Surgery Update

*warning - contains some "feminine" issues which may make some squeamish*

It's been a while since I've written but I do have some news.

Early in June I got my period. Nothing terribly unusual until 2 weeks later when I still hadn't stopped bleeding AND I had lost every ounce of energy I had. I went to my regular physician who did all kinds of blood work (including hormones, thyroid, anemia, along with the gamut of regular tests) and they sent me for an ultra-sound. Fortunately, the blood work all came back normal, but the ultra-sound showed something. I have Fibroid Tumors on my uterus. The term "tumor" may lead you to think cancer, but in the case of "fibroids" they are not cancerous tumors.

I have two of these tumors, one about the size of a golf ball and a larger one that is a little bigger than a baseball - but smaller than a softball.

I was told to continue to exercise and to take a B-12 vitamin. The vitamin was to be taken in addition to my other daily vitamins and was to help with energy, which it did to some degree. I was prescribed Provera. This was to stop the bleeding all together in 2 or 3 days. However, the bleeding didn't stop, it got worse. Including larger amounts of blood loss. She had me double the dose and that did not work either. She had me stop the Provera and get a different birth control pill. I doubled up on the pill and in about a week, the bleeding slowed significantly and now I'm 5 days with no bleeding! Hooray!

So, At this point we started talking about surgery. She was extremely hesitant to do a hysterectomy on me. Not because of my age, or because it might not work, but because I've never had children. I explained to her that I had made my decision many years ago that I wasn't going to bear children and that I was ok with the idea of losing my uterus. And I'm even happier that a hysterectomy is the sure fire way to get rid of the tumors. You can remove just the tumors, but the surgery is just as invasive AND the tumors can grow back.

She spoke with me at length about it and I finally convinced her that I was ok with it. We have scheduled the surgery for August 19.

Although I'm ok with the hysterectomy, I'm not thrilled about surgery. I'll be out of work for 4-6 weeks. I keep pushing for 4 weeks, but my doctor will not let me get too optimistic about it.

We are also hoping that I can have a Laprascopically Assisted Vaginal Hysterectomy (LAVH). This way, I have two tiny incisions, they cut the tubes through my belly button and then pull the uterus out of my vagina. She is feeling ok about doing this, but has let me know that once she gets a look at the tumors if they are too obstructive, she may end up having to cut my belly and giving me the hysterectomy the old fashioned way. She doesn't want to pull those tumors through me and risk tearing anything on the way out - especially since I apparently have a small vaginal wall and have never bore children. Also, the LAVH is 23 hour stay at the hospital but an abdominal surgery is 2-4 days in.

Some more of the good news about this is that my ovaries are fine. So they won't need to take those, which means no hormone therapy afterwards. THAT is a big relief.

So, that's what's going on with me. I'm going to try to blog about the experience. I've been fortunate to have friends about the same age as me who have had hysterectomies and can help me out with what to expect. One had an LAVH and one had it done Abdominally.

I'm sure I'll be fine. :-)

So on August 19th at about 730am....be thinking good thoughts. :-)

Much love and many.....

Smiles, lulu