And.....it's Out!

Well, everyone -- my cancer-filled uterus is out of me, and I feel fantastic. It was a six-hour procedure, because my uterus was apparently ginormous (my doctor said it was the size of a pregnancy. Plus I had a big 5 cm fibroid attached.)

The cancer was more advanced than originally predicted -- it went partially through the uterine muscle wall, instead of being just in the uterine lining.  Because of this, she sampled lymph nodes, and I won't have the results of those for a week. She did, however, say that the lymph nodes looked fine, there were no suspicious looking areas elsewhere in the uterus (or outside of it), and even if there are some microscopic cells that pop up somewhere, I can zap them with a little radiation. She also said I'm still Grade 1, which has a pretty low risk of spreading, even with this invasion in the muscle wall. My doctor didn't sound worried, so I'm not either. If something does pop up, I'll deal with it then.

I can't believe how little pain I have, and how good I feel after a major abdominal surgery. I was on oxycontin in the hospital, but honestly, an ibuprofen would have worked just fine (that's what I'm on now).  My pain is pretty minimal -- the type of pain you'd get from doing 200 situps after not working out for awhile. After getting out of the hospital yesterday, I actually went out to dinner with my mom, and was able to sit comfortably in a restaurant chair without a pillow. I'm walking fairly normal, have been able to go up and down the stairs, and  today I can transition from sitting to standing or lying down to standing with only mild discomfort. Honestly, the most painful thing for me was when they removed the vaginal packing (the gauze inside). I had a strong "burning" sensation, but once it was out, no pain. For some women, this is painless.  I think it was only painful for me, because they had to make a pretty large tear at the top of the vaginal canal to get the uterus out. They had to do this partially because my uterus was enlarged and partially because I've never had children.

I've read some terrible (and some amazing) stories about the Davinci procedure, and while every woman is different and some complications just can't be predicted, I think a great deal has to do with the skill of the doctor.  This is still a relatively new procedure, yet my surgeon has done about 500 of them. I credit her and her team's skill for my minimal discomfort post surgery, even with the complications of my uterus size (my surgery was predicted to be about 3 hours. It ran almost double.) I will forever be grateful for my surgeon's skill, her bedside manner, and her proactive attitude. Whatever the results of the pathology report say, I've taken a huge step back toward good health.