Bisalp postmortem

Ok, so now that I'm about two weeks removed from the experience, I figured I'd post about my experience just in case it will help others (thank you to the kind person who linked me to their experience when I was having surgery anxiety) also very thankful for this subreddit and the doctor list because that was immensely helpful.

As soon as the election was called, I made a panicked appointment to a doc I knew participated in my insurance for a sterilization consultation at a local hospital. I was, unfortunately, scheduled with a doctor who was LGBT incompetent and kept asking very intrusive questions about my partner, our sex life, and particular sex acts, all while referring to my partner with slurs. The cherry on top was that it turns out this wasn't even the sterilization consultation I had scheduled and was some weird pre-requisite before it or something. Idk, I was pissed. They had me waiting in a room with screaming children coughing all over the place for over an hour past my scheduled appointment time, it was an awful experience over all, so I never went back and ended up going to the list here (please learn from my fail and just go straight to the list, even if you have shit insurance, there is a possibility of a doc on the list taking it which i, thankfully, found.)

Luckily the doc on the list (unfortunately she's almost two hours away, but it was worth it) was able to get me in the following week and the experience there was like night and day. The office was calm and quiet, I was not asked any invasive questions, and the doc even said that she'd remove any ovarian cysts she found in the procedure because I have PCOS. The only thing she asked is "are you sure you don't want kids?" Which is standard procedure and then she just believed me when I said no and went into what the procedure is and sent me down the hall to fill out paperwork with the associate that handles it. All around smooth and calming experience. My procedure was scheduled for the following month and I was told to await a call from the hospital to get the date.

Getting medical clearance from my primary doc was a challenge because he couldn't understand why the trump presidency would make me want to get this done (fucking idiot), but luckily I found a different doctor who listened to me and gave me the clearance.

The hospital was really lovely and all the staff were very comforting and friendly. The first hour was just getting into the surgical garments and grippy socks and meeting all the doctors who would be working on the procedure plus some extra paperwork to confirm that yes, I am sure I want this and have never wanted children. Then I get sent up to the surgical Bay and wake up a couple hours later back in my hospital room. I did have some rough nerve pain and, due to the fact that I have redhead jeans, the heavy duty pain meds they gave me didn't work, unfortunately. However, they gave me a different med that worked slightly better and every day the pain got a little better. The first few days were rough, but this can sometimes happen in surgery if they stretch or cut a nerve and was only a real issue for the first few days.

One thing to note is if you take birth control for PCOS, the anesthesia will nullify it for a few days, so you will have some pelvic pain and bleeding for a bit due to that. Honestly, that was the worst part since I have been and will remain on constant birth control to keep my PCOS under control. Again, worth it for the security of sterility, but just something to be prepared for.

I'm currently two weeks out and the PCOS symptoms are back under control and my surgical pain is gone. I will say that I wish that I didn't feel so forced into this on a quick time frame because of the election. I wish that I had had more time to process and prepare instead of the breakneck speed race to get my tubes removed because of the incoming administration. I do live in a blue state, but I don't know how long, exactly, that safety will be in place, so this was more for peace of mind than anything (I also made the mistake of watching Immaculate having no idea of the plot until it was happening and that certainly made me feel more sure of my decision, lol). I'm glad it's done and now I never have to do with pregnancy body horror, but dear Lord do I wish that it were under different circumstances. It's a relatively easy recovery and I'd recommend it to anyone that wants to be certain in a permanent birth control method and lower their cancer risk.