August 7, 2025 • 48 mins
The unexpected sight of blood when you're eight years post-menopause can trigger immediate alarm bells. That's exactly what happened to me in September 2024, launching me on a journey that ultimately led to having a hysterectomy at age 55.
This very personal episode takes you through my complete hysterectomy experience – from the shocking discovery of post-menopausal bleeding to my recovery two weeks after robotic laparoscopic surgery. I share the medical investigations that revealed my significantly thickened uterine lining (likely caused by previous Tamoxifen treatment for Breast Cancer), the decision-making process that led to surgery, and exactly what happened during my hospital stay.
You'll hear all the details about my physical recovery and my gradual return to movement and normal activities. I discuss my frustrations with vague post-surgery exercise guidelines and how I advocated for more personalised recovery information as someone who regularly engages in heavy resistance training.
Throughout this episode, I emphasise that while I'm sharing my story to help others, everyone's hysterectomy journey is unique. Your body, your choices, and your recovery will follow their own path.
I've included practical tips about freezing meals before surgery, focusing on healing nutrition, and the importance of gentle movement in recovery.
This is the first in what will be a five-part series documenting my hysterectomy journey, with future episodes at weeks 4, 6, 9 and 12 post-surgery.
If you're facing a hysterectomy, supporting someone who is, or simply curious about what this experience entails, I hope my candid sharing provides insight, reassurance, and perhaps some practical guidance for your journey.
You can send me any questions or share your story with me on my Instagram @sonyalovell or email sonya@sonyalovell.com
Resources:
Tamoxifen and Uterine Lining ACOG paper
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology paper
Thank you for listening to my show!
Join the conversation on Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sonya (00:01):
Welcome to the Dear Menopause podcast.
I'm Sonya Lovell, your host Now.
I've been bringing youconversations with amazing
menopause experts for over twoyears now.
If you have missed any of thoseconversations, now's the time
to go back and listen, and youcan always share them with
anyone you think needs to hearthem.
This way, more people can findthese amazing conversations,
(00:24):
needs to hear them.
This way, more people can findthese amazing conversations.
Hey there, and welcome totoday's episode of Dear
Menopause.
Now, today's episode is apersonal one.
I'm going to be talking aboutmy recent hysterectomy, the lead
up, the surgery itself and myrecovery so far.
(00:48):
So today I am recording thistwo weeks post my operation.
Now this is a raw and honestconversation about my own very
personal experience the physical, the emotional and everything
in between.
But before we dive in, I wantto be really clear.
This is my story.
Clear.
(01:09):
This is my story.
Every person's experience witha hysterectomy is different.
Our bodies, our histories, ourreasons for having the procedure
they all shape how we navigateit.
So while I hope that what Ishare here is helpful,
validating or maybe evencomforting, please remember it
is not medical advice and itmight not reflect your own path
or outcome.
(01:29):
So this episode is for anyonewho's curious, perhaps preparing
for their own surgery orsupporting somebody who is, or
maybe you just want to betterunderstand what this experience
can look like.
I thought the best place tostart was a brief overview
(01:49):
introduction to myself.
As much as I have been the hostof Dear Menopause for well over
three years now, I don't alwaysshare a lot of my own story on
here.
So I am 55 years of age, I'meight years post-menopause and I
was diagnosed with breastcancer in 2017, when I was 47.
(02:12):
And it was as a direct resultof my cancer treatments that I
experienced a medically inducedmenopause.
So that was, as I said, at theage of 47, it was eight years
ago.
So I am very, very muchpost-menopausal.
This episode today is part oneof what will most likely be a
(02:35):
five-part series.
I'm planning to kind of dolittle updates along the lines
of week two, which is what thisepisode is.
This is all post-surgery.
So week two, week four, weeksix, week nine and week 12.
So today's episode is by fargoing to be the longest because
(02:57):
I'm going to dive into the why,the how, the recovery, some
questions that I had for mysurgeon immediately after
surgery, and then a little bitabout what these last two weeks
have looked like.
So strap yourselves in.
Today is going to be a longerepisode, but the follow-up
episodes will probably be, Iwould imagine, much shorter,
(03:19):
because they are just going tobe check-ins on what's changed
since my last episode for mephysically, mentally,
emotionally.
