SAH/BSO - my hysterectomy story - Hystersisters Hysterectomy Article

		HysterSisters > Abdominal Hysterectomy Stories Articles
SAH/BSO - my hysterectomy story

SAH/BSO - my hysterectomy story

From the Abdominal Hysterectomy Stories Articles List

HysterSisters Articles

Options to Hysterectomy
Pre-Op Hysterectomy
Post-Op Hysterectomy
Hormone and Menopause
Intimacy after Hysterectomy
Fitness after Hysterectomy
GYN Cancer
Hysterectomy Stories
Ask A Doctor

My story is quite long so for the sake of space and the risk of putting you all to sleep I'll condense it! It all began in Nov/98. A routine gyn exam, I mentioned to my Dr. that after a period I was getting cramping on my right side accopmanied by back pain, which was unusual for me since most of my ovulation pain was always on the left side. After doing a pelvic exam he said that he felt a cyst on the right ovary. So being a nurse my imagination got the best of me and I asked him if he thought it was cancer. His answer was "well it's on the lisst, but at the bottom."Of course that's all I needed to hear. He sent me for an ultasound which was done ,I swear by the meanest technician on the planet. She was very vague in all of her responses to both me and my husband. After all this was done, both transabdominal and transvaginal, she told us that there was no one available to give us the results! So we went home to what I swear was the longest night of our lives, and by the way we ahve two little boys who had gotten some abdominal virus that very night. So in between cleaning both of them every hour and washing mounds of sheets I still ahd this feeling of impending doom in the back of my mind. The next morning I got a phone call from hte radiologist who said " well the left ovary looks good, the uterus looks good, but the right ovary was hard to visualize because of a mass! Needless to say my life stopped then and there. He suggested a repeat of the exam. I called the dr. on Mon. am and he told me that there was nothing too worry about. "it was probably stool in the bowel or a loop of bowel, have a nice holiday". It was Thanksgiving week! Being a nervous person by nature I called and scheluded a second opinion exam with his associate.When i arrived for the appt. he was so backed up that I had to see one of the new partners in the practice. Thank God, she turned out to be one of the best Dr.s that I ahve ever dealt with. She listened patiently to my story examined me and said that she too felt something. Luckily for me she brought her own ultasound tech. with her and was able to do the exam right there. Well guess what? She also said that it was a loop of bowel or stool in the bowel! Now I go home and am still not satisfied with the new news, so i scheduled myself for a tubal ligation, because I knew something wasn't "right". She wasn't able to do the procedure so she has her male assoc. do it for me. And low andbehold he gets in there and finds a huge Dermiod cyst on the right ovary! Now for the best part- I go into ventricular tachycardia on the table, one of the most lethal heart arrythmias you coould have. I had to be bolused with lidacaine and woke up to people running around me screaming for Ekg's and oxygen etc. I bought mysefl a ticket to a cardiologist and the whole gammet of cardiac testing! In the mean time instead of the Dr. removing the whole ovary he only takes part of it, and I end up back in the O.R. 3months later to have the rest of the ovary removed and the tube too, which by the way was "dead" anyway. All goes well until Dec/99 when I'm like a "crazy woman" and my husband says "you've changed since that surgery". Now I call my regular gyn Dr. and she puts me on Paxil"great stuff!". June/00, I'm now having the same pain, but this time on the left side. Back to the Dr. , repeat ultrasound- results= large hemoraghic cyst on the left ovary. We wait one month, cyst dissolves, probably a functional cyst, she says... Are you still with me? Nov/00 routine gyn exam. Guess what? Cyst is back, now I also have a cyst on the tube and huge varicose veins in the uterus. What next? We collectively deceide that she will go in and do an exploratory laporotomy and see what exactly is going on. I discussed the possibility of a hysterectomy with her and we plan that if she can save the ovary then she will not do the hyst, and leave well enough alone and just monitor everything. 12/15/00 I'm admitted to the hospital not knowing what I'll wake up with or without. Surgery goes well and I wake up, this time I behaved myself and didn't cause any trouble under the anesthesia, I had an anesthesiologist who specializes in high risk cardiac patients and he gives a betablocker before putting me under. End result- total hysterectomy, although she left the cervix for vaginal support. Today 12/29/00, I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. I'm on Estratest a combination of estrogen and testosterone. I haven't had any "bad" side effects from the surgery or the HRT. It was so funny to recover on the maternity unit in the hospital. So amny people that saw me and didn't know me assumed that I had, had a baby, it was funny to see their faces when they kindly asked "what I had" and I answered"a hysterectomy!" Ha, Ha. So see you can still ahve a sense of humor with all that has happened. I hope that I haven't bored anyone with this story. But I feel that the moral to the story is that you know your own body and when you feel that something "isn't quite right" pursue it. Become a pain in the @##$%, and don't let up until you get the answers that you're searching for! I'm glad I did. Luckily for me and Joe we were blessed with two happy, healthy little boys. So I can't be upset that I lost my uterus, or my ability to bear more children, I just look at it as another curve in the road of life, so I've decieded to buckle up and enjoy the ride. By the way does this mean I can get a senior citizen discount to the movies since medically I am in menopause? Live, Love, Laugh!! That's my motto. Good Luck to all of you who have surgery impending and cheers to those of you who ahve already had your surgeries! God Bless, Roz.
[Edited by Roz on 12-29-2000]

Printer Friendly Version

SAH/BSO - My Castle Story

SAH/BSO - My love-My pillow

Find A Doctor Near You

Gregory Glover, M.D. 10810 Parkside Dr. Knoxville TN 37934 865-218-6690	Casey Sprague, M.D. 3960 Coon Rapids Blvd. #101 Allina Women's Health Coon Rapids MN 55433 763-236-9236	Douglas Coslett, M.D. 24 Main Street Luzerne PA 18709 570-714-1444
Bret Lewis, M.D. 5780 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd., Ste 295 (#2 Location) 11975 Morris Rd., Ste. 310 , Alpharetta, GA 30004 Atlanta GA 30342 404-255-3633	John Thiel, M.D. 100-2631 28th Ave Regina Canada_Saskatchewan S4S6X3 306-586-1800	Sherri Levin, M.D. 929 Gessner Suite 2100 Houston TX 77024 713-464-4111
Michele Cowling, M.D. 303 Nicollet Blvd Burnsville MN 55337 952.460.4000	Francisco Garcini, M.D. 1870 Silver Cross Blvd Suite 210 New Lenox IL 60451 815-463-3000	Susan D. Hunter, M.D. 626 Ed Carey Dr Harlingen TX 78550 956-428-4868

Receive support and resources for your hysterectomy related needs: