One Month Post Hysterectomy Today!

Hi Ladies

Today is the anniversary of my surgery...its hard to believe. If I was not being cautious, I would say its been easier than expected, and in fact has had a lot of pleasantness attached to it. I rarely get this much time to myself to legitimately just relax, I am sure I am going to look back and wish I could just spend one of these weeks again some day soon! But, for now, I am looking at my last two weeks of this primary recovery period of being sequestered in the house and then its back to business and having to think about more than one thing at a time all day long.

I feel lucky that I have been able to get some hiking in this last month. I really enjoy getting out on my feet and into nature. I have logged 25 miles, and started the New Year with my longest hike so far of 5 miles over a very steep and cobbled trail called Rough go. I tried to get some others to come along, but I couldn't get anyone out. I enjoyed the solitude and it allowed me to stop and take pictures as I wanted to without bothering anyone. It was a brilliantly sunny, but cold day here in California, and we are set for rain the next two weeks, so taking advantage of yesterday was important.

I started my HRT therapy Saturday, and will do more reading to see if its really for me, but for now I am giving it a try on the premise that I am still relatively young, and in the age group where the risks are less. It feels like fewer hot flashes already, but we will see.

I can see that even my charming husband, although still taking great care of me, is seeing me as more self sufficient, I am not sure if I like that. I have been enjoying being taken care of.

I guess the next hurdle is probably getting to know the new me, and seeing how the new configuration works. Adjusting to it all psychologically. It'll be a couple more weeks before I start taking my nightly hot tub soaks, and riding my mountain and road bikes, and hmmmmm, doing the deed. I was cleared for the hot tub last week, but I just feel like waiting a little extra time.

This morning I was looking up vacations to Mexico thinking it might be nice to get a short, sunny trip in before heading back to work, but I am not quite ready for that, my confidence isn't there. Thats what I am slowly working on, on not feeling too fragile for the rigors of being in public, like yesterday when two children came running at me gleefully without paying attention, and I was hoping they would not charge right into me, or last week when I walked past someone at a restaurant right as they started jumping up and down to express excitement over something,and almost knocked me over. I still feel like I need to be in a controlled environment.

I may venture out into my yard and do some Ivy trimming in the next two weeks, but will put off the more hard work of pruning my fruit trees until later in February.

I hope all is well with you. I wanted to say hello and I suppose the relative lack of activity has to do with people feeling better.

A couple of months after surgery, I was in to see my GP. I mentioned made a joke about how it took major surgery to force me to set aside time to relax and enjoy myself. She replied, "And what have we learned from this?"

And she was right! Since then I've tried to be do this more often. :-)

Thanks for sharing. Glad to know you are able to comfortably hike. Great encouragement for your fellow sisters!

	Quote:
Originally Posted by SurprisedInNB A couple of months after surgery, I was in to see my GP. I mentioned made a joke about how it took major surgery to force me to set aside time to relax and enjoy myself. She replied, "And what have we learned from this?" And she was right! Since then I've tried to be do this more often. :-)

Exactly! Its nice.
I will try to remember to do it regularly.
You are three years out now, how are things going..any remarks from that perspective?

My hysterectomy was for cancer. Nine months after surgery, I had a recurrence which required radiation treatment. I've got some long-term side effects from the radiation, but they're quite manageable and don't have any impact on how I live my life. As for the hysterectomy itself, my scar's the only record and that's fading out nicely. :-) I don't own a car, so I walk wherever I want to go. I hit a sale on canned goods today and carried 30 lbs of groceries home on my back. I shovel snow in the winter and manure for my plot at the community garden in the summer.

The change that's had the most impact on my life is that a couple of months after I finished treatment for the recurrence, I had a chance to start attending free yoga sessions. I've been doing that for a couple of years now and much enjoying it. Right now I'm working on learning the crow pose, an arm balance pose. If anything, I'm stronger and more flexible, with better balance, than I was before surgery.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by SurprisedInNB My hysterectomy was for cancer. Nine months after surgery, I had a recurrence which required radiation treatment. I've got some long-term side effects from the radiation, but they're quite manageable and don't have any impact on how I live my life. As for the hysterectomy itself, my scar's the only record and that's fading out nicely. :-) I don't own a car, so I walk wherever I want to go. I hit a sale on canned goods today and carried 30 lbs of groceries home on my back. I shovel snow in the winter and manure for my plot at the community garden in the summer. The change that's had the most impact on my life is that a couple of months after I finished treatment for the recurrence, I had a chance to start attending free yoga sessions. I've been doing that for a couple of years now and much enjoying it. Right now I'm working on learning the crow pose, an arm balance pose. If anything, I'm stronger and more flexible, with better balance, than I was before surgery.

That is wonderful, and encouraging! Did you have your cervix removed? I too would do those things that you mention, I prune my own fruit trees with a chain saw on a ladder. I cut wood and lift heavy things. I love to hike to the middle of nowhere and backpack. I want to feel totally comfortable with that, and I don't know about the integrity of the Vaginal Cuff. Did you choose HRT? I just started Climara, I'm 53, still a little mixed on it still, but for the moment I am doing it.
Thank you so much for getting back to me. Its encouraging to talk to people that are veterans too.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathilda1963 That is wonderful, and encouraging! Did you have your cervix removed? I too would do those things that you mention, I prune my own fruit trees with a chain saw on a ladder. I cut wood and lift heavy things. I love to hike to the middle of nowhere and backpack. I want to feel totally comfortable with that, and I don't know about the integrity of the Vaginal Cuff. Did you choose HRT? I just started Climara, I'm 53, still a little mixed on it still, but for the moment I am doing it. Thank you so much for getting back to me. Its encouraging to talk to people that are veterans too.

