My turn for a hysterectomy - on July 22.

Are they catching?

Seriously, while Una was going through her surgery, I was waiting for the appointment with my gynecologist where we'd decide if we were going to go ahead with the hysterectomy. We'd already decided that it was my best option, but had taken an extra month or two to gather more information about what would be best given my history and health needs.

I'll spare you the gory details of what took me to the gynecologist in the first place - and yes, they were gory. Basically, the physician's assistant I saw initially agreed that something was up and ordered an ultrasound, which showed three fibroids (each at least 1 inch long, or wide, or high) and two polyps. These were all playing havoc with my periods, which were playing havoc with my iron levels - as in, I didn't really have any. (I've been living with lower than healthy iron levels for years, and they've dropped so low sometimes that the stores of iron in my blood were completely depleted.)

There are a lot of ways to treat fibroids, but none of them can stop fybroids from growing again. Fibroids are also not, as I originally thought, always slow-growing. So, since I don't want to birth children, and the stuff in my uterus has probably been affecting my health for longer than I realize, we've decided to just have it out. It feels like a really extreme option, but I don't want to potentially have to have multiple treatments over the next fifteen or twenty years until menopause hits. Medical treatment is stressful enough, the prospect of having ongoing treatment makes me want to curl up in a ball.

They'll leave my ovaries so they can do their happy, health-promoting hormonal thing for as long as they want, and will take out the uterus and fallopian tubes. The surgeon says I'll probably be in the hospital for 2 nights. I'm not having a laparoscopic surgery because we're doing a spinal rather than general anaesthetic and the incisions for laparoscopic hysterectomy are higher up on the abdomen than the spinal anaesthesia will cover.

So, it'll be more recovery because it's a deeper incision, but less because I won't be recovering from the effects of general anaesthesia. I'm sad about temporarily losing the core strength I've developed, but I have a lot of tools, and two wonderful, knowledgeable yoga teachers, to help me rebuild it once I've healed enough.

It's disappointing to lose part of my summer to this, but I know I'll feel so much better once I've recovered, and, besides, once the first few unpleasant days are over, I'll have the perfect excuse to read lots of books and enjoy my Sweetie pampering me.