Birthday Week and My Post-Op Appointment

Birthday Week was great! My birthday was Tuesday, June 1st, but I started my birthday week on Wednesday, May 27th. Jaime and I went to Umami Burger on Cahuenga in Hollywood. Jaime had an Umami burger and I had a Pastrami Umami. That ISH was DELISH! We hadn't had beef in a while, but decided to throw caution to the wind this week, and we paid for it dearly! But I'd eat it a million more times!

Thursday my incision was really achy. I think I did to much walking the day before, so I had to chill. I know it won't be until the end of July when I'm completely healed, but I'm over it already. I want to be 100% right now! I did a whole lot of nothing then went to American Girl in Grove to visit with Jaime on his break.

Friday MS crep out of nowhere and had me down. I had an awful migraine, which is a common symptom. I felt like my brain was gonna fall out so I stayed home. When the headache let up I watched An Unfinished Life and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day over and over again and gave myself a mani/pedi. I also read Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris. My friend Rose Marie called to let me know she was surprising me by coming to LA for my birthday. She was just gonna show up but she knows how I hate surprises and she can't hold water anyway. I felt bad because I'm sure I hurt her feelings. She was so happy and I sounded like I didn't care. I tried my best to sound excited, but my head was hurting so bad it just didn't work. She said she understood, but I could hear the hurt in her voice. She's so sweet, it killed me to upset her.

Saturday I felt like myself again so I went to the Hairspray audition for Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) I broke it down for them and got an immediate callback. I know Texas summer heat is ferocious, but it would be great to cast in that show. I love that Motormouth Maybelle speaks in all rhymes like Dolomite! One of the casting guys told my how great I looked about five times. While it was very flattering I was thinking, "Okay, I know I look good. It's my job to look good. Do I look good enough to be cast?" YA KNOW!!! I felt really cute afterward so I went to visit Jaime at work. He loves when I visit him while I'm looking fabulous.

Sunday I slept all day so I had to go to the Life Teen mass at 5:30p. It was really terrible. The bad contemporary christian singing is a bit much and the service is always waaay to long. But I truly learned a lot from the homily. It was all about miracles. I felt it was an appropriate topic for my birthday week.


Monday Jaime and I went to the Fiesta Hermosa. We really love Hermosa Beach so we go to this festival every time it comes, which is Memorial and Labor Day weekend. We got up early so we could find parking but the parking lot we usually park in was blocked of this year. I was really irritated because we like to sit on the beach for a couple of hours before we walk around the festival and I knew I wasn't well enough to help carry our towels and such if we had to park far. We drove around for about and hour looking for parking. Finally one of the security guys told us about parking at the high school, then we could take a shuttle to the beach. So we drove there and minimize our beach gear to stuff that would be easy to carry, the hopped on the shuttle. We went straight for the beach. It was such a beautiful day. I luuuurve the beach. We talked, people watched, listened to the waves, and ate our snacks. We sat on the beach for two and a half hours then we decided the walk the festival. It was really great. We took pictures and had fun holding hands and seeing everything. When we walked for about two hours I started to have a lot of pain. I barely made it back to the beach to sit and have rest. Jaime was so worried that he carried all of the beach gear and we made it back to sit. We stayed for an hour more then went home. Even though I was a little uncomfortable because of the surgery, we had a blast. We decided to return to the beach Wednesday when Rosie got here.

Tuesday was my birthday! I love birthdays! They're your own personal Christmas! I went in for my post-op appointment at 10:10. I was running late because it was my birthday and I wanted to look superfly. It turned out to be fine because they were overbooked so I had to wait an hour. I watched the pregnant women and the husbands come and go and thought, "That'll be us next year. Wow." I went in, got weighed, and found out I lost 4 pounds which made the day guaranteed to be great! I saw my OB. She said everyhting looked great. She said we could try to conceive starting the end of July. If we aren't pregnant by December she wants us the see a fertility doctor. I made it clear that I am not interested in taking hormones. Since the fibroids are gone I feel we'll be able to do it on our own.

Jaime took the week off so I would have a great birthday.