Oh, yeah, it was like a going-out-of-business sale - everything had to go! :-) Uterus, cervix, ovaries, Fallopian tubes.

I'm active, I don't shy off lifting heavy things (although my knees start complaining at about 50 lbs - that was true years before I had surgery). None of this has changed. :-)

My vaginal cuff healed nicely. The only problem I've had with it is that's where my recurrence was, but structurally? Not a problem at all. Once the end of the cuff where it was sewn together heals, it seems to be just as tough as the any of my external scars (some of which I've had since childhood).

Because I had endometrial cancer, HRT wouldn't have been an option for me. However, this wasn't an issue. I was 55 at the time of surgery and had finished menopause almost four years before, was doing fine without HRT.

The only thing I'm noticing re: lack of estrogen is that between menopause, the removal of my ovaries and then the radiation, I've got some osteopaenia in my hips. It's not full osteoporosis, but there's a loss of bone density. The treatment for this is... weight-bearing exercise, of which I get plenty. :-) Also plenty of dietary calcium as well as vitamin D supplements.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by SurprisedInNB Oh, yeah, it was like a going-out-of-business sale - everything had to go! :-) Uterus, cervix, ovaries, Fallopian tubes. I'm active, I don't shy off lifting heavy things (although my knees start complaining at about 50 lbs - that was true years before I had surgery). None of this has changed. :-) My vaginal cuff healed nicely. The only problem I've had with it is that's where my recurrence was, but structurally? Not a problem at all. Once the end of the cuff where it was sewn together heals, it seems to be just as tough as the any of my external scars (some of which I've had since childhood). Because I had endometrial cancer, HRT wouldn't have been an option for me. However, this wasn't an issue. I was 55 at the time of surgery and had finished menopause almost four years before, was doing fine without HRT. The only thing I'm noticing re: lack of estrogen is that between menopause, the removal of my ovaries and then the radiation, I've got some osteopaenia in my hips. It's not full osteoporosis, but there's a loss of bone density. The treatment for this is... weight-bearing exercise, of which I get plenty. :-) Also plenty of dietary calcium as well as vitamin D supplements.

You sound like a hearty soul, my kind of woman! I'm sorry about your recurrence, one would not think that it would occur on the V-Cuff...I hope all is well there now.

I was still menstruating every 21 days at times at 53! Although my FSH was 40, which is in the range of Menopause. I like the idea of the muscle,bone and brain support that Estrogen offers, at least for a while. I was having some pretty impressive Hot Flashes, but otherwise feeling okay mood wise and in most other ways. I have not gone back to work yet, I work in a male dominated field, so want to be feeling good when I am back. I work with really good men, caring and understanding, but the JQ Public not always so much.

Thank you for your feedback on the integrity of the cuff. Its one of the things I am still sort of obsessing on. Like I have said, hopefully not repeating myself, I am an active mountain biker, hiker, backpacker, my garden requires me to be an active Ivy clearer, Tree Pruner, wood cutter....I tend to think I can lift or do anything. I don't have snow where I live, but if I did, I would shovel
Sounds like we are of the same sort of mentality.

Its still hard to adjust to the idea of losing the body parts, not for reproductive reasons, or lack of femininity, I just heard so often from my British father, that if you were born with it, you should keep it! But, as someone said, those parts were only going to cause mischief and do very little good. I saw the pic of my Uterus, and it looked like an angry little alien...glad to be rid of it. My Ovaries were likely to cause me cancer, as I nursed my mom for three months while she died of it, and several other women on my dads side died of it. So, thats no longer an issue.

I think as I get back to more of my day to day, and doing all my usual things, I will feel more and more confidant. Yesterday, I hiked the five miles, and ended up scrambling over a pretty long pile of rocks, it was that or hike back around the flooded lake I had just come around...it was a little nerve wracking, but I did it.

I really look forward to Spring and riding my bikes, planting some flowers, and working on my fruit trees. Then I will start feeling more normal again. Thank you so much for writing.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathilda1963 ...Its still hard to adjust to the idea of losing the body parts, not for reproductive reasons, or lack of femininity, I just heard so often from my British father, that if you were born with it, you should keep it! But, as someone said, those parts were only going to cause mischief and do very little good. I saw the pic of my Uterus, and it looked like an angry little alien...glad to be rid of it. My Ovaries were likely to cause me cancer, as I nursed my mom for three months while she died of it, and several other women on my dads side died of it. So, thats no longer an issue.

I had a bicycle accident when I was 39. Going too fast down a hill with too much unbalanced camping gear loaded onto the bike. Went off the road, hit a patch of gravel, the bike stopped, I didn't. My left knee had the honour of first impact with the gravel. I had so much gravel in the knee that the doc had to take me into the OR to be sure of getting it all out. When I came to, I was told that besides the gravel, he'd also removed my prepatellar bursa, as it was so badly torn up there was no point to keeping it.

So I've got my appendix, my tonsils and my wisdom teeth, but I'm down one prepatellar bursa and one reproductive system. If it's causing trouble or it's in really bad shape, get rid of it.

As for my ovaries, theoretically my risk factors for ovarian cancer were a lot higher than my risk factors for endometrial cancer. Ovarian cancer's sneaky, hard to detect in the early stages, while endometrial cancer tends to announce its presence pretty quickly. When my gyn told me my ovaries were going, I said, "Why?" and got ready to argue. But when she explained about endometrial cancer being fed by estrogen, I said, "Okay, take 'em. At least I can stop worrying about ovarian cancer!"

One of the things that's come about from the whole cancer/recurrence experience is that I have increased respect for my body's resilience and strength. I'm more confident of it now because of what we've been through together. :-)