CW for discussion of pregnancy, periods, miscarriage, fertility, good news ending.
Photo Credit: WebMD
Last Thursday the 17th of December, I had a hysterectomy. My OB/GYN (and three other gynos) decided it was the best plan of action. On Monday, I had no idea I might have a hysterectomy on Thursday. That is how fast it all went down.
The past three or more months have been intense. I am almost 53, so let this be a cautionary tale for those of you my age. We can still get pregnant. We did not mean to get pregnant And honestly, it was a big surprise to us. And, I didn’t even know I was pregnant until well after the miscarriage we think I had.
I say “think” because nothing has been truly confirmed. My theory is that I may have gotten pregnant in September accidentally. Then, we drove to Las Vegas on October 17th to see My brother who was suddenly hospitalized for pneumonia. We drove there and saw him on his birthday, the 18th. That night, later at my parents’ home, I had what I describe as a “tsunami” period.
Then, back at home on the 20th in San Jose, in the middle of the night, I believe I had a miscarriage. But, that was not obvious to me until Nov. 18th when I went to see my regular gyno who had me get an ultrasound where the technician saw a polyp or cyst in my uterus. And, before she would go in and remove that cyst or poly, they tested me to make sure I was not pregnant.
This is where I almost faint. My gyno came back to the prep room where I was getting prepped for a procedure to remove the growth and she had 2 pregnancy tests in her hands and they both showed positive. Needless to say, I broke out in a flop sweat and my blood pressure shot up because I never in my life thought I would get pregnant as a 52-year-old.
So, no procedure that day. Back to the ultrasound tech for another ultrasound (I have had 6 since Nov 17th.) I also had to give more blood and every single time we had blood work done, my HCG levels go way up. From 4k to well over 10k. (HCG is the pregnancy hormone.)
The weirdness is that through all of these ultrasounds, no one is seeing anything inside my uterus. No pregnancy sac, to fetus, just this little 2 cm little fibroid kind of thing and really high HCG.
So, we had to get the Oncology gyno involved and she tried to do a D&C and on the 11th, she found nothing inside my uterus to D&C, but she did see that little 2cm growth had grown to 2.5cm. She took what she could get and sent the samples to pathology. Everything came back fine. I had an MRI that night that I cried for the entire hour. It was awful. But, the MRI Helped them to see the little growth.
Out of an abundance of caution, they had me to a P.E.T. scan this past Tuesday. (Here is what a PET scan is from Google:
A positron emission tomography (PET) scan is an imaging test that helps reveal how your tissues and organs are functioning. A PET scan uses a radioactive drug (tracer) to show this activity. This scan can sometimes detect disease before it shows up on other imaging tests.
It was after the PET scan that they decided I need to have a “radical” hysterectomy. My ovaries and uterus had to come out because they are worried that little growth is cancerous because of the way it lit up on the PET scan. (My surgeon let me see all of my organs via the PET scan. It was so cool. Dave and I saw my liver, kidneys, lungs, uterus, and everything via the PET scan.)
On the afternoon of my hysterectomy, they did another pee test to see if I was pregnant. I told them it is going to show I am pregnant, but there isNO fetus. It is this strange little growth creating the HGC. I did more blood work right before the hysterectomy and my HGC level was still rising. This little thing attached to my uterus was creating the pregnancy hormone and it was also vascular and in the muscle of my uterus. (Possibly also a placenta was involved.)
My surgery almost got canceled because of it. I was trying to tell them “THIS IS WHY I AM HERE.”
It has been suggested I had an ectopic pregnancy. It has been suggested I had a molar pregnancy. Either way, the fetus was not viable – if there even was a fetus.
In the end, after talking with 4 surgeons, 1 gyno, 1 surgical gyno, and several oncologists, we decided to take my uterus and ovaries out. The ovaries seemed to be helping this growth grow to almost 3 cm. Started out as 2 cm. Everything that has been taken out of me as been checked for cancer, but so far, no cancer. But, now that we have the entire growth and my uterus and ovaries at pathology, we will know if that little thing was cancerous or not. And, thanks to the P.E.T. scan, we know it has not spread anywhere – if it is cancer.
A lot of terms for the little cyst/polyp/tumor/fibroid have been bandied about. We will know more in 2 weeks once it is all back from pathology. There is even a chance I was not pregnant at all! Who knows. Life has been a bit whacky since Oct. 18th when I went to go visit my little brother for his birthday. I was worried about him being sick and in the hospital. Little did I know my life would be so all over the place for the next two months. My friends and family have been so great. I have so much support and we have had a few good laughs about the fact that if I were pregnant, I would be 70 when my kid went to high school. Ha.
I am great. I have great insurance thanks to my sweetie and we are both good. I am recovering from the full hysterectomy and on NO hormones yet, so watch out. He is a fantastic and strict nurse. My besties have created a meal train for me and I have been getting all kinds of yummy goodies dropped off on our front porch. (We are quarantining pretty seriously here.) Last
I promise to let you all know what I hear back from Kaiser once the results come in. I feel good about these results because we have already done so many tests on that tissue in my uterus. And, the offending uterus is G.O.N.E.!
I had very unbiased care. Not one word was said to me by a doctor. All of my organs are perfectly healthy even though they tried really hard to find any problems. The only issues I ran into was in ADMITTING where they did not have a chair that would accommodate me. And, the woman doing the admitting was a person of size. She had the balls to say to me “oh well, you will be doing a lot of laying around soon” as if this could soothe my feelings of being ignored and erased by her employer, Kaiser. I told her “just imagine if you have chairs with no arms, EVERY SINGLE HUMAN can fit in your office chair.” (I am also aware that some people need arms on their chair, so I do not want to erase them. But, it is very simple to have one folding chair in each office.
The other thing that happened to me (for the second time in 7 days) is that they tried to squeeze me in a bed that I was definitely too tall and too wide for. I had to ask 1 time for a potential D & C appointment. The second time was a more difficult process and I was getting pissy because I was HANGRY and not being accommodated. I was on edge because I was about to go under for this hysterectomy and I just wanted a bed and a gown that would fit me. It took them an hour, but they eventually found one of each for me. Edit: I just remember I had to “argue” with one of the CNA’s about using the correct blood pressure cuff on me. And, that brought my b.p. down to 145 over 90… not the 179 over 105 with the small cuff.
Please forgive my run-on sentences and disorganization of my thoughts. I am still recovering and still on pain meds.