Reporting in post-surgery, down one uterus and a cervix, up a few more holes in my abdomen, and post-good IV drugs and a million hours of sleep.
It's Day 3. My pain is very low and managed with the extra-strength ibuprofen. My middle is a little swollen and generally just feels weird/off. I've taken two short walks, one yesterday and one today, and slept for 2-3 hours after each. I've taken two showers, one yesterday and one today, and slept for at least an hour after those too. Sleeping is kind of my thing right now. Sleeping, healing, and not tracking the few email conversations I read enough to trust myself to respond to any of them.
This hysterectomy was a long damn time coming. In a world without health insurance approvals and doctors who like to start with the non-most-invasive option possible I would have done this about 8 years ago when I reconciled myself to the fact that Cora was our last baby. I'm going into the whole story here because I think women's stories are important and not talked about or studied nearly enough, but this is your warning if the title wasn't enough.
My periods got worse after each pregnancy. After Landon, an IUD kept them in check. After Claire it was an IUD + continuous birth control. After Cora it was an IUD + stronger continuous birth control. I'd been on some form of birth control since I was 18 and never had an issue, so using two kinds at once to keep periods away didn't bother me as long as it worked. And it did work and it didn't bother me for a pretty long time.
And then, about 2.5 years ago I started getting yeast infections. I'd get them treated and a few days later they'd come back. Then my skin, which in the last few years has become highly reactive, decided to develop a contact allergy to yeast, which means the cycle of yeast infection + contact dermatitis + yeast infection was unending and deeply, deeply awful. My pelvic floor decided to get involved and became WAY overactive, basically trying to shut down anything that might try to ever touch me. Sex, which is my very favorite thing, became painful and nearly impossible. I developed vulvar eczema in reaction to the creams and medicines, so basically my entire pelvic area was flipping the fuck out.
I saw my gynecologist many times, a dermatologist, a vulvar dermatologist, and a pelvic floor physical therapist (amazing; that therapy should be covered for all women, I can't believe I hadn't been to one before). After 2 years of trying to figure out why everything that had been working fine for fifteen years suddenly went haywire and the vulvar dermatologist (who I loved and was amazing, but is the only one in Dallas and it took nearly a year to get in to her) suggested it could be a long term reaction to hormonal birth control.
I went off it and the skin conditions improved tremendously but the periods were out of control and I simply refuse to have that level of monthly carnage in my life. So we did an ablation. We combined it with removing both of my fallopian tubes because once they've scraped and burned out your uterine lining you absolutely cannot get pregnant. So I did that in November. It was an outpatient procedure, I took off a couple days of work, didn't really tell anyone, and all was fine.
Except the periods didn't change. AT ALL. Turns out, in rare cases (OF COURSE), an ablation will "fail" due to adenomyosis, where the uterine lining has at some point decided to grow into the muscular wall of the uterus, and so I finally just got to take the whole thing out. The doctor was able to do it laparoscopically and my ovaries remain with me, so I don't have to worry about HRT or early menopause. I no longer have a cervix, so I no longer have to do pap smears or worry about cervical cancer. I can't get uterine cancer any more either and my risk of ovarian cancer goes way down, so that's nice.
My poor abdomen has three new incisions and hopefully been cut into for the last time. My insides feel swollen and a little confused. I'm home for the rest of April, exclusively resting for this week, and then likely increasingly working from home over the next few. It's amazing what surgery takes out of you. My pain is well managed and I feel pretty good, but I sleep a lot and it is clear it's the only thing my body really wants to do. I'm not supposed to lift anything over 3 pounds, and I can't do cardio for at least 6 weeks or have sex for 12, but I'm just glad to be at the end of what has been a very long journey involving way too many tests and scrapes and stirrups.
And now, back to sleep.
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Wishing you a speedy recovery (but a long time to rest and relax nonetheless). Congratulations on crossing the finish line to proper conclusive medical intervention. Sending long-distance hugs and high fives!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your story and wishing you a quick recovery!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your story - I agree these things are so important to talk about and you have motivated me to go to a pelvic floor therapist which I have been meaning to do for ages. Glad to see Nurse Milo is on the case and wishing you a speedy recovery!
ReplyDeleteWishing you a speedy and complete recovery ❤️
ReplyDeleteThinking about you & wishing you a speedy recovery! Thank you for sharing your story <3
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very rough journey!! Best wishes on a speedy recovery. Very happy for you to hopefully have all of that behind you now.
ReplyDeleteSo very glad that you are doing well! And good for you for sharing your story.
ReplyDeleteWishing you a restful and complete recovery! Kudos for advocating for yourself until you got what you needed and thank you for sharing your story.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU for sharing your journey with this. It's so frustrating trying to get the help you need and the side effects of some of the solutions can be almost as bad as the problem itself - all of it made worse by the fact that it's something people don't really discuss.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your story. Women's health as a “taboo” makes me want to scream. I didn’t even know vulvar dermatologists existed and now I’m interested in pelvic floor therapy! You’re an educator. ⭐️ Wishing you a speedy recovery.
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you for sharing that. Hope you get lots of sleep and then some more sleep and heal well!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
ReplyDeleteWishing you a quick and complete recovery!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing. It's very helpful both to hear about women's physical issues and to hear what is happening in the life of someone you have come to care about!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing! I can't believe you had the travel and work schedule you did while dealing with such awful periods (and everything else)! I'm so sorry it took so long to solve, but I'm so happy for you that all of that is over. Best wishes for a quick recovery.
ReplyDeletePelvic floor physio is AMAZING. I had my first baby in France where sessions are prescribed for all women post-birth, then my next two kids in the UK where no one knew what I was talking about. Absolutely should be more commonly available.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes on a safe recovery. thank you so much for sharing this - I’ve been working through a less painful version of this for the last year and it helps to hear your story. Aging + girl parts is kind of a brutal thing. Take care!
ReplyDeleteAhhh! After your last post I was hoping you’d share more but wasn’t sure whether you would. Really truly appreciate the candid post— touched upon some stuff am facing as well. Hope there are a few good shows to watch while you recover!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you sharing too. I wish you all the best with healing!
ReplyDeleteAppreciate the sharing! Sounds awful but your writeup is terribly illuminating. Best wishes for speedy healing!!
ReplyDeleteThis was so important. The T in TMI was definitely appreciated and now you have me thinking about pelvic floor physio. Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your hysterectomy! I hope it fixes all of your issues bc that sounds like a lot to deal with. Speedy recovery!
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating to me- I was told by several gynecologists that the "cure" for my horrific periods would be to have kids! That this would somehow make my periods better. I do not have children (and it was not in the plan), so I have never gotten to test this theory, but I'm interested to see that this was not your experience at all. I'm glad you were finally able to get the care you needed, and I hope that you heal quickly!
ReplyDeleteSuch a story, i had no idea about the struggles, because your pictures are always so happy ;)) I hope you are felling better now! I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your story here. It makes the struggle of working moms so relatable, because based on the social images, it seems like some women tend to "have it all", while indeed we all trying to find a balance of some kind, while our health is so often neglected! Thank you for being real! Sending big hugs your way!!!
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