Issues, issues, issues, always and perpetually issues. The thing is that I have no business whatsoever sitting down right now.
I wrote that a while ago. Can’t say for sure when it was, but it was pre-surgery. Back when I was racing around all over the place all the time because I wasn’t going to be able to do anything after the operation.
Last Wednesday I had a robotic hysterectomy, because there was a mass on my uterus and “suspicion of a leimysarcoma is a concern.”
Those are the words that freaked me out when I was sitting at the car wash reading the report of the MRI I had done earlier that morning, August 7th. I was going to go to the store after the car wash but those words shut me right down. Specifically, of course, “sarcoma.” Aye aye aye.
Anyway, lots of panicking, went to the Gynecological Oncologist a week later because my gynecologist’s office had called me with an appointment in September and the nurse there said I should see if I could get on a waiting list since I was freaking out and she said she’d also be worried if it was her. Gynecological Oncologist?!
So I called Dr. Nora MacZura’s office and explained my anxiety and I believe they called me back shortly thereafter and got me in a week later. Dr. MacZura is awesome, calm and reassuring and matter of fact. Young enough so that she was up on all the latest stuff but not so young that she looked like a high school student.
She drew me a picture of the mass, which was “penuculated,” a little offshoot on a stalk. She’d remove everything, and robotic surgery is the latest thing. She made an appointment for September 10th, and told me that I couldn’t do anything for six weeks after surgery.
That seemed like an interminable amount of time; no running, no weights, no HIIT, not even any yoga. Plus what about all the yard work? That’s why I spent the next three and a half weeks racing around like a crazy person. Plus I did so much weight-lifting; Kevin said that I’d start to lose muscle after a week of no weights so I was hopeful that I’d add a little bit on beforehand.
The day of surgery we had to be at the hospital at 5:15 a.m., a time I’m not normally familiar with, and lots of things happened between then and my surgery time of 7:15. The nurse was very nice, her name was Presches – her mother is German and that’s the German spelling of “Precious.”
She’d done a lot of travelling and I asked her many questions about that. Different surgery people came in and introduced themselves and I bet I also asked them questions. Lots of hubhub and then I was being wheeled down the hall and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in a recovery room.
Dr. MacZura froze a piece of the mass and sent it off somewhere so that by the time she was finished she could tell Kevin that they saw no cancer. So yay for that! I left the hospital by about one in the afternoon. I have to go next week for a follow-up because they’re going to study the mass at a cellular level and even more thoroughly check for the cancer. And hopefully all will be fine.
In the meantime…it’s been a little weird. I haven’t felt like doing anything at all, mostly. I’ve napped every day. Doing nothing has been OK because I’m trying to recover and heal and I’m in no mood to even go for a walk. On my Patient Discharge Plan, which they gave us when we left, it says I had a “Robotic assisted total laparoscopic hysterectomy bilateral saipingo-oophorectomy.” I have to say I’m in love with that word, Oophoroectomy, you don’t see words like that every day. I’m pretty sure it means the removal of Ovaries, but I don’t see Ovaries anywhere in Oophoroectomy.
Anyway, my brain has not been quite right, but things are getting better now. It’s already been almost eight days, so the next five weeks should just fly by. Of course, I’d planned to do many things during this time of doing nothing, and I’m already accomplishing one thing by finally sitting down to write.
Here are a few photos, before-times. This is August 2nd, after we went to a fundraiser at the Yacht Club and cruised back home on the pontoon boat.
I tried to take poor Spot for a walk as much as I could and on this evening he was not noticing the deer behind him. Kevin has taken Spot for a walk at least once, and hopefully he’ll do that again. Kevin has many things to do now, mostly cat-wise. I can’t lift anything heavier than 10 pounds, so the only cat I can pick up is Princess Leia. Spot is a very sturdy 17 pounds so even if I did have the energy to take him for a walk, I couldn’t scoop him up at the conclusion and put him back in his prison yard.
Lemon Drop, who will never get to go for a walk, poor thing, because there’d be no way to pick her up and take her back. She’s never been to the vet because she still doesn’t care to be picked up, but I know she weighs more than Spot.
I have a few more photos but I feel like I’ve done more than enough for right now.
Ok then,
Mrs. A few less organs Hughes.