Surgery scheduled for August 28th

I'm in! Well, I'm on the schedule anyway. Dr. Linda Fox will do the procedure, and after meeting with her today, I like her. The big (exciting?) news is that they will knock me out for this, so I won't have to know what's happening. Soooo relieved!

They basically fill my stomach up with gas and bloat it out so they can maneuver. There will be 3 scars, one in the belly button, and one on each side of my stomach. I'll go home that day, and have to take it easy for a while. The doctor says to plan to be away from work for a couple of weeks. As long as I'm careful, I should be fine. It's hard to judge how long recovery is because everybody handles things differently. I think they're more concerned with my emotional state than anything. Usually if menopause is involved, there are drugs to assist, but I can't take any of those. I recovered from my other surgery 5 years ago pretty quickly, so I think I'll be good.

Basically the side effects I'm looking at are all the glorious menopausal stuff, which means it's different for everyone. Of course it is. It could be a few weeks of bursting into tears in no time, it could be five years, etc. We get to wait and see. I will do some acupuncture to see if that helps my frame of mind, but I think I'll be fine. As long as I know why I'm bursting into tears then I think I can handle it. Until my mood stabilizes, I'll just stay away from the Hallmark channel, country music, sappy movies, and Nicholas Sparks books. No problem!

The kids will go to Tillamook for an extended weekend. They know I'm having surgery and they know I might get sad sometimes. They've seen a lot of that this summer, so I think we'll all be ok. There have been a lot of conversations this summer reminding all of us that it's ok to cry. As my Grandma Madge says, "just cry, it makes you feel better." Man she's a smart cookie. Both Max & Cannon are amazing little dudes. They take good care of each other and us, and they understand when mom's stressed to keep your distance. Max one time asked Joy what "negative" meant. He said "mom said it and I didn't know what it meant, but she was mad and I didn't think I should interrupt to ask." Ha ha! I love that kid.

I have an ultrasound tomorrow, a pre-op appointment next Wednesday, some blood work in there somewhere, and the ovary sucking on the 28th. Wheee!!! :) Next steps are on the calendar, it feels good.