Happy Birthday

to me!
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The Surgery: Part II

The surgery actually took three and a half hours! They almost gave my poor husband a heart attack because no one updated him on my progress. He had a big list of family and friends to call, who happen to be made up of mostly impatient people, and he knew nothing. Just when he had decided to raise the roof, my doctor came out and spoke to him. They originally thought I had three, maybe four fibroids. There were TWENTY THREE! The OB said once she made the first incision, and realized how bad it really was, she decided to slow down the procedure to make sure they could really get everything. There were three fibroids the size of twelve-week pregnancies! I couldn't believe it. I really had been having awful periods and loads of pain, but I never thought it was that bad. I was just happy they didn't have to give me a hysterectomy.

I was in the hospital for four days. The first day was a blur of pain and drugs. The second day was not so bad. The third day I was told if I passed gas I could go home. I have never wanted to fart so bad in my life! The pain was incredible! I felt like I had gas in my eyebrows. It was awful. Finally the next morning I took care of that and was sent home.

I have to say when you get married you promise to love and cherish, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, but you never realize that means you have to take a poop with your husband, who you're still embarrased to pass gas in front of, holding your hand! Jaime is a soldier! He never faltered. If he ever slept, I didn't see it. While I was in the hospital and after I was home, if I made the smallest noise, he was there. If I needed a sip of water, he was ready with the straw. If I had to use the bathroom at 3am, he was awake and ready to help me out of bed. I knew he loved me, but I'm still blown away by the amount of love he's shown me. I wouldn't have made it through this rough time with out him. He is the best. And I love him.

It has been five weeks now. My incision looks great! As long as I never get a brazilian wax, Jaime will never notice it. Tomorrow is my post-op appointment and my birthday! It should be a great day.
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The Surgery: Part I

As I told you earlier. I was a bit upset the week before my surgery. I was really worried things would go wrong. Surprisingly, on the morning of, I was completely calm. I had no thoughts of doom or gloom. I pray all of the time. I just asked if HE would take away the feeling of dread, and HE did. Jaime and I talked and laughed while we waited for the OB to come. He was doing his best to be strong, but it was working. While I was blanketed under the Lord's power of calm, my poor husband looked like he was the one going under the knife. He literally turned green!

When my OB/GYN finally came into pre-op she told us the surgery would take one and a half to two hours. She assured Jaime that she would take care of me. In so many words, he assured her there was not a crack in hell she could hide in if she didn't. So in my SEXY gown, I went in for the removal of my fibroids. (I wonder why fibroids plague so many black women?) I kissed my "green" husband, and was wheeled into the OR. I only remember oxygen being applied to my face, a ten minute nap, and waking up to a look of relief on my husband's face.

I Am Changing - Constance Lopez

Constance Lopez - The Color Purple

Blues in the Night - Constance Lopez

PLEASE DON'T FEED THE BEARS!

I had my Myomectomy on April 28th. My check in time was 10:30am. Well, y'all know how you can't eat after midnight the day of your surgery. I was cool with it. The stomach was rumbling, but I was dealing. Jaime was nice enough to not eat in front of me that morning. We made our way to Kaiser and we were actually on time. We went to the pre-op waiting room to check in and wait. I guess it was alot of surgeries that day because it was packed. The woman sitting across from us had her whole family there. She was in her early sixties and beautiful. She smiled at me because we were both rocking "surgery cornrows". (You still need to maintain your sexy even when you're recovering!) When her grandsons came to join the rest of the family, they brought two big bags of Del Taco with them. Now normally the smell of "Del Crapo", as my husband calls it, turns my stomach, but today I felt like busting them in the head and running off with both bags. I mean fo real yo! Hello! You are in a waiting room full of people who haven't eaten in half a day! It was like 'Night of the Living Dead' and we all wanted brains! FINALLY they called me to the back so I could get undress and put on the ULTRA-SEXY hospital gown. Thank goodness! I was about to commit a crime!

I'm freaked.

I'm having a myomectomy Wednesday. The OB just told me if I excessively bleed, they may have to give me a hysterectomy to save my life. This has really upset me. I'm here in the lab, waiting for my blood to be drawn, trying not to cry. Now my logical mind is saying "Get it together! She has to tell you this so they won't get sued if it happens. It is the worse case scenario. It probably won't be close to that serious." My illogical mind is saying "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!! I have just signed away my uterus!" It may seem crazy, but I'm freaked!