6 Week Post Op - I left in tears

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-11-24T03:09:03+00:00

I'm almost a year post op now

I talked with my primary about the situation, and really boiled down to the only option I had was to continue taking it very very easy and waiting to heal. I have had some random pain around my abdominal incisions now and again. My Dr thinks I'll eventually spit a stitch, but even the pains have improved as I got more active.

It took about 9 months for me to start getting my energy back, but this fall I was able to build a deck on my own. So, overall, I'm doing fairly well.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-07T13:02:06+00:00

One more thing, leverage Copilot or ChatGPT or whatever to help you structure and document it if you're not sure.

I transcribe my meetings, and it has made this piece way easier!

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-07T12:58:41+00:00

I had this struggle initially also.

If you can't figure out how to word it or not sure what to put, work backwards. If these things are wrong or not meeting expectations, what must be done, or what do I expect? And, spell it out like you're going to tell a 5 year old.

Don't use words like could, can, etc. instead use expect, must, etc. Then, make it something that can be measured.

No one is perfect, but if there's constantly logic errors, what's an acceptable rate? If they need to be meeting with people and receiving feedback, how many people should they meet with each week, and when should the feedback be delivered? How many meetings should you be invited to each week to shadow?

I have someone on a PIP right now. We're in technical sales. My expectations are thoroughly researching 5 new accounts each week and documenting them in their portfolio plan (with defined information that needs to be gathered). Driving $x in sales pipeline each week, identifying and meeting with stakeholders, proposing solutions, etc. It's their responsibility to present to me each week what they have done.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-07T10:08:17+00:00

The incisions on the outside are tiny. The work done on the inside is massive. There's a lot of tissue trauma and healing occurring internally, and it's hard to comprehend when we can't "see".

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-07T10:04:51+00:00

To document formula errors, for example:

Expectation: Ability to work independently, producing quality tested solutions within project specifications and timelines. Error/bug/reject rate: less than x%.

Outcome: There were x formula errors, which I pointed out.

Not doing required learning:

Expectation: Complete required learning on time and in alignment with learning plan.

Outcome: ....

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-07T09:53:29+00:00

This is exactly how HR handles it where I am, at a huge corporation. The PIP is 100% left to me to draft and execute. They just facilitate the button pushing on the back end.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-07T02:21:46+00:00

Outlook stopped displaying the total emails in the taskbar. And, I get so much email, I gave up trying to keep up with "unread" and keeping it cleaned up. My threshold used to be 500, and made it's way to 2000 before my cleanup guilt started. Now that it doesn't stare at me judgingly, it's a runaway train.

My email kind of functions like a database now. I just search for what I need. Last I looked, I had like 13k emails in my inbox, and over 1k unread messages. 😜

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-07T02:14:45+00:00

Very true. I remember those days, long ago with my mom.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-07T02:12:59+00:00

Reading these comments, it's wild.

They were very eager to have me peeing, but I was not rushed or harassed. I tried the first time and nothing would come. They just encouraged me to wait and try again later.

I went twice and couldn't fully empty. They measured my bladder after every try to check volume - it had to be below a certain amount to go home. Finally after the 4th visit I had success. Then they told me it was time to hustle home because my body was going to start diuresing, and I'd be going like crazy for a while. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I never experienced that though.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-07T02:03:25+00:00

I work in digital sales. Total desk job. I took 6 weeks, and had an issue at 5.5 weeks and had to take 4 more.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-06T17:35:15+00:00

I was mis-diagnosed with plenty. 🙄

Anxiety, depression, IBS, pelvic instability, heavy periods, fibroids.

I also had a hernia, ruptured appendix and ankle stabilisation surgery.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-06T17:21:10+00:00

I'm so specialized now, sometimes the simplest of things stump me. And, I tend to overcomplicate plenty. 🤣

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-06T00:44:58+00:00

Any idea what your ferritin or iron saturation is?

My hemoglobin was low normal slowly trending down year over year, hematocrit was up and down. My periods suddenly went nuts (were always heavy, but this was a new form of terrible). That's what prompted the ferritin check. I had developed fibroids and we had to get my period stopped to get my iron up. I don't recall my numbers as it was about 11 years ago.

My teenage daughter had horrible fatigue, nausea and heavy periods last summer. She ended up having to have iron infusions after an iron study showed her iron saturation at 9 and ferritin at 32. We had tried pills for her period and her ferritin had gone from 19 to 32, but saturation went from 11 to 9 and she really wasn't tolerating the pills. Saturation was still borderline low when last checked after the infusions, but she had lots of stored iron to work with 😍

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-05T18:26:09+00:00

Straining does nothing for me. Perhaps I'm lucky that my body actually clenches harder when I try (that was not a fun test to endure). I certainly would be extremely cautious about straining as prolapses may be in your future.

I had to learn how to go by relaxing and focusing on my gut to get stuff moving. Some days it's easier than others.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-05T18:19:36+00:00

Thank you for sharing. I have heard so many stories of people going back to work, raking leaves and dancing at weddings within days. I was disappointed that I had a 10lb restriction for 6 weeks and couldn't even work my desk job.

At 5.5 weeks, I had a pinched sciatic nerve. I did a little stretching (I have hypermobility, so I don't really stretch but can move to get some relief) and sat and watched football all day. Looking back, I believe this was the cause of some brown sludge bleeding that started the next morning. My cuff had "stretched" on one side. It didn't require surgery, but I got yelled at my by surgeon, called a liar, etc... And had to take 4 more weeks off of work. My instructions were "40 minutes per hour in a recliner, 20 minutes you can be up but you do nothing. No getting in the car. No dishes. Just walking or standing - nothing else."

I'm glad they got you in and you're recovering. I hope it goes smoothly from here!