What have I been doing from arecovery perspective?
How has my body changed in thatperiod?
So I hope that you enjoy them.
The very first place, now thatwe've got the introduction out
of the way, is to probably talkabout why I ended up having a
(03:42):
hysterectomy.
Why I ended up having ahysterectomy, particularly for
somebody that is, as I said,eight years post-menopause.
So in September last year sothat was September 2024, I
experienced a very sudden onsetof what is called
post-menopausal bleeding.
I quite literally went to thetoilet to do a wee.
(04:05):
I wiped afterwards and wasextremely surprised to find that
there was a significant amountof blood.
That was really freaky, I'm notgoing to lie.
That really took me by surprise.
It was concerning and, yeah, Ikind of panicked.
Now.
I'd had no pain, I'd had noindications that anything was
(04:27):
kind of not quite right, thatthere would be any reason for
the bleeding.
I'm not going to lie.
I literally even sat there andthought where has the blood come
from?
Is this vaginal blood?
Is it from my bladder?
Is it from my bowel?
Like it was really that kind oflike you know thought process
that I went through when, whenit all kind of happened.
You know thought process that Iwent through when it all kind
of happened.
There was something about it,though that didn't very much
(04:49):
make me confident that it wasvaginal bleeding that I was
experiencing.
That resulted in some veryquick calls to my GP, who very
quickly got me in to see agynecologist, who very quickly
got me in to have a pelvicultrasound and which fast
tracked to having a hysteroscopy, which is a day surgery
(05:11):
procedure, and all of thathappened within about five days.
So obviously, given my healthhistory, my history with cancer
and the fact that I was eightyears postmenopausal, there was
a really strong, you know, driveto find out why this was
happening and obviously theresults of the pelvic ultrasound
(05:31):
as well indicated that myuterine lining was very, very
thick.
I think, from memory, anythingover, you know, the number four
is, which I think is fourmillimeters, is anything under
four is like, considered okay,but I think from memory mine was
(05:52):
like around 14 or somethinglike that Like it was a
significant overgrowth of myuterine lining, so hence why I
was kind of put into ahysteroscopy really quickly.
So as a part of thehysteroscopy, my beautiful
gynecologist, dr Talat Appel,described it as going in and
doing some gardening, basically.
So she said that she mowed thelawns, which was trimmed my
(06:14):
uterine lining right back.
She did a bit of weeding so shetook out I think there may have
been a small polyp, a smallfibroid, nothing that was
concerning, but she removedthose while she was in there and
obviously there was pathologythat was sent off as well.
So that happened in Septemberlast year.
Now they continued to bleedeven after that procedure.
(06:39):
My pathology at that point cameback all clear, which was great
.
But there were some very minorcell changes that were not
necessarily concerning, but theykind of were like just, you
know, like a little bit of anorange flag, if you like.
So we decided that the bestcourse of action was basically
just to do some really closemonitoring and just kind of, you
know, see whether the bleedingthat was continuing was just as
(07:02):
a result of the hysteroscopy,and we just let that play out
and see what happened.
So I also played around, withthe support of my GP, with my
progesterone that I was taking.
So we upped the dose of myprogesterone.
We tried with vaginal insertionof my progesterone rather than
taking it orally.
We played around with that fora couple of months but nothing
(07:24):
really made any difference and Iwas kind of probably like it
was almost became like having aperiod again.
I'd kind of have two or threeweeks where there'd be no
bleeding and I'd get reallyexcited and I'd think, okay,
this is it, it's done now.
And then out of the blue I'dstart bleeding again.
I'd bleed for a few days andthen I'd stop again.
(07:46):
Now the bleeding was neverreally heavy, initially
immediately after myhysteroscopy and particularly
after my gynecologist inserted aMirena during the hysteroscopy,
purely from a precautionaryperspective, whereas while we
were waiting for the pathologyto come back on the uterine
(08:06):
lining to just make sure that ifthere were any you know
sinister cells lurking around inthere, that the marina would
create some protection from that.
