Surgery, ack!

I swear, just when I make a decision, everything changes all over again! I had decided to move to Van Mall on April 1st, gave notice to my uncle, started selling things I wouldn't need in a new place, and brought home a few boxes.

And then I had my pre-op yesterday. The minor procedure I have been anticipating for the last month or so, is actually a pretty significant process with a longer/more painful recovery than I was initially let to believe. I had planned to take the 19th and 20th off work and be back on the 21st...then move on the 1st. No big deal. But my surgeon put the kai-bosh (spelling?) on that right away. I am now taking the 19th through thr 26th off - an entire week - and definitely not moving anywhere on the 1st.

The surgery is very non-invasive, but as the surgeon clarified, that does not in any way make it not painful or not risky. There will be a total of 4 incisions, 3 of them very tiny and 1 a bit larger that will need a couple stitches. The larger one is right above my belly button, and in that hole goes a camera and a light. In the other 3 holes (2 on one side of my abdomen, 1 on the other) go the instruments and the sutures. Essentially, they will go in, cut the "stem" of the mass away from my uterus, stitch my uterus up so I don't bleed to death, then laser cut the mass into tiny pieces and pull it out through one of the incisions. GROSS!

The good news is, this mass is very small still and should not be an issue to remove, and it does not appear to be even partially implanted into the walls of my uterus (if they are implanted, they have to cut it out of your uterus instead of just cutting the stem of it off), so it should be very routine in that regard. The bad news is, where it is located makes it a bit more challenging. Whereas most growths of this nature are located towards the top of the uterus and close to the front (belly side) of the uterus, mine is waaaaaaay at the bottom, almost into my cervix, and is more towards the back (booty side), so it will be harder to get to. This is also the area of the body that receives the most blood and has the most blood vessel openings for a woman (makes sense, as that's where you grow/nourish a baby), so the risk for too much bleeding is a lot higher. He said they will inject a numbing medication into my blood vessels down there, which will temporarily cauterize those vessels while he works. Again, GROSS!

The surgery will take about an hour and a half, and the recovery is about 2 hours before I can go home. The messy part is apparently that part, because of the pain level. I will get sent home with some oxycodone, my mama, and hopefully some ice cream and I'm sure I'll just sleep it off, but there is risk of hernia in the belly button incision, so I definitely have to take it super easy.

The WORST part of the whole thing is, it is apparently a pretty innovative process and therefore a very expensive one, and my health insurance has such a high deductible and high maximum out of pocket annual amount, I will be responsible for approximately 3 THOUSAND DOLLARS!! I almost fell out of my seat when they called to tell me that yesterday. Seriously??! That means this surgery is about $12,000...wtf, you better fill my hoo-ha with gold for that much money!

As far as the move goes, I emailed Uncle Greg about just staying through April and pushing everything back a month, which I'm sure he'll be ok with. He doesn't have anyone else to rent it to, so once he loses me as a renter, he's just gonna be eating that monthly rent amount. In response to that big bill I just mentioned, I am considering asking him what he thinks about, if I commit to staying there another X number of months, say 6 more months, would he be willing to rent it to me for less, like $450 instead of $700...that way, I get to pay my bill and he only loses half the rental income. I dunno, he might not be up for it, but it could potentially be helpful for both of us. We'll see.

So, that's that. I am now trying to cram a week's worth of work into the next 2 days, and I am glad I have 92 hours of sick time built up, cause I'm about to use 40 of it. :)