[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Suki

Geez, Nyororin! Thank God I read other not-so-horrifying stories from the other users, cause after reading yours I wasn't sure I wanted to keep reading anyone else's experience. I swear I got the shivers as I was reading it. Especially the part of being aware when being cut and the whole pulling sensation. You described it so well I could almost feel it in my flesh.

In some of the other responses to me - I think people are missing that it did not hurt. The cut felt icy cold (I am assuming that the cold sensation was the icy air hitting my moist innards...), and I did feel pulling... But it wasn`t painful.
To be quite honest, the two most painful events of the whole thing were the attempts to get an IV in - nothing, absolutely NOTHING can compare to that, and at this point I would rather risk death than choose to have them attempt to put one in again. I was terrified of IVs before, now I can`t even look at one without shaking, crying, and feeling like I`m going to throw up. It`s a real confirmed phobia now... - and the catheter. The catheter was just a sharp stab of pain that jerked me awake. I don`t think it hurt that much in reality, but was a very unpleasant way to be brought back to a scary reality.

Me too. Losing consciousness is terrifying enough, but being half-awake through the whole thing? Geez! Must've been hell for you, Nyororin

It would have been worse had any pain gotten through. It didn`t actually hurt, and the scariest part was thinking that I might wake up enough to feel the pain. I didn`t (at least until I really woke up afterward), but it was still horrible to feel things and be able to run a scenario through my mind of "oh crap, they must be doing this now... I do NOT want to wake up at this point!!! Please do not wake up any more!!"

As for the problem with getting an IV, that really sucks. I used to be terrified of needles but that is something one gets used to.

I`m not really all that scared of needles. Having blood taken isn`t that bad, but I guess I am somewhat lucky on that one as the normal veins they take from in the crook of your arm don`t work well for me. On the left, I don`t even have one there, and the right is very small. As it`s obvious from looking, the doctors will listen to me and use an infant gauge needle to take from there or the back of my hand.
But when it comes to an IV, they will never ever listen to me that it isn`t easy to get one in and just assume I`m scared of needles - or that I had a single bad experience with an unskilled doctor. And of course, they have 20+ years of experience getting one in, blah blah blah.... And then half an hour later they give up and tell me that I must have the problem I TOLD them I had before we started, and that I will need to sign waivers because they couldn`t get one in and didn`t want me suing them later for it.

If I`d been feeling better and not in such a state of horror to begin with, I probably could have relaxed and maybe even kind of enjoyed the experience (well, enjoy is a stretch, but maybe used it as a fascinating learning experience...?) It isn`t all that often that you have that kind of surgery without being in direct danger of dying. (I wasn`t - my son was.)

I didn`t find the pain all that bad after waking up. I had a HUGE stitched and taped gash running from just below my belly button down to my pubic bone, but it I didn`t try to cough, sneeze, or sit up without someone`s support it didn`t hurt much. I could actually walk around (albeit slowly and carefully) without much pain at all if someone helped me up.
And this was without pain killers - they make me feel like complete and total crap. I made the choice to feel alright with occasional sharp pains than feel like crap with slightly dulled pain. I was also pretty amazed when they took the stitches out and there was no pain at all.

It healed well enough that unless I were to point it out, it`s almost invisible. For the longest time the scar and the area immediately to the left and right of it had no feeling at all, but that eventually came back. Now it sort of throbs every month at that time if I press it.