So when my pathology came backclear, we removed the marina and
I did have some quite heavybleeding, initially after the
removal of the marina, butongoing.
So when I fell into this kindof cycle of almost having
(08:30):
periods again, the bleeding wasactually quite light in the
scheme of things, I really waswearing period undies and that
was about all that I needed.
Some days it was really nothingmore than I'd just go to the
bathroom and I'd wipe and therewould be blood.
But I wasn't like heavybleeding.
So I was very lucky in therespect that it wasn't heavy
menstrual bleeding.
(08:51):
It wasn't painful, I didn'texperience any pain.
But, being eight yearspost-menopause, there was
obviously a concern that I didcontinue to bleed.
So, as I said, we decided tokind of move forward at that
point, just with some monitoring.
So I was going in and havingthree monthly checks with Talat.
She was doing ultrasounds.
(09:11):
We were, you know, keeping aneye on the endometrial lining,
or sorry, the uterine lining,and that was starting to
re-thicken a little bit as well.
So that was noted.
I went and saw her in.
I had two checkupspost-hysteroscopy.
It was the checkup in May ofthis year so May 2025, that we
(09:34):
decided that the lining was kindof starting to thicken up again
and it was, given my healthhistory, given the anxiety that
it was causing me to have thisunexplained ongoing bleeding,
that the best course of actionwas probably going to be looking
at some surgery.
(09:54):
Given my age, given my desire tonot have any children even if
I'd wanted to, I couldn't anywaymy kids are in their 20s For me
, the choice to remove myreproductive organs was not a
difficult choice.
For someone that has survivedcancer and gone through a lot of
(10:17):
grieving and emotional labor asa result of that, this really
for me didn't feel like asignificantly huge emotional
decision to remove myreproductive organs.
I definitely knew that I didn'twant to live with a constant
fear and anxiety of what mightbe going on down there.
(10:38):
I already have to have a numberof annual checks as a result of
my breast cancer.
I just really didn't feel theneed to add anything else into
that mix.
So it was a very easyconversation between us that a
hysterectomy was probably goingto be the best outcome to give
me the quality of life that Ifought really hard to have and,
(10:58):
you know, really remove all riskof anything sinister you know
sinister happening down thetrack Now in terms of any kind
of questioning around what hadcaused the thickening of the
lining, continued growth of thatthe most common cause that I've
spoken with my GP, I've spokenwith my gynecologist, I've
(11:20):
spoken with my surgeon.
I've also had conversations withother friends that are all
clinicians as well.
The thing that everybody keepscoming back to most commonly for
me is that it was probablycaused by the tamoxifen that I
took as a part of my breastcancer treatment.
So my adjuvant therapy beganabout nine months after I
(11:44):
finished my treatment, so bythen it was kind of the end of
2017.
I went on to tamoxifen.
We also played with letrozole,which I really didn't tolerate
and didn't like, and I went backonto tamoxifen and I was on
that for about three yearsbefore I did make a personal
decision to stop taking that.
(12:07):
That's a whole other topic andconversation, so I'm not going
to dive into that right now.
All we're going to talk aboutis the fact that I had taken
tamoxifen for three years andthis was now probably about four
years since I'd taken thetamoxifen that I was having
these problems.
So there is a lot of research.
I'll link, actually, to acouple of papers in the show
(12:28):
notes of this episode.
There is evidence to show thattamoxifen does in fact cause an
overgrowth of the uterine liningand it is not a side effect.
That was explained to me when Iwas put on it.
Can't tell you why that was thecase, but it was, and so
therefore it wasn't somethingthat I was aware could be an
(12:48):
ongoing issue.
I like to think that if I hadbeen told, then perhaps we could
have done some baseline testingat different points in time to
ensure that that wasn'tsomething that was actually kind
of getting out of control andhappening.
So that's really where I sit interms of the.
Did this bleeding occur?
(13:10):
Why was the lining thickeningand growing when it really
shouldn't have been given?
I was eight yearspostmenopausal, so, yeah, let's
kind of like just cover that offthere and leave that and move
into the hysterectomy.
So, as I said, it was in the Mayof this year so now that is
about three months ago that wedecided a hysterectomy was going
(13:33):
to be my best course of action.
