Sep 13
Did you know that we have a huge group of GYN surgeons who love HysterSisters? In fact, they sign up to be in our doctor directory, offering their services to our visitors. Typically they specialize in GYN surgery – minimally invasive surgery. Some specialize in pelvic floor prolapse. Some in managing menopause. Others in GYN oncology.
If you haven’t browsed our Doctor Directory, I encourage you to check it out!
And a Friend on our Path. Isn’t that how you feel about the wonderful kindness you receive from the sisters of HysterSisters.com?
This year – we are celebrating our 14th year online as the best hysterectomy website on the planet – and as we share our birthday celebration with you – we are sharing gifts too.
Come find out how to receive a totebag (free!) just by playing our Birthday Quiz.
Have you noticed that life is easier when you have friends? In fact whether you are walking through the best days of joy and celebration or the lowest difficult challenges, our lives are enhanced with friends.
Their presence in my life are like the chocolate chips in my cookie. They are like spice in my taco. They are flowers on a snowy day. They are sunshine when the day is cloudy.
I’m thankful for my friends. Like the gals in the forums at HysterSisters.com.
I’m continuing to share my list of gratitude throughout the month of November. If you are struggling with sadness or difficult circumstances in your life including your health, choose to make a list of gratitude. Your heart will be encouraged!
When I’m asked what HysterSisters.com does for the visitors, I could talk about the Hysterectomy Checkpoints and the special pages we created for our members to find information for their pre-op and post-op hysterectomy time. I could explain about our videos and our Stories section. I could list our extensive article topics.
But – what I really love to talk about are the sisters! I love to share stories of our members helping each other through the process of decisions of treatments. I love to talk about the sisters who check with each other each day, sharing the burdens of cancer diagnosis and treatments for those members who journey onward with cancer.
I tell those who listen to me, about the members in the Aching Hearts section who identify with each other over the loss of their womb and the damaging disappointment of infertility.
Sisterhood is at the core of HysterSisters. Its what we do best!
If you knew me well, you would know that my love for my dog, Dora, runs deep. She is a dappled dachshund with two blue eyes. She is brilliant and stubborn and daily provides me with entertainment that makes me chuckle. And her face? I love that white, old lady face. For me, she is very human.
Dora Mae sometimes naps where she isn't supposed to nap!
If you have recently had surgery – don’t forget to nap. Plump the pillows all around you and just rest. The healing takes place during those naps. Pushing yourself when you are aching is not the best choice!
A few weeks ago I posted about our wonderful hostess team and said I’d be highlighting different staff members as time rolled along. Remember that? I had to write it down because a reminder note is often required for a nudge of my memory.
So first up I decided to post about Catherine. If she knew I was doing this she would protest. In fact I expect all the hostesses to grimace when I tell them about this new category (or when they find out by reading the blog) because they aren’t here for the personal glory.
Each one of the hostesses volunteers their time to help the website in one way or another because they have gigantic, humongous, hearts of gold.
Catherine is at the top of the heap of the big, hearted crowd.
If you’ve ever written to the HysterSisters helpdesk, you’ve encountered the kindness of Catherine. She helps our members with registrations and lost passwords. She works mostly behind the scenes, mostly as my administrative assistant in which she excels. As you might imagine, we get lots of email and Catherine answers them all!
As I’ve called myself the Keeper of the Keys in the land of HysterSisters – Catherine reminds me where my keys are located if I’ve misplaced them. She remembers everything and I’m so grateful for her skills managing the tasks behind the curtain.
She is also the hostess that helps when we have a member who may be concerned about DVT and/or inherited blood disorders like Factor V Leiden.
You can read more about Catherine in her bio but there is one thing she hasn’t revealed in her bio: she is also “Top of the Heap” as a grandmother.
Thank you Catherine!
Every year in May we face the delicate topic of Mother’s Day in the community forums of HysterSisters. In fact, this sensitive topic extends throughout the year in tiny reminders yet it seems to be more pronounced in May. Some members “get” our tippy-toeing through the topic carefully. Others, don’t understand.
While it might seem that women with children would not be offended by mentioning of pregnancies and babies, there is a universal loss that women experience when their uterus is removed.
For those who’s womb was never able to nest a baby, it is an extremely painful realization. For those with children, the loss of the spot that nested their babies, is also a painful bottom-line. It is a deep seeded grief for our members, especially surrounding the hysterectomy experience.
In the early days of HysterSisters, one of our staff members, Susan, wrote an essay called “Daughters and Sisters” as a special way to celebrate the day typically denoted as Mother’s Day.
I’ve searched for weeks for the words to tell you all how much you mean to me and to honor you. YOU who have held each others hands, comforted each other, reached inside the very soul of each of your sisters and given each other the strength and joy to carry on through a very difficult time in each of your lives. Finally, I found this quote from Naomi Brutke from her poem “Sisterhood”.
“The community of women gathered round,formed a circle of hope that putmen…and death…to shame.”
Today is a very sad day for many of our sisters. It represents what they will never have or never be. My heart breaks for each and every one of you. As much as this day is for the Mothers of this world, I submit that we are all Mothers of this earth, Daughters under our Higher Power, and Sisters by choice.
Women are the nurturers of this planet. Yes, many of us nurture children, both our own and those of other women. We also nurture all of life.
Whether we take care of a child, develop a career, tend to plants, or grow dreams, we are all nurturing Sisters and Daughters of our planet. We make a difference with every tear we dry, every hand we hold, every joy we share, every hope we bring to fruition. Heather Heizman once said “Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can’t buy.” It is a common trait we all share as nurturing, loving women.
To you, the sisters and daughters of this world, I propose that today be HysterSisters Sisters and Daughters Day. No matter where you are and what you’ve done in your lives, you’ve made a difference. You’ve loved, you’ve nurtured, you’ve befriended, you’ve given hope, you’ve shown strength, you’ve led by example, and you’ve made a difference.
Happy Sisters and Daughters Day to each and every one of you.
Susan wrote this post in 2001 and each year we pull it out as a reminder that the tenderness of sisterhood prevails.
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