My experience so far with DaVinci. 11/10 (LONG) - Hystersisters Hysterectomy Article

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My experience so far with DaVinci. 11/10 (LONG)

My experience so far with DaVinci. 11/10 (LONG)

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Fitness after Hysterectomy
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Grief and Loss
Endometriosis
Uterine Fibroids
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Hi all.

This will probably be super long since I will try to be as detailed as possible. (I loved reading details when I was in waiting...)

I am on day 16 post op. So far, so good. But..I will back up a little...

Jan 2008 was about the time I started noticing that my periods were not normal. I would bleed 2-3 weeks out of the month, and for a week I was miserable with severe menstrual cramps. When I would stand...blood would just pour out. It was aweful, as I am sure most of you can imagine (or have experienced). I downed Motrin like candy, and this is how I tried to survive the next year. I put off dealing with it because my infant son had more pressing medical issues that needed my attention.

Jan 2009 finally saw Gyn about the issues. He did some tests, and the only thing that showed up was that I was anemic. Ultrasound appeared normal. But never-the-less, I had had it, and was given the option of birth control (which makes me crazy..no way), ablation, or hysterectomy. I opted for ablation...no brainer for me at the time. I just couldn't wrap my mind around hysterectomy at age 35, even though we were done having kids.

March 2009 -Novasure Ablation. Simple, in/out procedure, no complications. This appeared to work for about 8 months. (yay!!) HOwever, in the meantime (about May 2009) I started having severe GI symptoms. Chronic diarrhea, rectal fistula, 10 lbs weight loss, and abdominal pain. I ended up being referred to GI/and Colorectal surgeon for surgery on fistula (Oct 2009). And in Jan. 2010 my GI doctor began a long series of tests to rule out Crohn's disease....the fistula and GI symptoms pointed to this....However....in the meantime....

Nov 2009-Started having constant vaginal discharge/bleeding again. (every day of the month..."old blood" clots/clumps) I also began having severe pelvic pain that seemed to be there more than 50% of the time. I ended up in the ER in Jan 2010, and they weren't sure if pain was gyn related, or GI related. They tested the "old blood" (was dark brown/black) to make sure it was truly blood and not stool (since I had the history with the fistula, they wanted to make sure it wasn't a new one from rectum to vagina...) It came up as blood (thank goodness!!!). So this pain, and vaginal bleeding continued, but I kept seeing my GI because I still had GI upset and diarrhea. For 6 months he did tests to find Crohn's (he was sure I had it), and everything was normal. The only thing that showed up were a couple of pre-cancer polyps in the colon (which BTW was very good that they found them...now I know I have to be closely followed here on out.)

July 2010, I decide it's time to find a good Gyn doc. (I had moved a year before, and hadn't seen a gyn since my ablation...so it was high time to find one.) I find a great doc!!

And he starts out with sending me out for ultrasound. The ultrasound comes back with several concerns (thick lining...?? with polyps post ablation...ovarian cyst etc..) So he sends me for hysterosonogram to get more info on why I have this post ablation. Turns out that when they go to fill my uterine cavity with fluid for the test, the uterus is stuck shut!! They can't even do the test. In Sept 2010, I go back to see Gyn to go over test results and at this time I am more than prepared to hear the hysterectomy option and to take it. He told me that I had a hematometra which is a complication from the ablation-a big mass of adhesions were causing my uterus to be stuck together and it was trapping a bunch of blood in there that was slowly oozing out over time (hence the "old blood" discharge) He said it is the reason for the pain and bleeding. He said he could go in and try to break it open/clean it out and remove the polyps, but didn't think it would help long term. His suggestion was hysterectomy. I agreed...was completely prepared and ready to make this decision. I mentioned my GI troubles and normal GI tests. He didn't know if it was related at all...couldn't say, but I sure hoped doing the hysterectomy would be the "killing two birds with one stone" treatment. Since I had 4 previous pelvic surgeries, 3 being C-sections, the vaginal wasn't an option. My gyn happens to be a DaVinci surgeon, and so I agreed to go that route.