I took a little while to decidewhich type of hysterectomy I
was going to have, and when Isay that, I don't mean that I
was involved in the choice ofwhat was being removed and what
wasn't, but I was definitelyable to make a choice over the
type of surgery that I had, inthe sense that there is
(13:55):
laparoscopic hysterectomies andthere is robotic laparoscopic
hysterectomies.
Now I did a lot of researchinto both options and decided
that for me, from a personalcomfort level, from a returning
to my desired quality of life asquickly as possible, and also
(14:17):
being fortunate enough to beable to make this decision
because it was the moreexpensive option, and I also
happen to be fortunate enough tolive in the middle of Sydney,
so I have very easy access tothese facilities that I would
have the robotic laparoscopichysterectomy.
So that, as I said, for me wasall about the fact that it is a
(14:40):
less invasive surgery.
It is said to reduce the amountof pain that is experienced
post-surgery, less blood lossand also a faster recovery.
So they were the big thingsthat ticked boxes for me.
So, as I said, you know, goingback to my breast cancer
(15:01):
experience, you know I spentthree years recovering from the
treatment that I had for breastcancer.
You know I had surgery, I hadchemotherapy, I had radiotherapy
and then I had adjuvant therapyand you know it really did take
me three good years to recoverphysically, emotionally, from
(15:21):
the toll that that took on meand I was very clear that if I
was going to have major surgerywhich, let's be honest, a
hysterectomy absolutely is Iwanted to be able to go with
this type of surgery that wouldreduce all of that recovery time
.
For me, living a life with avery high quality of life is
(15:43):
very, very important to me.
I've made a number of decisionsover the years, all based on
ensuring that I am experiencingthe highest quality of life, so
that is why I chose to moveforward with having the robotic
laparoscopic surgery, and itmeant, when I did have my
surgery, I actually had threesurgeons in the room with me.
So I had my robotic surgeon,who was Dr Tanu Rao, who is just
(16:10):
absolutely divine.
I had her assistant was inthere with us as well, as well,
as my beautiful gynecologist, drTala Ahol, was also in there
with me as well.
So, you know, I was very welllooked after and I felt very
safe, knowing that theseincredible women all have my
back, all have my best interestsin mind and that, you know, my
(16:32):
risk of anything going wrong wasreally kind of as controlled as
possible.
So when we discussed what once Imade that decision that I was
going to have a roboticlaparoscopic surgery, I was then
able to start diving into myown research around what having
a hysterectomy actually meant.
It's not something that I hadspent a lot of time thinking
(16:55):
about.
I'd never had to in the past,so I really went into a bit of a
deep dive into, okay.
So what does this actually mean?
And it meant that when I wentto meet with before my surgery,
I had a long list of questionsfor her, because the more that I
researched and found out, themore questions that came up for
(17:15):
me that I wanted answered priorto my surgery.
So what was removed from aorgan perspective, if you want
was my cervix, my uterus.
I had a bilateral cell panectomy, which means that both of my
fallopian tubes were removed,and there was a question mark
over what we would do with myovaries.
So on ultrasound and in thehysteroscopy, my ovaries had
(17:39):
looked healthy, and so one ofthe questions that Dr Rao had
for me and we spoke about a lotin our meeting prior to surgery
was what we were going to dowith my ovaries Now.
As I said, I'm 55.
So my ovaries, as much as I'mpostmenopausal, are still
producing some natural hormonesfor me estrogen, progesterone
(18:02):
and it was in my best interestto be able to keep my ovaries if
they were healthy, if there wasnothing going on that caused
any concern for the surgeonsthat were in my surgery, and so
we kind of went into surgerywith a plus minus attitude.
It was like I signed a waiverbefore I went into surgery to
(18:23):
say that if when they got inthere they had a look at my
ovaries and they really wereeither unhealthy or they were
compromised or there was anyreason for them not to be kept,
that they would have mypermission to remove those as
well.
The other procedure that I haddone while I was in there was a
high uterosacral ligamentsuspension.
(18:44):
Now this came about as a resultof a conversation that I had
with Dr Rath.
I am somebody that hasextensive experience and history
and a huge passion for veryheavy lifting at the gym.
