My Journey to TAH and LSO and recovery

Hi there, I am Wanda, mnd om to 3 and wife to a wonderful supportive husband.

Ever since starting menstration I was always textbook, every 28 days for 7 without fail. I was almost 30 before having my first child and it wasn't until after I had him that I went on BC for the first time in my life. I only lasted a few months and decided to go off and take my chances with another pregnancy as I had either too much bleeding or none at all. I would go on to have two more children in the next 4 years. After my third was born it was decided that I would have my tubes tied as I was high risk for another premie and we were happy with three.

Fast foward to about two years ago and my periods suddenly became heavy and frequent. At first it was every 3 weeks, flowing for 7-9 days and as the time went on I would go every 10-20 days with a heavy flow and a lot of pain.

I thought this was just part of aging and did not seek medical advice. I was usually pretty good about going to the dr. for regular physicals, but since my family dr. had closed her practice due to illness I had nobody to see and just kept on the search for a new dr. In August of this year we finally found one and she was pretty good. She did my physical and all the regular tests. When she asked me about my periods I told her what was going on. She decided to send me for an ultrasound. I had that done in the next couple of days and was surprised to get a call from the office saying that the dr. needed to see me about the results. She was concerned about the very large cyst that was on my left ovary and decided to sent me to a gyno. I had my appointment on October 1st. The gyno did an exam and aside from putting me into a fair amount of pain said she could not feel anything on my ovary. Her main concern at the time was the bleeding and my risk for increased anemia.

I was given 4 options for treatment: Birth Control pills, and IUD, ablation or a hysterectomy. The first three options were no guarantee that the bleeding would stop and none of them would stop the pain of my ovary. I decided to go with option number 4, as I said to the dr. "I am done with the parts, you can have them" She had me booked for surgery in six weeks. That was a shock to me as our usual wait time here in Ontario is 14 weeks for elective surgery.

Little did I know that God had other plans and my original surgery date would be moved from Nov. 17th to the 29th. Not too much of a difference in time, but a great difference in how things were about to unfold.

On November 14 I got a call from my cousin that my mom was in the hospital and they were waiting to transfer her to another hospital that specializes in cancer. My mom was diagnosed with Acute Myloid Lukemia. My brother and I did the 5 hour journey to her and spend the week with her to support her with her treatment. I arrived home a week before my new surgery date.

On November 28th, I got a call from my mom telling me she was in remission. That helped me a lot going into my surgery and I was much more at ease.

I arrived at the hospital at 8:30 a.m. I was alone as my husband had to get the children to school and do a few things for his work. At 10:45 I walked into the operating room and climbed up on the table. My doctor, the nurses and the anesthesiologist were all talking to me and making me feel very comfortable. The doctor told me what she was going to do and that she would see me after surgery. I woke up in recovery about 4 1/2 hours later. The pain was not too bad but I was required to stay on O2 for an extra 24 hours as I was not breathing deep enough.

The nurses in the surgical ward were great and were very attentive to my needs. The only thing that bothered me was being checked every 15 minutes because of high blood pressure and low O2. I think I ate a freezer full of ice chips on the first night and thanks to the demerol shots, I slept quite well the first night. The next morning my catheter was removed and I was able to walk to the washroom. I managed to do two rounds of the floor with my husband before having to rest. The dr. came in to see me and said that she did infact remove my left ovary and that it had at least six cysts on it. She also removed both fallopian tubes leaving only my right ovary. On Wednesday morning I was allowed to shower, had my IV removed and was on my way home. By day 3 I was only taking narcotics at night in order to get a good sleep and I have been getting around quite well.

I have to say that I felt better immediately after surgery than I have for the last two years. To think I thought it was all a necessary part of aging. The extra estrogen in my body had caused my breasts to enlarge and be extremely tender all the time, it was like constant PMS. The first thing I noticed the day after surgery is that they were no longer sore. When I came home I also learned that the new bigger bras I bought two weeks earlier were now too big.

I am happy to have found Hystersisters, it has lessoned my worries and fears I have about recovery and it is good to know what I am feeling is all part of the recovery.

Thank you for being here