Nov 10th, 2010-SURGERY DAY. I arrive at hospital at 10:30am for a 12:30pm surgery. Get called back to pre-op approx 11:20pm. I get changed and they attempt to start IV...no luck...my veins are just gone!! (dehydrated from having no liquid since midnight night before) A few tries later, another nurse gets it. In the meantime I meet with my surgeon, the assistant and the anesthesiologist. My husband is finally brought back to be with me..it's about 12:30pm. Finally around 12:55pm...the wonderful OR nurse comes to get me. I say goodbye to my hubby and off we go down the freezing cold hallway to the OR. The whole way the nurse is explaining to me what I will see and what people will be doing to me when we get to the OR. She seriously put me at ease. We roll in and boy was that room huge! It was one of those OR's with a viewing area behind a glass window....thankful no one was in it. People were all over busy doing their thing. My surgeon

and the assistant were in there. They are the ones that helped me to the table and got nice warm blankets on me while the nurse and anesthesiologist put wires on me and stretched out my arms for cuff, and whatever else...I remember the anesthesiologist saying that my IV wasn't going to cut it...and she would place another one after they put me to sleep. Before I knew it, the anesthesiologist was telling me to take deep breaths of oxygen (had placed a mask on me) and the nurse was leaning in giving me a hug telling me to think of a beautiful place to go..........and that's it....(that was about 1:00pm)

.....(approx 3:20ish)I wake up and have some pain. The nurse gives me some pain med...I go back to sleep....I wake up and still have pain...he gives it to me again...I go back to sleep....at some point I remember him saying he gave me two good meds, and maybe I don't handle pain that well. I was too tired and sore to be mad, so I just gave in and told him I didn't think I had good pain tolerance. A moment later, something much stronger entered my system and that totally took care of the pain...phew...back to sleep. Doc comes by...I remember it like a vague dream...said something about it going great..that he talked to my husband and he'd be by in the morning. By 4:15pm I am taken to my room. And the rest of the evening is a complete blur....in and out of drug induced sleep...finally around 8pm I feel like I can stay awake longer than a second......

Everything is pretty easy going until about 5am the next morning...and then from there...until about 24 hours later I am in pure misery from bladder spasms/issues, not passing gas....pain, crying, retaining 10lbs of IV fluid in my skin, reactions to the Percocets etc.....24 hours of misery.....(too long to go into...but some is documented on the recovery posts in post op section dated Nov 8th- Nov 14th.) I went home the evening of Thursday NOv 11th.

By Friday Nov 12th...things started to normalize and from then my recovery has had the normal ups/downs with pain, soreness, bm watch etc.... The morning after surgery, my surgeon told me that he went inside the uterus at the beginning of surgery and broke open the hematometra and a bunch of "hershy syrrup" looking old blood came pouring out. (ouch...that had to hurt...glad I was asleep) He said that was probably causing a lot of pain for me all these months. I ended up with four small incision in the belly from DaVinci. I had some adhesions to the bladder causing it to be stuck to my uterus, so he separated the two...and took my uterus and cervix. (chronic inflammation on the cervix)

Just had my two week post op a few days ago. This was just to check the incisions (which are healing up great) and go over pathology report. Aside from what we knew was the problem..the complication from ablation, I also had a fibroid and adenomyosis...both of which probably caused the original problems I had with severe pain and bleeding prior to ablation. He said ablation doesn't fix those, hence the reason it probably "failed". He reassured me that I should start to feel 100% better after recovering from surgery.

Today at 16 days post op, I am still taking Motrin 2-3 times a day and occasional take a Rx pain pill by late afternoon/evening. Overall I feel great and I am sooo glad I did this. I am fully expecting it to resolve my problems. My GI track even seems a lot better now!!

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My Experience

My experience with DaVinci Hysterectomy

Find A Doctor Near You

Aileen Caceres, M.D. Center for Specialized Gynecology/Florida Hospital 410 Celebration Place, Suite 302 Celebration FL 34747 (407) 303-4573	Bruce Pierce, M.D. 2 Princess Road Lawrenceville NJ 08648 609-896-0777	Scott Dinesen, M.D. 599 W State Street Suite 301 Doylestown PA 18901 215 489-2066
Sean Kossari, M.D. 14901 Rinaldi Street Suite 320 Mission Hills CA 91345 818-365-1616	Megan Daw, M.D. Western Carolina Women's Specialty Center 2100 Ridgefield Blvd Asheville NC 28806 828-670-5665	John Lenihan, M.D. 314 ML King Jr. Way Suite 104 Tacoma WA 98465 253-403-5432
Larry R. Glazerman, M.D. USF College of Medicine 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. MDC 62 Tampa FL 33612 813-259-8500	Christopher Stroud, M.D. 11123 Parkivew Plaza Drive Suite 101 Fort Wayne IN 46845 2609695071	Ken Sinervo, M.D. 1140 Hammond Dr., Ste. F6220 Atlanta GA 30328 770-913-0001

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