Post Surgery/ Surprise Pregnancy
July 6, 2024
This week has been a blur. It feels like I have been living in a movie. I’ve learned that a part of me likes to downplay what I go through. It’s like we are so used to being strong that when hard things happen, you become immune to them. I don't understand why all of this happened the way it did. I keep hearing, "You're a special case," "This doesn't happen often," "This is rare." Like, why am I experiencing unique things related to my health? What is this lesson? What do I do next? This is how I’ve felt for the past year and a half... I just found out my surprise pregnancy is not progressing normally.
It’s so overwhelming that I can’t force anything anymore. I have completely surrendered to the process. Surrendering comes with its own uncomfortable feeling because, yes, I am bothered. I am grateful. Sometimes I am annoyed, sometimes I am emotional. Sometimes I’ve been in physical pain, sometimes emotional. But at the same time, I’ve been very content and happy with life overall. Life has a way of keeping me on my toes—it’s been beautiful, it’s been hard, it’s been deep.
Regardless of what I feel in the moment, I know that it will eventually shift and "it will be okay."
Sept 2024
I had the surgery I’ve been anticipating for a while now at the end of May. As many of you know, I was dealing with an ongoing weird health issue, and I finally scheduled surgery to have it removed (another convo to follow on that).
The Day of Surgery: I popped up at 5 a.m. It was one of those nights where you wake up every 40 minutes because you’re afraid of being late, or maybe it was just nerves. I was running on pure adrenaline. The day before, I felt like I had to get 3 million things done because I knew I’d be out for a couple of weeks. And if you’re a mother with responsibilities, you know that one day of you being down can put the whole household behind. It was also the last day of school, so my mom was in charge. Anyway, I was nervous but outwardly calm.
The surgery itself came with a flood of emotions. I had previously had a surgery that I thought would address the issue, but I learned six months into recovery that it didn’t, and I’d need another surgery (this one). So, yes, I had fears, but I also had faith that God would guide me and provide me with what was meant for me.
Just to give you my timeline: I got to the hospital at 6:10 a.m. The surgery started at 8:00 a.m. My doctor decided it would be best to go through my previous C-section incision because the mass was in my lower abdominal muscle. The nurses who did the pre-op stuff were all really nice and brought me a sense of calm. By 8:00 a.m., I was in the surgery room.
Recovery: I was awake and in the recovery room by 11:30, and my doctor said everything went well. However, it took longer than expected and was a little more intense than expected. My doctor decided to keep me overnight so the nurses could take care of me and monitor my pain. He told me he would check on me the next morning.
Well, he came rolling into my room around 4:30 p.m., saying that he needed to talk to me. I’m thinking, "Uhhh, what the hell?" because I’m in my room chilling, excited to heal, and start this new journey without the damn mass!
He proceeds to tell me that while looking through my chart and putting in his notes, he noticed the pregnancy test result from that morning was positive. He gave me three possibilities:
- A false positive
- I am actually pregnant
- The mass may have been secreting the hormone.
Y’all, I’m looking at this man like he’s speaking a different language. I mean, WHAT?! I just had surgery on my lower abdomen—where the fetus grows—unknowingly pregnant. Plus, I have an IUD in. So, this whole situation is NOT good.
I look at my husband and ask the doctor to repeat what he just said.
I AM SHOOKITH! There are so many things running through my head. How the hell did they miss this? Low and behold, they didn’t wait for my result and just assumed I wasn’t pregnant because I had birth control in.
So now he calls my primary care doctor to figure out what to do next, and they decide to monitor my blood work to track the pregnancy hormone and change all the meds I was being given.
Every two days, I was getting blood work done, and it showed I was, in fact, pregnant. This went on for weeks until the sac was visible.
At my ultrasound appt, weeks after surgery, I found out the pregnancy was not progressing normally. I tried to remain neutral throughout this process because I knew it was a high-risk situation.
But naturally, I was sad, and I had very low moments. I just tried to stay grateful for my life, my babies, and my husband. I had moments where I didn’t understand the lessons I was supposed to be learning through this. I kept being told, “This is such a special case.”
Shout out to my sister Heather, who got me the sweetest gift basket to show her support from far away. I am grateful that TIME has allowed me to heal—physically, mentally, and emotionally. It has allowed me to grow closer to God and keep faith that all things are working for me.
Thank you for reading this far. This was a post-op update.
Love,
Priscylla
To give you some context—
I am a wife, mother of three, entrepreneur, creative, speaker, and gardener. As many of you know, over the past year, I’ve been experiencing some confusing health issues that have thrown me completely off. They have changed me. I am learning a lot along the way and have gained many insights about life, relationships, raising children, and taking care of myself. I decided to share my thoughts as I process them... In Real Time.