So I do a lot of resistancetraining, I do a lot of very
(19:05):
heavy lifting, olympic lifting,that type of thing.
So you know we're talking 80kilo plus sometimes more than a
hundred kilos on the bar, and itwas very, very important to me
that my pelvic floor would be,would not be compromised as a
result of this surgery.
Okay, and one of my biggestquestions was around a potential
(19:31):
vaginal prolapse at some pointin time.
So that was why Dr Raosuggested that we do an
additional procedure while I wasin there, which was the high
utero sacral ligament suspension.
And what that means in verySonia layman terms is that when
she attached my vaginapost-removal of the cervix and
(19:54):
the uterus to the ligament thatwas going to support it
post-surgery, that it wasactually kind of pulled up and
tightened to a higher ligamentwithin that kind of anatomical
structure to ensure that it wasgoing to be really stable,
(20:15):
really strong and definitelyremove as much risk as possible
of there being a vaginalprolapse down the trap.
And you know, just kind oftalking a little bit about why
that was so important for me is,if you're not familiar with
Olympic lifting big, heavy barmovements where you're loading
the spine significantly, one ofthe most important things that
(20:39):
you need to be able to do tobrace and protect your spine,
protect your core, protect yourbody from injury is create
intra-abdominal pressure throughholding of your breath during
those movements, and it's a verycontrolled breathing technique
but it does create an incredibleamount of intra-abdominal
(21:02):
pressure and that was where myconcerns came for keeping my
pelvic floor as healthy and safeand structurally sound as
possible, as well as thisconcern over my vaginal prolapse
, given the structures that holdmy vagina in place were
actually being removed as a partof the surgery.
So, yeah, that's just a littlekind of segue into why we chose
(21:25):
to throw in this additional kindof little procedure as well
while she was in there.
So that was all the actualphysical procedures that were
going to take place during mysurgery and I was really happy
with all of that.
One of the things that blew meaway in my first meeting with Dr
Rao prior to surgery, as I said, I went in with a great big
list of questions.
(21:46):
I wanted to know, if theyremoved my cervix and my uterus
and my fallopian tubes, thenwhat were my ovaries going to be
attached to?
What was my vagina going to beattached to?
You know, if you take away apiece of something, then how is
that then structurally sound?
And you know I wanted answersto all those things.
(22:08):
I also wanted to understandwhat would happen to the space
that was created in my pelvicregion once those organs were
removed, and the answer to that,if anybody's interested, is
that your bowel and your bladderand your intestines all kind of
, over time, they reconfigurethemselves and they move in to
(22:31):
take over some of that spacethat has been created by the
removal of your uterus and yourfallopian tubes.
So, yeah, I had those sorts ofquestions that I wanted answered
and she was so patient and sogenerous and she actually made
the comment while we weretalking that, you know, this was
(22:52):
the appointment was myappointment.
The appointment was designed toensure that every question that
I had prior to surgery I hadthe opportunity to ask and that
she would answer.
You know, and that was reallythat was really encouraging to
me.
It made me feel really safe.
It made me feel very cared forwe don't always walk out of
(23:13):
specialist appointments, or even, sometimes, our GP appointments
, feeling like our doctors haveactually held space for us to
ask all the questions that wewanted.
Regardless of how silly youmight think your question is or
how unimportant you might thinkyour question might be to them,
it's still important to you.
So she really went a long wayfor making me feel like she was
(23:35):
holding space for me to be ascomfortable as possible with the
surgery that we were going tomove forward with.
So then let's talk about theactual surgery.
So I was in surgery for abouttwo and a half hours.
I had surgery on the 23rd ofJuly, so that is actually two
(23:56):
weeks ago today that I'mrecording this.
This podcast episode is goingto be published on Friday of
this week.
I'm recording this today.
It's Wednesday and today is mytwo-week post-op kind of
anniversary, if you like.
So, two and a half hours insurgery.
They were able to keep myovaries, which I was really
really happy about.
(24:16):
And one of the things I didn'tmention earlier was one of the
reasons why, you know, we werehoping to be able to keep my
ovaries was because they'restill I think I mentioned that
they're still producing, youknow, a baseline of hormones.
