It’s been four days (7 now as I hit publish) since I underwent a ROBOTIC HYSTERECTOMY SALPINGO OOPHORECTOMY BILATERAL XI ROBOT (cut and paste straight from my after visit patient report.). The pain has been manageable and I have been moving about with more ease as the days go by, so it doesn’t hurt anymore when I laugh. But there is a certain discomfort that I feel which, for lack of a better explanation, I am blaming on the medication I’ve been taking.
The nerve pain medication has run out, so I’m on pain and anti- inflammatory pills. I think my body is just reacting to the higher dosage of the two the last couple of days, but I’m not going to try and pretend to be brave because my pain threshold has always been low. I will take the medication as directed. With all the pills I’ve been taking religiously in a three hour medley (6 hour intervals between doses, but with 3 hour gaps between the two), the pain has been at a 2-3 on a scale of 10. I will not risk how high that might end up going if I cut the medication now. I am a good patient.
I haven’t been sleeping well, though. I’ve been waking up after 3-4 hours of sleep no matter how late I lay down at the end of the day. I haven’t been really napping either. My appetite has been normal, so I have been good in that respect.
The surgery, for the most part, has been a reality check on my mortality. While it was scheduled and planned weeks after my D&C last March, I was rather anxious leading up to the time I climbed into the gurney in the operating room (yes, they walked me in), primarily because I have never really had any body parts taken out before. (Teeth extraction do not count.). But multiple reproductive health issues on both sides of the family easily convinced me I needed to be vigilant about my health. Last March, the D&C resulted in a cystoscopy that was abnormal but benign. I’m not going to wait for anything malignant to turn up.
I have been menopausal for the last 5 years, and no, I never wanted kids after Angelo. I have been fortunate to have had no hot flashes, and despite the moodiness that came with its onset, menopause has been more of a physical evolution for me. Nothing I couldn’t cope with. I just needed to make some lifestyle changes and adapt and I think I’ve done pretty well. So when the doctor said let’s take it out, I told him he can take whatever he wants.
Truth be told, that was easier for me to say but it didn’t quite sink in until the nurse intake three days before the surgery. I was under the impression that they were only going for the uterus, but she said they were taking that including my fallopian tubes and eggs. I said I only authorized the uterus! I called the doctor’s office in a panic asking for a call back.
And call he did. And of course I backed off and relented. And he took out the parts he needed to.
I thought I heard the good doctor say that he would only want to take the additional parts if there was any malignancy from the D&C. And yet at the back of my head, I can hear my inner voice reminding me I had said he could take out whatever he needed to take out.
I’ve been with this doctor for 21 years now. BFF Elaine commented he has been with me longer than the ex husband has. Indeed. I got rid of that one 7 years ago. This one, I’m keeping.
I will see him for my follow up appointment next week. Meanwhile, I’m trying not to push myself, and the occasional blunt pain that grips my insides when I make certain movements reminds me I need to be mindful.
Trying.
Pinay New Yorker 