New, Scared, Uterine Mass found

Hi all, I'm really nervous too. Unlike a lot of you very brave women I've never had pain and this has all come from nowhere. I went to my doctor 3 weeks ago with what I thought was a kidney infection and it's all gone from there. I have a 20 cm abnormal uterine mass. I'm scared of the surgery having never had any before, I've never had an anaesthetic and that is scaring me too. I'm scared of what they'll find when they analyse the mass. I'm scared it might take me 6 weeks to recover and I'll feel like a failure. I'm scared I'll have no one to talk to, for some reason it seems to upset people when I try to talk about it. I'm terrified of offending people as I'm lucky in that I do have children. I have no pre-op, I present myself in hospital on Tuesday. I don't even know if I'm losing my cervix. There is a "work to rule" in the public sector here so I can't get anyone in the hospital to answer the phone. I wish you all the best of luck and fervently hope this waiting is the worst part.

MacP, thou we may not be there in Dublin to talk you, you always have someone here on HysterSisters to talk to.

Is it possible to stop by the hospital and talk to someone that way??

Everything is scary the first time; you have nothing to reference it to, but I have faith in you and you will do fine.

Stay with us online and we will give you all the support you need. If you havent done so already, start a post in the pre-op forum; you will find support and words of encouragement.

MacP -

I can totally empathize with your situation of having no pain and suddenly ended up with a hysterectomy.

I found huge amounts of information on this site. More importantly I found and continue to find emotional support.

Your feelings of being scared, especially when a mass was found, are absolutely normal. I know it will be tough but try to break it all down into manageable steps. First, get ready to get through the surgery. Be as informed as you can be.

Once the mass is analyzed than you take that one on but not now becasuee there is way too much that is unknown.

Start letting yourself know that 6 to 8 weeks is initial recovery. Full recovery takes 6 months to a year. I didn't start really feeling like myself and using the word "normal" until around 11 months. By understanding that it may make you feel like less of a failure. Again you may find that your recovery is uneventful.

Start reading through the Pre-Op forum articles.

Also the Hystectomy Checkpoints .

We're here for you.



G.

I too had no problems until suddenly I had to have surgery. The waiting was by far the worst part. I made it fine thru anesthesia. I had very minimal pain, some for 24 hrs then just took Aleve. Physically I was a bit tired but went back to heavy work at 5 weeks. Mentally was a bigger adjustment for me, I hated losing organs and having a cancer diagnosis. This site gave me more info than my pre op visit did. Most likely all will go well for you and whatever the mass is, it'll be out, and we can help you deal with a diagnosis. It was all much easier than I expected.

Hi MacP, I can relate so much to you. I had some pain back in November, something I thought was a uterine cyst, but like you, they found a large mass. Unfortunately, I had no insurance, and no way to pay the tens of thousands of dollars it would take to take care of the mass. I spent lots of my own money just getting it scanned several times.

Eventually I found a way to get insurance, still expensive but nowhere near the rate of self-pay. I went from feeling completely insecure and fearful to feeling taken care of, as I was able to get the best care on this insurance plan. (Made the whole US health care debate so personal to me, it's so frustrating.) But I still dreaded a cancer diagnosis, as the mass grew very quickly (even between November and February), and the radiologists found reasons to suspect cancer.

My story had a happy ending; I hope yours does too. The surgeon was excellent and removed the uterus with the huge mass. They did a pathology on it while I was open, and they found no inital signs of cancer, though I will hear in a few days what the final diagnosis is. Recovery is much easier so far than I thought, but I worked hard to arrange things so they would be as stress free as possible, and I didn't have much time to do it either. I hope you can find support in friends and family around you, but certainly you will find it here.

I don't understand this: "There is a 'work to rule' in the public sector here so I can't get anyone in the hospital to answer the phone." What does that mean? Is your surgeon in the hospital? I think stopping by in person is a great idea if that is an option and nothing else works. You need all the support you can get at this time. Don't be afraid to ask for it.

Thank you all for your kind words of support, I thought I was doing ok, don't know what's taken hold today. Manageble steps would seem the best way to deal with it all.

Akabezer - I especially thank you for taking the time to respond when your own surgery was so very recent. I hope all is going well for you!

Hi Susanrm,
Apologies, I posted my reply before I saw yours. I'm glad to hear it's all going okay so far and really hope your final diagnosis is good.

The 'work to rule' is to do with pay cuts to government workers, irrelevant here. I think I may well have to go into the hosptal to have all my niggly questions answered. Thanks for you reply

MacP -

You can ask your niggly questions here as well. That way you can get your Dr.s perspective and support from women who have been there as well.



G.