The polypectomy (or polyp removal for those of you who don’t speak medicalese) was really not so bad. In fact, the worst part was the waiting. They tell you to get to the hospital 1.5 hours before your scheduled surgery, but they DIDN’T tell me that no one actually complies. In fact, they seemed sort of shocked to see us in all of our promptness!

The waiting area once you get prepped is pretty wierd..  a large room with just curtains separating the beds. No TVs – thank god there was free wireless and we brought my iPad, but honestly I couldn’t stand to even look at it because I had a SPLITTING headache, presumably from not eating or being caffeinated.

Because the previous surgery ran over, our wait was even longer than normal so we sat there and listened to the drama unfolding just past the curtain next to us. Some poor old woman who had a patch on one eye had just gotten surgery on the other eye.  They wheeled her back next to us for recovery and she couldn’t see anything out of the eye that had been operated on. NOTHING? Asked the surgeon with way too much concern in his voice to be reassuring.  The whole episode could have been in an a hospital HR video on HOW NOT to handle an unexpected outcome. Luckily, she was just fine, the anesthetic was temporarily blinding her, but it was a little scary listening it unfold right before being wheeled into surgery!

I must say though that everyone at White Plains hospital was exceedingly nice..like even the people who did your intake, or wheeled you around would say “Nice to meet you” when they left, which went a long way toward making you feel like you are a person and not just another faceless patient. I particularly loved the anesthesiologist assistant who inserted my IV.. he actually came BACK to my bed and said in his slightly broken english “Ariana! You are 37?? You look good! Very good!” which of course endeared me to him forever.

After Dr Klein came in to talk to me it was finally time to be wheeled into surgery, at which point I waved good by to Jeff, they injected me with something to relax me before the anesthesia mask went on, but I never made it that far.. I was OUT 3 seconds after the relaxation drug.

The next thing I remember was shaking and having a really bad cramp that went all the way around my body – similar to a labor pain. I didn’t even realize my surgery was over until they told me. The anesthesiologist came over and (bless his heart) gave me Demerol which stopped my shaking and cramping and I’ve felt fine (if not a bit tired) ever since!

No nausea, no cramping, I haven’t even had to take advil! The only lingering effect is a dryness in my nose and a sore throat from the oxygen.

My Dr. gives the post op news to the person waiting for the patient because the patient is often too out of it to retain the information, so he told Jeff that the polyp was gone, it was big and had to be removed in pieces (yuck) and that he had found some other abnormality that Jeff could only remember something about widening and membrane.

This morning I emailed Dr. Klein to find out what actually happened and it turned out he had discovered a small uterine septum at the top of my uterus that he also excised.  It may not be a huge deal given that I’ve already carried one pregnancy successfully to term, but a septum is a “ridge of tissue” in the uterus that has poor blood supply and any embryo implanting there has a much higher chance of miscarriage.

So, all in all, it’s a great outcome. Hopefully with my now normal uterus I’ll have a much better chance of conceiving!  I get to start next cycle too – it’s a big relief to have this roadblock out of the way and move on to all the other fun stuff like injections.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Filed under: hospital, infertility, state of the uterus, Test & Procedures by ariana
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