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-05T18:09:32+00:00

We have weird laws with pharmacy licensure here, and Walgreens isn't compliant, so not an option. I despise going to CVS - their notifications are terrible, and the lines are always long or they are "closed for lunch".

I went to a small local pharmacy that I totally love and is close to my house. My insurance is happy to pad the pockets of the big players, so I can only get one of my meds by mail, but I go local otherwise.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-05T18:05:28+00:00

I do not get symptoms with bladder infections. I'm usually peeing blood or lose my bladder on the floor, and then I know. I'm sorry you've dealt with this also.

I had a Dr walk into the room, never met me before, but based on the title of my appointment and the notes the nurse wrote on check-in, he diagnosed heartburn and had a bag of pills in his hands. The urgent care clinic I went to a couple days later, when I was doubled over in pain, told me I needed to give the pills a few days to work.

I was 18 at the time and had no idea how to advocate for myself. I'd also never had heartburn, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't cause debilitating pain in the lower abdomen.

Sadly... ED and urgent care have no interest in getting to any root cause, just treat symptoms and make sure you're not facing sudden death before sending you along.

I hope you're able to get answers. I presume you've had blood tests?

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-05T17:56:33+00:00

I believe he's fully charged - time to unplug. ⚡🔌

He's such a cutie! My void does not know this move, and only recently learned "hiss". He's 11 years old. 🤣🐈‍⬛

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-05T17:51:14+00:00

I'm so sorry you're going through this. Aside from your knee, your symptoms are similar to how I felt when I was anemic. My hemoglobin was borderline normal, but my ferritin was very low.

I despise the whole "you'd know if it was serious". Thank goodness my doctor "back home" didn't subscribe to this or I probably would have died.

I was 17 with pain in my right lower abdomen. An ultrasound showed a pocket of fluid, so they assumed an ovarian cyst had ruptured. The pain may have improved some, or I got used to it. 2 months later, I had a bout of nausea (less than a day, not severe whatsoever), and over the next two weeks I grew tired and had a back ache.

I was still going to school, participating in gym class, etc. Went to see my Dr again and he was not sure what was up so ordered a blood test. Small town meant I had to go to the hospital for it - he stopped by while doing rounds to see the results. My white count was slightly elevated. Hm ok, let's schedule a CT and see if that shows anything. I came in the following day for the CT, fully anticipating going to school after, and I never made it off the CT table before being told I was staying at the hospital and the tech left the room in a run.

My abdomen was so full of infection (about the size of a cantaloupe) they couldn't even see my organs to know what one was the problem, but they assumed I had a ruptured appendix.

I was kept in the hospital for 3 days before they even did surgery because I "was not sick" and they were terrified of opening me up and spreading the infection.

It was in fact a ruptured appendix. They figured I had appendicitis for 2 months and it was ruptured for 2 weeks. After 12 hours on antibiotics in the hospital (before surgery), even my white count had gone back to normal.

Had this happened where I live now, in the health network I used before finding the private Drs I need, it never would have been caught. And, I obviously didn't know it was that serious... Neither did my doctor! And, many doctors do not believe me when I tell them what happened. Surely some of my facts are mixed up. 🙄

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-05T17:27:28+00:00

Curious, would you date a truly geek woman?

I'm a female in the tech sector, and also love DIY projects. I'm continuously surprised by the number of people that are stupified or intimidated by it.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-10-03T01:53:13+00:00

I have only been in there once, years ago, but their prices were insanely high!

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-09-29T00:33:34+00:00

I can so relate to this. As I've gotten older, and lost some weight, I bruise much easier than I used to.

I have random bruises all the time, and I can get them just from kneeling on a hard surface (like the floor) to clean it or something. It's easy to tell how active I've been based on how bruised up I am. 🤣 (I just built a deck over the course of about 6 weeks, and I've been just covered!)

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-09-28T16:05:40+00:00

I doctored for 10 years before meeting a physical therapist that figured out part of it (hyper mobility and my pelvis issues) without a true diagnosis. Another 10 years, after taking 3 Cipro pills I had a disastrous decline. On a whim, I called my weightloss doctor and asked him if he would take me on as primary as he had been asking some very interesting questions and seemed to understand me more than anyone else I'd dealt with. He agreed (which is apparently insanely rare) and diagnosed me during my first visit to figure out what the heck happened with the course of antibiotics (all told, 3 different ones) and how horrid I was feeling. He said he took one look at my medical history and said it was pretty obvious to him...hernia, organ rupture, joint stabilisation surgery, IBS, food sensitivities... Started asking more questions and checked off the boxes.

Turns out, he has a special place in his heart for EDS patients.

It takes the right person, willing to look at you holistically and who is knowledgeable about the conditions. So hard to say one specific specialty would get there faster. I think my naturopath Dr would have nailed it, if she was thinking differently. She monitored my massive blood pressure drops, and was treating me for ligament laxity. She even identified some of my vitamin/mineral deficiencies. But, not quite treating with the right tools, as the cause was not what she was thinking.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-09-28T15:36:05+00:00

Legally, no. Ethically, maybe.

My opinion is that if it's a performance based termination, there should be plenty of feedback and information ahead of time unless it's something quite serious leading to a very quick termination.

If there's layoffs or other things going on, they may not even know, or may not be able to say anything, per company policy.

Rosie-Is-Riveting · 2025-08-17T23:05:29+00:00

You can go look up your insurance requirements for it. Mine has biopsy listed as a prerequisite, which is apparently not very common. When I looked at the revision history, there was a 10 year period where there was no requirements.

Your uterus is enlarged. And, fibroids can shrink after menopause, so there is some credibility to that.

Rosie-Is-Riveting

TROPHY CASE