Brooke’s Robotic Hysterectomy

Where to begin!!! First, let me tell everyone out there, I feel great. I think that the world and doctors have been saying for far too long that too many hysterectomies are done each year. It is because all of this talk that I feared having one.

I am 39 and just had a LSH via the Da Vinci robot on Aug 10. I had the procedure 19 months after having endometrial ablation that failed. Before the ablation I had horrible 8 day periods with cramps, clots, and the first three days that I only could wear denim in fear of leaking everywhere. I thought for a long time periods were normal. Noone sits you down and says “here is what a period should look and feel like.” Six years ago my doctor tried to figure out what was causing my pain and did a laparoscopy and a procedure to deaden some pain called “ a luna.” Nothing showed up. I tried birth control, exercise, you name it, nothing fixed it.

Two years ago I had an ultrasound and found a small fibroid, nothing to explain the problem so I proceeded to have the ablation. I knew with in three days I was in trouble. I spotted and had a period for six weeks following and had some serious pain starting to develop. I was devastated as everyone I knew had successful ablations and I still had 5-6 day periods that got worse each month.

In May I had an ultrasound after going to my well visit and explained I was still having pain. There was some endometrial thickening and still the small fibroid. (See the note below about what it missed.) They wanted to do an endometrial biopsy. It was normal. Since I was having horrible pain a day or two before my surgery, my doctor felt I had adenomyosis–which my symptoms suggested. The problem is that you can’t prove adenomyosis until after a hysterectomy on the pathology report. My doctor does vaginal hysterectomy, not a LSH and I wanted to get a second opinion. He sent me to a doctor who he felt was the best doctor in the area for LSH (a number of my friends see this doctor too.)

I loved the doctor for my second opinion and he agreed with everything the first doctor said and told me the difference between the two procedures. He felt I was a “minimalist” as I have been inching my way to a hysterectomy piece by piece doing everything I could to avoid it. He felt a LSH leaving my cervix intact would be the right thing to do. He said we could always go in later and take the cervix if need be. I agreed. I did not want my cervix gone.

During surgery they found the fibroid on my ultrasound, but found a second fibroid the size of a baseball. He was a bit surprised. None of the ultasound reports (I had two in the past three months) showed it.

I woke up in the hospital on Demerol. No pain with the medications. I went home the next morning and I was only taking Advil after 36 hours. I was so excited as all of the pain I had felt before was now gone. I realized how much pain I was in and without knowing yet what the pathology report says, I don’t care! I know I had a huge fibroid and probably adenomyosis. I have been back at the gym walking (slowly) on the treadmill, and smiling like you can not believe.

My only regret is that I did not do this sooner! Good luck on each of your journeys.