More excision surgery & a total hysterectomy

9th February 2024

Well… what a few months it’s been. I realised I left you on a bit of a cliff hanger a week before surgery. Let's pick up from where I left off 2 days before surgery...

I’d decided I hadn’t researched as much as I usually would on hysterectomy’s and what happens and then menopause! Menopause at 40 without ovaries to carry me through into old age… I had to find a way to clue myself up with 3 or 4 days to go. Silly, I know. The reason I hadn’t looked into it deeply was because I didn’t want to be bias with my response to symptoms and my own personal experience of full menopause.

I however, I always say it’s better to make an informed decision and I like to know what’s happening before I go ahead. This is where Dr Laura Newson, Victoria Hardy @Ginge_unhinged & desperate searches for scientific/medical reports on endometriosis and menopause and HRT come into play.

I read Victoria Hardy’s book “My Menopause, My Journal, My Rules” it’s so easy to navigate and you can jump to the sections that are relevant to you. I enthusiastically consumed pre surgery tips, saying goodbye to my womb a wonderful poem to let go of these organs that have been with you since birth, I read the chapter on surgical menopause, anything to do with HRT and endometriosis and could take a slight breath. Wow, what a minefield. Why did I only start now?

I watched Dr Laura Newson’s helpful short videos on Instagram and her lives on surgical menopause and HRT. She explains that menopause especially before its natural time is like a vitamin deficiency. In younger women the first thing to take a dive is testosterone - which believe it or not is not just to do with low libido as we all hear. It’s important for that “Get up and go”, cognitive function and much more.

The papers I found were wishy washy at best in regard to endometriosis and HRT. Most outdated and not considering the newer HRT preparations now available.

I took a deep breath. Focused on my bowel prep and not being able to eat solids (this took a lot of brain capacity) I love my food! I meditated, I walked when I could; the Prostap injection had really taken hold of me and I now couldn’t eat food in solid form so was a shell of my former self.

Then in no time the day of the surgery arrived. Surgery number 7; lucky number seven. Nick and I woke early; 4am, similar to those days you book an early flight and leave dazed and confused for the airport… just this time no sun, sea or sand! We had pre-booked a taxi to the hospital so that we didn’t have to bring my bags or struggle on the trains to get there. 

We arrived around 5:45am before the main hospital was open for the day. I was due to check in at 6:30am and to go down to surgery at 8:30am. It felt like a long time before we were called to go up to my room to change and prepare to see the three consultants. I spoke to the anaesthetist, the bowel surgeon, the urologist and the lead gynae surgeon. Signed my consent form to agree to bladder and bowel excision of endometriosis and a total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingectomy and oophorectomy. I had to provide consent to open up the abdomen for a bigger surgery if they could not perform the surgery via keyhole, a bowel resection and stoma and a bladder resection and urostomy bag. 

8:30am came around quickly, I felt fairly calm on the lead up and prepared with my usual meditation. NBH was by my side the whole time. I gave him a hug and a kiss and said ‘I love you’ before being taken down to surgery. The anaesthetist greeted me with some nurses who took my vitals and added some heart ECG stickers to my chest and arms. I remember the anaesthetist choosing a strange place to put the cannula on the side of my hand above my thumb… in the 7 surgeries I’d had they had never done that. They put a mask over my nose and I woke 4.5/5hrs later in my room. I don’t remember being in recovery this time. I was but I must have been so out of it! 

Back in the room, the first thing I asked the nurse was ‘do I have a stoma’ and peeked under the cover. She confirmed I didn’t but that the pain I was feeling was the ureter stents that would be kept in for the next 6 weeks. I would also go home with a catheter for a couple of weeks. 

I stayed in hospital for 4 days and was very well looked after by everyone on the ward. I struggled with pain management as my PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesia) was out of date and not changed so was not working properly. I was therefore in a lot of pain for 8 hours. This was changed and I didn’t sleep much but was able to sleep a bit better. I had the surgeon visit me the next day and it wasn’t the best experience. He rushed through my post surgery images and wouldn’t show them to me or answer my questions, he was patronising, he talked over me and he just kept repeating a script over and over again. It left me in such a state and really upset at a time I could really have done without the additional stress. 

I was allowed home on the Monday afternoon, and after a bumpy Uber drive home, I was back home by the evening to start my recovery properly. 

LBH x