I’m just about one month post-op and in much better shape
than I was the last time I posted. I’m up moving around, and back to my normal
life and routine-apart from exercising, which, let’s be honest, I didn’t do a
ton of anyway. But I plan to change that
once I’m healed enough.
I’m also eating solid food again with little to no problems.
I do get crampy some times and have to back off for a few hours, but I’ve been
loading up on probiotics and gut soothing herbs, which I believe has helped my
recovery. I have yet to add meat back into my diet though, and have developed a
slight aversion to it. I don’t know if it’s my body telling me I’m not quite ready
to digest it or if I’m just going through a phase of being grossed out by meat.
Either way I’m listening to my body and re-falling in love with some vegetarian
dishes from yonder days (I was a vegetarian for 10 years)-but also struggling
to get enough protein in. Eggs, another
staple in my diet, are also grossing me out.
I am whipping up some
delicious gelatin gummy snacks with grass-fed gelatin- which is packed with
protein and amazing for gut health, and also making protein smoothies with a
paleo protein powder from Designs for Health. Surgery pretty much wipes out
your protein stores so finding as many tolerable sources as I can has been a
fun challenge for me.
Okay…enough about food. I had my post-op appointment on Wednesday
and for the first time in the last few years we were able to see my ovaries on
the vaginal ultrasound!! We were all so excited, and relived. My doctor brought
my ovaries down and sutured them to my uterus, but because they have spent so
much time extended upwards there was always the small chance they could pop
back up after surgery. But there they were, in all their glory!
We also discussed next steps and Ryan and I were both
shocked and thrilled about the timeline our doctor laid out for us. We had no
idea how fast the egg retrieval process would be.
A few days after I start my period (which is scheduled to
arrive between 2/17-2/18, I will begin 3 weeks of birth control to rest my
ovaries before starting the injections to stimulate them. For those of you that
are unfamiliar with egg retrieval, welcome to the club! Haha!! I’m still
learning too, but this is what I know: I ovulate normally and do not need assistance
with that, but because we are retrieving multiple eggs for a future IVF, we
need to stimulate my ovaries to produce more than just the one I would drop
naturally every month. This gives us a better chance at multiple healthy embryos,
as not all eggs will be good enough quality.
I will be monitored closely to see how my follicles are
developing and, Lord willing, I will be scheduled for egg retrieval at the end of
March! Insane! 5 days later, after weeding out the “bad eggs” and pulling out
the picks of the litter, the embryologists will make embryos with my husbands “goods”
and we will freeze them until our dear friend and gestational carrier can
logistically get the IVF (more about that to come later).
If you know me, you know I go to great lengths to take care
of my body and live a very natural and clean lifestyle. Taking birth control
and a few other medications that I can’t pronounce the names of does not thrill
me, but I have made peace with it. I am working with an incredible naturopath to
ensure I am able to metabolize and excrete these medications and hormones as
quickly and effectively as possible, and also utilizing what I know about
health and nutrition to make sure I’m as best prepared as I can be. And what I
can’t do, I’m trusting God to take care of for me.
So….we are really excited!!! We grabbed dinner at an organic
pizza joint close by afterwards and just stared at each other wide eyed…”is
this really happening?!” “Are we really here, at this point in the journey?!”
You guys…this place where we stand once seemed light years away, too far to
even touch. All of the details that once crowded by head and weighed on my
heart and kept me up nights are falling into place seamlessly. We are so grateful
and not taking a single moment of it for granite.
We would love if you could pray with us:
• For my body to respond extremely well to the medications-with
NO side effects, and for my ovaries to produce the perfect amount of healthy
eggs
• For the egg retrieval procedure to be smooth and easy (I
will be put to sleep, but it’s only a 10-20 minute procedure)
• For provision to cover the financial costs without a large amount of debt
• For Ryan and I to have
lots of fun and enjoy this leg of our journey!
Thank you!! A million thank you's!
