This just in: well, my week’s been ruined now

[annathepiper]

God fucking dammit.

Some of you may be aware, Internets, that I had to have a medical thing done last week. The short not-TMI version of this was that I had a hysteroscopy due to weirdness in my menstrual cycles. I had previously been wondering whether this was due to my going perimenopausal due to being in my mid-40′s, but given my previous history with my thyroidectomy and my stage 0 breast cancer, I had it strongly recommended to me that we should have my uterus checked out just to be sure.

I just got called with the pathology results from the sample they took out. The phrase “pre-cancerous change” was used in the conversation I had with the doctor.

And he recommended we have my uterus out. And my ovaries and tubes as well.

I am to come in on the 10th for a followup appointment to discuss these results and what my options are moving forward.

I wanted to be done with having to have parts of my body cut out due to threatening to turn into cancer.

But apparently I’m not.

God fucking dammit.

ETA: To everybody who’s been expressing their support to me on the various sites I’ve posted this news to, thank you.

At this point I’m mostly just tired and numb. I can’t even manage to muster any real rage for this–because as I told the doctor when he called me with the news, part of me was half-expecting something like this as worst case scenario just because I have been down this road before. I do have a history of portions of my body up and deciding to pull shit like this.

I can deal with it, I know I can at this point just because I have before, and I’m at least grateful that this time around I had a couple of years’ breathing room to get my strength back.

Right now though all I can think of is Tommy in O Brother Where Art Thou?, when Delmer boggles at him about trading his immortal soul to the Devil in exchange for being taught how to play the guitar. Tommy’s answer was a laconic “well, I wasn’t usin’ it!”

I would just like to now protest that losing my uterus WILL NOT IN FACT IMPROVE MY GUITAR PLAYING. Something seems medically awry here. I feel like I should be getting some kind of musical superpower out of this deal.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

Comments

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Well, fuck. Fucking fuck.

It's been 15 years this month since I had my uterus out and a few months shy of 10 years since I had my ovaries out. Please let me know if there are any questions I can answer or anything I can do to help.

[annathepiper]

I was thinking of you, in fact, as was Dara, so thanks for checking in. Anything you can tell me about the medical impact it had on you, I'd appreciate. I've had way too much experience at this point with surgical procedures in general and what my ability to recover from them is like, but this is a new and unwanted variation on the theme. :(

THE INFORMATION CONTENT OF THIS WEB PAGE IS RISING. PLEASE MAN THE TMI BILGE PUMPS

[rmd.livejournal.com]

So, I'm assuming that the impact from the full hyst is similar to the partial hyst I had in '98. They did the surgery vaginally, cutting around the cervix and pulling the uterus out that way. I assume without ginormous ovarian cysts involved they can take the ovaries out about the same way or possibly with a bit of laparoscopic action going on. I was up and walking around in the hospital a day or so later. I was home from the hospital and mostly able to take care of myself with a bit of help (because fuck-all tired) in a couple of days. (iirc, surgery was on a weds, I came home Friday.) You probably know this from previous surgeries, but assume that the anaesthetics will crash your digestive tract. I found some milk of magnesia the evening I got out of the hospital did a world of good to help.

It makes sense and I should've expected it... but... For some reason it sort of weirded me out that someone shaved my pubic hair while I was anaesthetized.

I think I went back to work the following Monday. I was definitely slow, and I was easily winded for several days, there. I was extra tired for at least a month.

I've got an internal scar about 1.5" long where my cervix isn't. Penetrative sex is slightly different - the angles are shifted a bit (because they reattach things as best they can but it's still different), and the first few times I had penetrative sex it was weird (I'm not sure it was noticing the lack of cervix, but something like that). Overall, systems are still functioning reasonably well - I was concerned (both with that surgery and the SURPRISE MENOPAUSE of having my ovaries removed) that I was going to lose my ability to orgasm or have issues with dryness when aroused. Happily, neither has come to pass. I'm still getting busy and having genitally-oriented sexyfuntimes.

Speaking of SURPRISE MENOPAUSE, I'm happy to report that the only menopause symptom I've noticed is that when I use the hot tub at my gym, I sometimes break out in small batches of hives about 24 hours later. I think my skin is more dry generally, so I use more moisturizer in the dry winter months, here. No hot flashes or any of that. I don't know how much being fat ties into that since there's a whole fat/estrogen link, there.

Overall, once I had the hysterectomy, I was pretty psyched about it. I'd had years of menstrual weirdness and spotting and utterly unpredictable cycles and stuff (no endometroitic pain, happily, but still), and then it was all gone and done with.

Re: THE INFORMATION CONTENT OF THIS WEB PAGE IS RISING. PLEASE MAN THE TMI BILGE PUMPS

[mdlbear]

+1

Re: THE INFORMATION CONTENT OF THIS WEB PAGE IS RISING. PLEASE MAN THE TMI BILGE PUMPS

[annathepiper]

Yeaaaah, my digestive system is all too familiar with the impact of general anesthesia. :}

So noted on the rest of it. I'll be asking various and sundry important questions of my doctor on the 10th, so we'll see how much of this will and won't be applicable to me.

Thanks for cluing me in.

[prettyshrub.livejournal.com]

*HUGS*

[annathepiper]

*hugs a bunch*

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i'll be glad to keep your music playing for many more years to come.

*BIG HUGS*

[annathepiper]

*hugs a bunch*

I will be 93 and feisty with guitar-playing, half-holing-on-the-flute, singing-and-turlutting-in-French superpowers. Also a couple dozen novels. THIS IS MY PLAN, I HAVE PLANNED IT.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

I FULLY AND ENTHUSIASTICALLY SUPPORT THIS PLAN.

if you would like some recovery-time quebecois podcasts made for you, i'd be happy to do that -- i'll be travelling there in the next few weeks.

[annathepiper]

That would be very sweet of you, thank you!

And if you stumble across any Quebec trad I don't already have, because I AM at the point of having to hunt to find the hard-to-get stuff, that'd be awesome.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i'd be happy to look! do you have a discography i can check somewhere?

[annathepiper]

I'll send you some mail with a list of Stuff I'd Really Like to Have If Possible. :)

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

Aww, man! SUCKAGE!

Not saying that there's a bright side, but I'm glad to hear at least it was "pre-cancer" and not full-on cancer.

And who knows, maybe there's some entity out there you could contact who would, indeed, trade your uterus for musical ability? Hope springs eternal.

:Hugs: I'm thinking about ya!

[annathepiper]

*hugs a bunch*

Yeah, I do at least take some consolation in how these various medical adventures I've had (well, at least the ones that have involved surgery, as opposed to breaking my arm, or the h. pylori thing) have all been stage-0-level stuff. I.e., they're catching it before it actually becomes a REAL problem. I'm OKAY with that.

Because yeah, keeping tabs on my cousin with the stage 4 cancer and no matter how much shit I'm having to go through, he has it worse. :(

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Well, fuck.

[annathepiper]

Yes, quite.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Pre-cancerous change is a big improvement over 'cancer', so I'm glad you went to your doctor now instead of ignoring it. Get rid of that thing before it bites you!

[annathepiper]

Yeah, this is not so much "nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure", as it is "take the site out entirely". But YEAH.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry.

[annathepiper]

Thank you!

[kent.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear this.

[annathepiper]

Thank you!

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Ack. That's distinctly ungood.

[annathepiper]

Quite. :|

[deneethe.livejournal.com]

So sorry to hear of your troubles, please do whatever it takes to stay here longer with us,,,good writers are hard to come by. Prayers for you! :-)

[annathepiper]

Thank you!

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