On the Road to Freedom

Okay, maybe the title of the post is just a little dramatic but it doesn't feel all that dramatic to me.

You see, I've had pain nearly all my life. It's been manageable pain and you kind of get used to it but I am really really tired of it anyway. I have had menstrual cramps and bleeding of increasing severity since the onset of puberty. I told my mom but she was sort of the "suck it up buttercup" mindset and it didn't get any further than that.

When I was in my late 20's I finally had surgery to clean out the scar tissue from years and years of polycystic ovaries. My OB/GYN fertility specialist remarked that he was surprised I wasn't in more pain after my surgery; after seeing just how much scar tissue there was. I asked him what made him think I wasn't; what made him think he even knew how much pain I had experienced.

After that and after coming to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to have and didn't really want children, I suffered a couple more decades in increasing pain and with an increasing amount of blood loss every month. I was wiped out. I was useless for a good 5 days out of every month. An ablation seemed to help for a few months and then the cramping was back.

It's been a couple of years since that ablation now and, although the bleeding is negligible now it and the cramps are getting worse. The cramps are nearly back to what they were before. I'm still wiped out for about 5 days every month and I'm sick and tired of it all.

I finally have an OB/GYN who agrees that it's time to yank this sucker out. I had my last period this month... ironically it started on Valentines day. In two days, I am scheduled to have a hysterectomy. I'm getting spayed. I could not be happier. I just hope they don't slap me into a cone. That would be so embarrassing.

Incidentally, if you are wondering, a uterus (one that has never carried a child, mind you) weighs anywhere from just less than to just over one pound. You won't reach goal weight having this surgery. Still, leave it to me to be curious about that sort of thing.