9 Surgeries in 3.5 Years

Hi, my name is Krista. I'm a work from home mom of 6 in Star, Idaho located just outside of Boise. I've tried hard to come up with a way to condense how my family reached this point.... I suppose it starts with finding out we had a surprise baby on the way Easter weekend of 2019. We already had 5 children and took measures to be done. Alex was just meant to be. After 5 uncomplicated deliveries, a c-section is something that never crossed my mind. However, Alex turned breech so when I went in to have my first step toward induction started on Nov 25, 2019, I ended up needing to go to the hospital to try to have him flipped. Alex was truly stuck and I ended up going back for a C-section appx an hour later. A c-section was my biggest fear. I was planning on an epidural-free birth. That said, c-sections are there for a reason, and that day it was there to give my baby a safe entrance into the world. His cord was wrapped tightly around his neck and there is no way that he could have been born safely without the c-section. Post-op I was in a tremendous amount of pain that wasn't easily controlled. A nerve was sewn under a stitch but wasn't discovered until a week later. This complication led to cryoablation of the nerve line months later and then surgery the following summer in Chicago to have nerve reconstruction surgery with a specialist. Meanwhile, I had other complications that my doctor thought were just due to the nerve but the doctor who did the cryoablation said were not. So, two weeks after the cryoablation I had a laparoscopy where it was discovered that my uterus had adhered to my abdominal wall. Once unadhered, my uterus dropped and I started having bladder problems. I am so thankful for the support from my pelvic PT who helped advocate for me throughout all of this. Because of the problems I was having, I ended up with a hysterectomy along with anterior and posterior pelvic floor reconstruction in Oct of 2023. When my bladder dropped, it adhered to my bladder so my uterus had to be unadhered from that during the hysterectomy. I had asked my doctor about preventing adhesions given what happened after my c-section, but was told not to worry about it. By my 6 week check-up I was having pudendal nerve pain, but my doctor said there was no mechanism by which the pudendal nerve would be affected, so to just wait for the nerve endings to calm down. They didn't. The pain became more unbearable by the day until I was my doctor to help me. After several days and lots of research, I requested a pudendal nerve block. My PT had spoken with him to let him that she believed my cardinal ligament was too tight, but the doctor was saying that wasn't possible. The nerve block bought me 5 days without pain over Christmas, but then I needed another nerve block. That block only lasted 72 hours. Pudendal nerve pain is so horrendous that it maxes out the pain scale. If you've ever experienced nerve pain, you know that not a whole lot helps the pain. By the beginning of January, the pain was so severe that I knew I couldn't go on living like that. My doctor agreed to operate again and found that I had developed massive, dense adhesions to my cardinal ligament that were putting traction on my pudendal nerve line (so my PT was correct). After that surgery, I went on to develop horrific bowel problems. I just knew the problem was adhesions. My doctor referred me to a general surgeon who flat out told me that he didn't believe me, that per my CT I was "just constipated", that maybe I just needed to accept this as my new normal, and that I needed to see a GI. Meanwhile, I could barely eat, was experiences bouts of emesis after meals, had abdominal pain, per my PT had palpable abdominal adhesions, and I was getting weaker by the day. 3 days later I ended up in a downtown emergency room after not being able to get out of my son's GI appointment without nearly blacking out. I was weak, had nearly no food in my system, and was dehydrated. The ER doctor literally mocked me about my concerns over adhesions and partial bowel obstruction. He sent me home with a gallon of colon prep solution (as used before colonoscopies) and told me to go home and drink it all because it would fix me. I was told to come back if I had signs of complete bowel blockage or bowel rupture. At that moment I knew that the local medical providers would only help me if my condition was acutely killing me. I ended up consulting with Dr. Mackoul with Innovative GYN in Maryland. He agreed that the problem was adhesions and also suspected endometriosis which I said I didn't have because my dr here looked for it during three different operations and never found any. I had surgery in Innovative GYN's NJ surgery center on March 14 where it was discovered that I had copious amounts of adhesions between loops of small intestines causing intermittent partial obstruction, segments of large intestines adhered to my abdominal wall, extensive endometriosis, a section of fallopian tube that I was told was taken out during my hysterectomy adhered to my ovary which was enveloped in a cyst, my ureters adhered down by scar tissue and endometriosis, and interstitial cystitis. All of these findings except for the adhesions were pretty shocking to me. Everything was so great after my surgery in NJ. Then I started having lower right quadrant pain and some intestinal issues again along with a re-prolapsed bladder. After another consult with Dr. Mackoul, we have decided that the best course of action is to go back to NJ as it appears that I have some appendix involvement (adhesion/endometriosis/chronic appendicitis are all possibilities) so likely need my appendix out. My anterior pelvic floor repair failed. Per Dr. Mackoul, the most likely problem is that pelvic floor wasn't re-constructed in a complete manner which left it susceptible to re-herniation. My next surgery back east is coming up on May 10. I am incredibly thankful for a supportive family, friends to stay with on the east coast, a competent surgeon, and good medical insurance. That said, the travel expenses and expenses related to having been sick for so long have taken their toll. I put this together so that members of the Star fundraising group can read my story (sorry it's so long. I promise this is the condensed version) as I am set up to be one of the recipients from the summer yard sales thanks to Melody's generous spirit and incredibly hard work.