Surgery Time....Again

Yes. You read that right. Apparently this is the time of year that the words "Surgery" and "Casey" rear it's ugly head. Though honestly? I'm hoping this year will be it and the trend will be broken. All in favor?

Anyway........next week I am checking in for surgery to correct a rather nasty hiatal hernia, which has been the culprit on my reflux issues over the past 2+ years.

Last May, following my first surgery for an unrelated problem, my reflux went nuts and the upshot was I went from 20mg of Prilosec twice a day to 40mg twice a day while still having issues - and plenty of them. In December, I went in for an upper endoscopy and that is when the hernia was discovered. As well as benign stomach polyps and gastritis which are side effects of high dose proton pump inhibitors (ppi). Since I was topped out on the meds and still not controlling symptoms, the next stop was the surgeon.

I am a prime candidate and.......I should have been in a year ago, so said the surgeon, based on my test results. Oops.

Yeah yeah. Pain is a daily thing in my world and I get too good at ignoring it. My bad.

Sooooo....the date is quickly approaching. The surgery doesn't sound like all that much fun. Ok - well, I will sleep through the almost 3 hour surgery but the recovery doesn't sound like fun.

I was informed I needed to find someone to care for the children for the first 5 days and I am to be "down and out". Strict liquid diet for two weeks. Thankfully, Dakota will be taking care of the children for the first days. Then for two to three weeks after that, I'm still on a "limited activity and lots of rest" order. After the first two weeks, I will graduate to a modified liquid diet and slowly go from there. It will take approximately 4 months of "internal healing and relearning to swallow properly" time.

Sounds like fun, right?

Yep. Can't wait. *sigh*

Though waiting is truly the worst part. It gives my stress and anxiety too much time to torture me. Sleep has all but stopped and I have turned into an emotional wreck with a very loose trigger. It's also tough because, the Monday following surgery is book fair time at the school and I am not allowed to work it. At all. I've been busting my butt for the past month getting everything ready and I don't get to have the fun part. Sucks. But....that's life. No one ever said it would be easy, right?

The good part is, once this is done and healed...I will be off all the medications and maybe my stomach will stop hurting so much. And the constant pain from it all will be gone. That's what I'm trying to focus on.

Fun times. Oh yes....definitely fun times.