TAH Oct 29, feeling pretty good!

I have been healthy most of my life, am an outdoor woman mostly. At 75 I was feeling really healthy and good, walking half a mile to a mile a day.

I noticed some vaginal bleeding one day recently and made an appointment with my Doctor. Things went quite fast after that. I was scheduled for a well-woman's exam, in which a pap smear was done, but a cervical test was not possible.

Let me tell you that I live in a wee town in the mountains, no cities for 85 miles, and one of those in another state.
But we have a fine little hospital.

I visited with a surgeon. The pap smear was normal. A mammogram was also normal.The surgeon said I would need a D & C so he could ascertain what caused that bleeding. I agreed. The D & C went quickly.
I was not worried about the results. I thought it was all over, but the surgeon gently told me that the D & C showed I had endometrial cancer.
Shock...but I wanted to know what happened next. He told me all possibilities, and the first was that I would need a TAH to decide if they had gotten all of the cancer, and they could evaluate that after the hysterectomy.
I agreed.

After that visit, I had a blood test, a chest X-Ray, and a colonoscopy. I had dreaded this but I decided to watch this being done. It showed no problems. On Oct 29 I had the TAH, and except for unexpected nausea after the operation, it went well and I was brought to my hospital room.

It was very hard for me to move at first, and very difficult to sit up, but in a few days I managed to stand and that felt so good!. I walked a long way using a walker, 2 nurses trailing me with a wheelchair. I had an XRay then, and walked back to my room.

My biggest problem was that I am a diabetic 2, and got no meds for 36 hours. My counts were all out of control, so they gave me insulin. I wasn't pleased, but soon they gave me my meds. I couldn't defecate with the Foley catheter inside me, so I told them if I had solid food that might work better too.
I had solid foods for 2 days and they removed the catheter and everything worked just fine.

So I went home.

The hospital stay was less than 5 days. It was wonderful getting home. I had arranged for a walker to get to my home from the car, but never needed it.

Once home, I devised meals that balanced my glucose counts and though I lost control of those twice, I managed to get them back in pretty good balance.

My husband of 33 years, is a wonderful helpmate. He just did everything I asked, and was incredibly helpful at every turn. He was cooking all our meals before my operation, and I just told him what I could have now, and he cooked it.
Help at home seems crucial to me.
His calm and positive attitude was amazing.
We were both very calm and positive, feeling no other attitude would help me more.

My problems during those days following the surgery were constipation which I think was caused by the Tylenol X3 with codeine. I stopped taking those, and that cleared up. I began using only extra strength Tylenol. I rated my pain at 3 on a scale of one to 10.
My fight to regain control of my glucose counts was the only other real problem.

I got up and walked around the house every day, over and over, and when I could, walked outside getting back up to 1/2 mile a day.

My visit to my surgeon was incredible. He spent a good deal of time making me really understand that the cancer is gone.
I am not dim, but he didn't want lingering doubts or questions to crop up later.
The cancer had been removed in the earlier D & C. Invasion of the uterus was minimal and my chances of finding cancer in any other part of my body was now .7%

He removed the staples and put little strips over the incision.

That's where I am now.

I am getting stronger every day and even went out a few days ago and pruned two rose bushes. Nothing I had to bend to do.

I still get up and walk 5-6 times inside every day. My appetite is much less now but I eat the proper things, just not as much as I used to.

I look forward to gardening and walking in the spring.

Thanksgiving, coming soon, will be at my son's and we are not religious people but we will all be thankful for this wonderful outcome.

Don't fear the tests, the operation. Think positive. You can stand anything. You want to be well and happy again and you will.

That is my story so far.
I am smiling.