my phone follow-up with Dr. E tomorrow.  She told me that she removed all the endo, but there was more to the story.  I have little black spots all over my abdominal cavity, which she assumed to be carbon deposits.  She said she has never seen something like this before. She could only biopsy them with the robot, so there was no way to know what they were for sure until this surgery.  The path report confirmed they are an inflammatory response which usually happens as a reaction to a foreign body.  Dr. E wrote me a very brief e-mail saying she thought they were a reaction to the vaporization of endo (from the surgery with her two years ago).  I have no idea what this means.  Do I need another surgery?  Do they affect fertility?  I do remember when Dr. E stopped by to check on me the morning after surgery she brought up these carbon deposits.  She said that if they needed to be removed, it would require a lot of work because she'd have to cut off a whole layer of tissue (these carbon deposits are everywhere), and then she'd place Gore-tex (material to help prevent adhesions) that either would be removed in another surgery a week later or would be left there permanently.  I am hoping there will be no more surgery, but lots of little spots of inflammation don't sound too good to me.  We shall see...