After Surgery

  Recovery was going well. I was bored out of my mind sure, but I was slowly healing and able to do more each day. I was patient. You have to be. 

My surgeon called and did a follow up appointment a few weeks later. This was to check on my incisions and to see how I was feeling. 

I had a slight infection, nothing antibiotics couldn’t help with. But overall I was doing good. 

After 6 weeks, I felt better. I could run and lift things again. My “daily” flare ups, the pain I was used too daily, seemed to have disappeared! I had the occasional flare up, maybe once a week. Yet, now it was more manageable and not crippling. I thought the surgery had worked! I figured worst case scenario, was an occasional flare up, I could handle that. Sort of like a really really bad poop you can’t get rid of. Once in a blue moon? Sounds better then what I was dealing with before. So I carried on with my life. I went to work, attending events and made plans. I was so happy. 

It lasted about 5-7 months. 

It snuck back in, I didn’t even realize it at first. The flare ups slowly got worst and more often. I figured I was too active, my period, ate something weird. I made up any excuse to not face the truth.

By end of October the beginning of November, I couldn’t deny it anymore. Not only was the pain in my left side back. Now I had a new pain, showing up on my right side, higher, closer to my stomach/ribs. This pain was worst. It wasn’t before long before every day I was in pain again. Everyday I hurt. Then sure enough, multiple flare ups a week, more painful and longer. 

It was back and I knew something was different. 

I went to my family doctor/nurse practitioner and expressed my concern. They felt the same way. So we started the process, booking ultra sounds, blood work and an MRI. I contacted my surgeon again and made an appointment. Earliest I could get in was March 2022. So for the next few months, I did countless ultra sounds(internal and external), countless blood work, unknown ER visits, unknown missed days of work and tried to pain manage. I documented my flare ups and the pain levels, I changed my food, I changed my physical activity, I cut back on hours at work and nothing seemed to help. 

The only thing we were able to find out, through an Ultra Sound, was that now there appeared to be a small mass on my pancreas. Very small and appeared benign. We knew Endometriosis wouldn’t show up, even if we suspected it had spread. The Endometriosis I knew I had and was surgically confirmed didn’t even show up on ultra sounds. Why would I think they would see anything new? 

So I waited to meet with my first surgeon again. And waited some more.