For me, what that means is thatI'm still getting that very you
know the heart protection, thebone protection of my own
(24:39):
hormones being produced, and youknow we want to be able to take
advantage of that for as longas we can, and so I was
absolutely stoked.
It was actually one of thefirst things that they told me
when I was coming out from underthe anesthetic was we kept your
ovaries.
I was really happy to know that.
So, yeah, everything else thatI talked about went completely
(25:00):
to plan.
I had absolutely nocomplications, no concerns.
It really, from then on, wasjust a matter of me recovering
and healing.
So that was fantastic.
One of the things that I had,which I have not experienced
before, was explained to mebeforehand that I would have
this, and that was that I wokeup with a catheter.
(25:21):
It was fun.
For anyone that's not had acatheter before, yeah, that was
not something that I'veexperienced before, and where
that became not uncomfortable itwas never uncomfortable, but it
became limiting with mobility.
For me was in the first fewhours post-operative, so by the
time that I kind of got, I wasin recovery for a while.
(25:42):
Then I got taken back to myroom.
I was very much kind of trappedin one position I guess, and
that was literally lying flat onmy back.
So I had a catheter which wason my right side and I had a
multiple.
I had three cannulas in my leftarm and so and I don't my body
(26:02):
does not tolerate cannulas verywell.
It's also happens to be thesame that I had all of my
chemotherapy treatment in.
The veins really are a bit kindof cranky in that arm now.
So I really don't find cannulascomfortable.
So I was kind of trapped in this.
You know, lying on my backposition, I had the three
cannulas on my left and then Ihad the catheter coming down my
(26:25):
right side and I really feltlike I had no wiggle room
whatsoever.
So that was something that Ikind of really struggled with
for the first few hourspost-surgery.
I also had a slight reaction tothe anesthetic, which made me
pretty cranky.
My poor husband.
I sent him home because I waslike I am not in a good space,
(26:46):
I'm not doing well at this pointin time and we're only talking
a matter of hours after mysurgery, and I decided that the
best thing for him to do wasprobably just to go home.
And it's really hard being thatperson sitting in a hospital
room watching the person thatyou love the most in the world
not do well and knowing they'vealso just gone through this
really significant surgery.
So, yeah, I sent him home andhe came back the next day and
(27:10):
got me, which was very lovely.
So I did end up only spending24 hours in the hospital.
Basically, I was discharged thenext day.
I think I left the hospital kindof around 4 o'clock in the
afternoon, so it was a littlebit longer than 24 hours, but I
was only in the hospital overone night, which is really it
really surprised me actually,because I kind of really
(27:32):
struggled those first, probablyabout 12 to 18 hours
post-surgery, in the bed that Iwas in.
I was really uncomfortable, Icouldn't eat because I was
having a little bit of reactionto the anesthetic and you know,
I couldn't move.
I didn't find that verycomfortable.
And Dr Rao came and saw me thefirst morning to check in on how
I was doing and I was kind oflike, oh look, I'm okay, but I'm
(27:55):
really not doing.
They checked my wounds and theychecked all my vitals and
everything and I hadn't used anypain meds gosh for probably
about four or five hours at thatpoint.
And she was like, okay, well,you can go home today, you'll be
fine.
And I was kind of like in myhead I went, yeah, right, I'm
going home today, so nothappening.
But I was like, okay, cool,thanks, and cause I had actually
(28:20):
preemptively booked to be infor the two nights and so I knew
that I had up my sleeve.
I could stay if I needed to and, of course, if there's a drama,
you're going to stay inhospital anyway.
But not long after that I wasable to have some breakfast and
I kept that down.
That made a huge difference.
They took the catheter out.
That made a huge difference tomy mobility and how I felt.
And then the nurse got me upand I had a shower and all the
(28:43):
important things when you'recoming out of surgery.
I passed wind, I did a wee, Ifully emptied my bladder and I
had a shower and I was actuallyquite surprised that a couple of
hours after doing all of thosethings I felt really good in the
scheme of things, of course,but I felt really good.
I found myself kind of pacingaround the room.
