Hysterectomy - check

I had my Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy 8 days ago. To be honest it's been the easiest surgery I've ever had. The build up to it (admin, biopsies, pap smears, bloods, uncertainty regarding whether I'll keep my ovaries) was much worse than the actual procedure. I spent 1 night in hospital post op, in ICU. Was home less than 24 hours after the surgery. And I DID get to keep my ovaries... they were deemed "pristine" and not worth removing, for which I am very glad. No early menopause!!!! Thank goodness. There's hardly been any pain, felt more like I overdid it with a lower ab workout. Medical advancements blow my mind!

The selfie was taken about an hour after I woke up. The oxygen was mandatory in ICU, although I did manage to subtly get rid of it after a few hours and no one said anything. Had to inject myself with Clexane for a week to prevent clotting, which I'm done with now. The next step is my check-up on Thursday with the surgeon. She'll remove the plasters and hopefully give me the all-clear to drive again. Then my life can basically go back to normal. Also need to find out what the rules are regarding exercise. Right now I'm only allowed to walk. It will probably be that way for a bit. At least once I can drive again, I can also go and walk at the gym, for some variation and more Vitality points.

I spent last week at my parents' house. Working a bit, taking naps, watching The Crown and building a puzzle. On Saturday morning my dad was kind enough to drive me to breakfast with Robyn. She's a long time friend who had her kidney transplant just a month after I had my first lung transplant. We were roommates at our first World Transplant Games in 2009 in Australia. She lives in East London, so was great to be able to catch up with her again.

I'm very happy to be back at my own place now since Sat afternoon. Tay-Tay (the kitty who chose me) is very glad that I'm back. Counting the days till this rather crappy month and year is over (it could have been much worse, and I was healthy, so trying not to complain too much). I have one lung check-up left as well, on the 1st of December. Really hoping that goes well and that I can end the year off on a good note medically. 

3 Year Lungaversary, 2 Trips Away, 1 Hysterectomy pending

First things first, Saturday I celebrated 3 years with my new new lungs!!! I've done quite a bit of googling about the survival stats for redo lung transplants, and the average seems about 3 years. Needless to say it's not GREAT, and reaching 3 years without any rejection so far is amazing. Feeling super blessed and lucky, and I appreciate the easy breathing every day!

Then, I've finally been able to have two awesome mini-breaks in the past 6 weeks. At the end of Sept I went to Mabalingwe with some friends. We had an amazing long-weekend in the bush. The weather was good, we got some good doses of covid-fighting Vit D. Thank you summer! It was SO GOOD for the soul to be away with friends. Listening to music, eating too much, going on game drives, drinking gin and tonic, soaking up with sun. One of the highlights of the year. Especially after the cancer scare I had the week before.

The second break was a long-weekend to Umdloti in KZN. I badly needed to see the sea, it's been 2.5 years! We had the best time, especially the snorkelling! Just amazing. Wish we could have stayed longer.

Then lastly... I'm getting a hysterectomy on the 16th of this month. My cervix has been the bane of my existence since my first transplant. 13 Years of immunosuppressants come at a price. I've had problems with abnormal pre-cancerous cells since 2009. They have been burnt off and cut out in theatre and in the Dr's rooms many many times. But now there is literally almost no cervix left to be able to do that. And there are highly abnormal cells once again. So my uterus and cervix are coming out. We're hoping to keep the ovaries, and I've been having blood tests done to try and determine if we can leave them. I really really hope so. I do NOT particularly want to go into menopause.

My gynae has been amazing, and the op will be done laproscopically at my transplant hospital, where they don't normally do gynae procedures. Two Drs, all their equipment and a nurse will come for the op. My transplant anesthetist (and favourite vein whisperer) will be the anesthetist on the day. And my transplant surgeon and lung physician has also helped to arrange the theatre time and admin behind all of it. I feel SUPER special! And very relieved that it will be done with the team of people I know and who know ME inside and out! If all goes well I will spend one night in ICU and go home the next day. 

The Dr who will be performing the surgery laproscopically is not my usual gynae (she will also be there though), and I'm meeting her on Thursday. As of today I have also stopped my one immune suppressant, Certican/Everolimus, as it delays wound healing, and massively increased my dose of Cyclosporin/Neoral, to optimise healing afterwards. Next week I need to have blood tests done to make sure the adjusted doses are right. I guess I can't claim I'm low maintenance......

I'm very very relieved to have a date for this and that it's finally happening. It's been hanging over my head for years. At one point about 4 years ago a hysterectomy was also very much on the table, but my lungs were not in very good shape. There were talks of doing it with a spinal block while I'm awake. But my Dr was able to cauterize the abnormal cells off, and since then by some miracle it's been OK for a bit. However now my lungs are in tip top shape, so it's time.