KDeit - Karen - Alumni Hostess | Hystersisters Article

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KDeit - Karen - Alumni Hostess

KDeit - Karen - Alumni Hostess

Date : 04-29-2003 - 08:39 PM - Readers : 1391

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Hi everyone,

Welcome to Hystersisters!

My name is Karen. I’m 56 years old, married to Bill, and have 2 grown children and one 4 ½ year old granddaughter, with another expected at the end of April 2002. I’ve worked for the local county tax collector for 22 years. I was born in Washington, DC at the end of WWII, but grew up in Indiana where I met and married Bill almost 36 years ago. For years he said he wanted to move to Florida to get away from the cold, snow and ice. For five years I resisted, until one day he told me that he was moving and he’d sure like to have his wife and children come with him. Since he’s a pretty wonderful guy, I decided I’d better give in and move.

So - I’ve been living in Florida for 30 years, and now I can’t imagine living anywhere else. (Although it did take time to get used to the bugs, snakes and other creepy crawly things that also love life here in Florida).

We love the water and have had an assortment of boats over the years, from small jon boats to pontoon boats to the 23 foot sailboat that we now have. It is a cruising type of boat (not a racer) complete with a porta-potti (most important piece of equipment on any boat, as far as I can see) and small galley. I have to say that I am happiest when there’s very little wind and the water is smooth - I DON’T like to heel over!!

I was eleven when I started my periods. They were so painful that I missed a couple of days of school almost every month, until a doctor finally put me on birth control pills which did help lessen the pain. I went off of them in order to have my two children, and each time found that my periods were very painful when I wasn’t on the pill.

However, I was also a smoker, and when I turned 35 my doctor refused to continue to prescribe the pill unless I quit. I wasn’t ready to stop smoking at that time, and so I put up with the painful periods in order to smoke. (Looking back on it now, I can’t believe I made that choice!! ) It turned out that most of my pain was caused by mild endometriosis which was removed during a laporoscopy and didn’t come back.. Then, about 10 years ago my doctor told me that I could either quit smoking or I could look forward to a future of dragging an oxygen tank around with me. That finally woke me up, and I went to a psychologist who also uses hypnosis. I had two sessions with him and threw my cigarettes away!!

About 5 years ago I began to have symptoms of menopause. I had heavy bleeding, night sweats, hot flashes and mood swings (cried at any and everything) so badly that after a year or so, Bill asked me to please go to a doctor and get something to make me feel better. I did, and took PremPro for a few years, which helped until my uterus began to prolapse. I tried Kegel exercises for about 18 months, but eventually it got to the point that I felt as if everything was falling out and it turned out that I also had a rectocele (bowel prolapse) and a cystocele (bladder prolapse) along with the uterine prolapse. I was scheduled for a TVH with A & P repairs in August 2001. My doctor was very uncommunicative and I didn’t know the questions that I should have asked and I didn’t know what to expect at all.

The night before my surgery, when I was so nervous that I couldn’t sleep, I sat down at the computer and typed in “hysterectomy”. Well - the first site that I visited was Hystersisters.com, and I immediately felt as if I’d found a whole new family. I only wish that I had found it earlier than I did, but as soon as I was home from the hospital and able to sit for any length of time (on my donut pillow), I came back here and read and posted and read some more. There was always a response from another sister to let me know that I wasn’t alone and to tell me that they cared.

I am very honored that I was asked to become a Hostess on the Pre-op Forum and hope that I can provide help and guidance to others, just as it was given to me.

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