Girly ick

Guys, be warned. If you don't want to read about girl stuff, best move on to the next blog on your list. No knitting content worth writing about here today.

If you think back to only thirty years ago to what modern medicine had to offer for women for dealing with the side effects of estrogen, it's amazing what is being offered now. The one thing that has always been a standby, however, for problems that couldn't be fixed with a pill or minor surgery has been the abdominal hysterectomy. During my life all I heard was that many hysterectomies were unnecessary, that the operation was a moneymaker for the surgeon and the hospital, and that the woman was put through unnecessary agony for a problem that could have been fixed with less invasive methods, such as hormone therapy or minor surgery.

I'm not an expert, so I can't say whether it was true or not that many unnecessary surgeries were performed. But I can say that for every woman I've spoken to who has had a hysterectomy I have not had one say they wish they had not had it. "Miss it? Heck no!" "I'd do it over again!" "I felt so much better after I had mine!" "Sure they split me halfway open to do it, but it was worth it!"

Laparoscopic hysterectomy is not as common as the abdominal method for the surgeon has to be more deft in technique to perform it well, but the recovery time is reduced because the abdominal muscles aren't sliced open and the incisions are much smaller. It's the method I'm getting, barring their finding abnormalities on my ovaries or in the pathologic sample taken from the endometrium. It means I am able to go in the morning, have it done, and go home that evening. This for a procedure that not that long ago required that the patient stay in the hospital several days and require a six to eight week recovery. I may be out for no more than a month.

Do I feel like it's going to be unnecessary surgery? Do I feel like I'm going to be butchered for my "female troubles"? Let me put it to you this way. I started my period Wednesday. Thursday I passed a clot nearly the size of a playing card and had the cramps from hell while Niagara Falls poured.

The sooner it's done, the happier I will be. And thanks to the miracle of modern medicine, I won't be sliced open like a watermelon to have it.