Well, as planned, my surgery took place on Thursday, March 24th. I was released from the hospital in the evening on Wednesday, the 30th. The surgery took much longer than expected: 8 hours! But the good news? First off, there is no apparent spread of the ovarian cancer! Secondly, that huge adrenal tumor was benign!
I seem to be healing nicely, despite the fact that they sent me home with a drain (again!) hanging out of my belly. Thankfully they removed one of them or it would have been two.
In the hospital they used an epidural (labor deja vu) to control the pain. I was a bit surprised when they offered it, because this is something I had never been offered before. But, I have to say the epidural worked perfectly, I was blissfully pain free for the first few days following until they disconnected it. One snafu: when they did the epidural, they accidentally punctured the fluid sac protecting my spine. They backed out and chose a new spot. But this left me with a severe “epidural headache”. Basically, for a long time, every time I tried to sit or stand the headache would come on. In fact, it got SO severe that I ended up back in the hospital yesterday for a procedure called a blood patch…they use your blood to patch in the leak and clot it off. Man, did it work! The results were fast, almost instantly! (Just dealing with the residual back pain from the procedure itself.)
Thank you everyone for your prayers!