Catching Up . . .

I hate it when I get so far behind in blogging that I don't even know where to begin.

I also am not really a fan of epic length posts with wayyy too much information and really long stories.

Well, let's get caught up and try to keep it short and sweet :)

So, when I last posted I was all excited about heading to the Sandra Wickham Fall Classic. What I didn't tell you is that I was expecting to go in for surgery at any moment. I was just waiting for the call.

Long story short, after 15 years of near constant pain that had gotten worse and interfering more and more with my life and daily activities,  my malfunctioning woman bits had to come out  - ALL of it - ovaries and uterus, cervix. It was a decision I had been avoiding for years . . but I finally made peace with it. I have two very beautiful, healthy, wonderful children. A boy and a girl. I am blessed.

After a longer wait than I expected and then a change in surgery to a later date I finally went in on Dec 16th.

Well, my body has some crazy genetic phenomenon that has been discovered over the years. My chiropractor discovered a calcification around the nerve and blood vessel in my neck at the base of my skull called a pons posticus, only something like 10-15% of the population has it.

My Chiropractor also discovered a deformed vertebrae in my lumbar spine called facet tropism.

Then when I had dye injected and my kidneys x-rayed it was discovered that I have an extra tube on my right Kidney.

WELL, during my surgery it was discovered that a large vein in the abdominal area ,that is supposed to be much deeper in the pelvic cavity , in my body is near the surface. This was discovered when the surgeon severed it as he was at the end of my opening incision.

Let me repeat, there is NOT supposed to be a vein there. The surgeon was not careless. Woman have c-sections and hysterectomy all the time, there is not supposed to be a vein there.

Well, I am bleeding profusely. I lost a Liter of blood in just about 2 minutes. They had to call in another surgeon to help stop the bleed and do a repair. The severed vein had retracted up into my abdominal muscle and they had to separate my muscle tissue layer to retrieve it, clamp it and then repair the vein and then sew my muscle tissue back together.

As a result a 3 day hospital stay turned into almost 6. I had to convince them to let me go home on the 6th day, with the promise I would stay in bed. They were wanting me to be more independant before they released me. i was not able to walk more than 5-10 feet with assistance and supervision. My hemoglobin had gotten dangerously low, I was very weak and at major risk of collapsing or fainting.

Well, after 3 weeks at home my hemoglobin had recovered from 5.8 to 11.5 by now it should be back up to 13. It will take longer for my iron levels to recover, I still feel fatigued.

But this Thursday I am coming up on week six of recovery.

I GREATLY underestimated how difficult this surgery would be. This had been my 7th time under anaesthetic. I was thinking "how difficult can this be?!  I have been thru surgery before. I am young, healthy, active, I will recovery faster than most. "

Well, I am still sore internally, not too bad externally. I can move almost pain free, sneezing and coughing are bearable now, but still very scary and unpleasant. I can bend over to tie my shoes!! THAT was a major obstacle to going back to the gym LOL!

Even tho I should be able to go back to the gym this week for light activity ( not sure I know what constitutes "light activity" )  I am scared. Scared I will push to hard and hurt myself. Scared that I look fat, and that for a sponsored competitor I should be representing better!

But I am back to work Monday training clients, so that is getting me back into the gym whether I am "fat" or not! LOL!  Hoping this lights a fire in me again, and I just stop whining about feeling fat and just DO something about it!!

So, I kept that as short as I could and hopefully not too "boo hoo poor me"  - which is why I hesitated and procrastinated posting this here in the first place.

Let's get back to training, and life, and adventure! After I am all done healing and I have the wonderful prospect of feeling healthy and pain free this could be a GREAT year !!