(29:04):
I was doing calf raises, I wasdoing tiny little pushups
against the wall.
One of the things that they talkto you about is the potential
for some pain post-operativelyas a result of the gases that
are used to extend your abdomenso that they can get in through
the incisions that they make.
And it's like when you have aknee surgery or anything like
(29:26):
that laparoscopic surgeryeverything's blown up and the
gases that they use for that canget trapped in your body and
they kind of can move aroundthroughout the body and then
they can get trapped in certainparts of the body.
One of the areas I believe thata lot of people experience some
pain can be shoulders, and theydo say that the more that you
can move, the less likely thatthat is, because you start
shifting all of that around andremoving it from your body.
(29:49):
So once I realized that I couldget up and get moving, I was
really keen to kind of keep mybody moving as often as I could.
I was really lucky.
I actually never experiencedany of that pain that they tell
you is a potential, so I'mreally really grateful that I
didn't experience that.
I did keep myself moving once Igot home, just walking around
(30:12):
our apartment I was literallypacing from one end to the other
as often as I could, because Iwas really conscious of keeping
my body moving and keepingenergy moving through it, as
well as all those internal gasesand fluids and everything.
So yeah.
So once I realized that Iactually felt okay, I was moving
around in the hospital, thethought of spending another
(30:34):
night in the hospital I reallywasn't looking forward to,
because they come and check youevery three hours.
Every three hours I was havingmy temperature taken, my blood
pressure taken and my oxygenlevels checked and you know they
come in, they turn the lightson, they have a chat to you, you
know.
So it's a very disruptive timebeing in hospital.
(30:54):
So when I realized that youknow, dr Rao had given me
permission that morning to gohome, I felt okay.
I was like you know what Iactually really like to just go
home and sleep in my bed.
So that was what we chose to do.
My hubby came and got me and Iwas back home.
So only one night in thehospital, which turned out to be
really good, I did have afantastic sleep that night in
our own bed.
(31:15):
I think I slept 10 hours.
It was much better than I wouldhave got if I'd stayed in the
hospital.
So, in terms of what my healingand recovery has looked like for
the past two weeks so it's beentwo weeks since I had the
operation the first week wasreally a significant change
(31:37):
physically.
So that first afternoon when Icame home, I realized how much
swelling I had through myabdomen, my tummy was.
I literally said to my husbandI look like I'm six months
pregnant, like I was just reallybloated and swollen and
obviously there's a significantamount of inflammation going on
(31:59):
in that area as well.
I have four incisions that weremade for the surgery.
They are very small.
I actually measured them thismorning so that I could give you
this information.
They're about one to one and ahalf centimeters long each and I
only have three that arevisible.
One of them is actually rightthrough the center of my belly
(32:19):
button and I'm sorry if thatmakes anyone squeamish.
I've realized by the reactionson the faces of a couple of
people I've told that to thatthat is kind of a little bit
freaky for some people.
But it does mean that I willonly have three scars, if you
like, and given what theyalready look like, they are not
going to be much of scars.
Like I really don't thinkyou'll be able to see much in a
(32:42):
few weeks at all.
So I'm stoked with the recoveryof my skin of how clean and
tidy and tiny the incisions arereally does kind of blow my mind
a little bit to think of what Ihad done versus the external,
you know, kind of visibility ofwhat I'm left with, if you like.
(33:06):
Now, one thing that I did noticevery, very, very obviously,
particularly in that first week,was I was extraordinarily windy
.
We are talking, farting andbelching.
My husband was like oh my God,I think I think that we should
like rent you out as a wind farmyou are seriously making so
(33:30):
much noise and I was, kind of,you know, told that that was,
that was something that you knowwould happen, and that the more
that I moved, that I reallynoticed.
There was one day in particularwhere and I can't remember why
I actually hadn't moved as muchas I would have liked.
I'd kind of, you know, sleptthrough the night.
I haven't slept through thenight, let's be honest.
(33:50):
I had slept and then I kind of,you know, got up, maybe done a
little bit of a walk up and downthe apartment, then I'd laid
down on the lounge and watchedsome TV and read a book and, you
know, got up to go to thebathroom and that was kind of
about it.
And by the end of that day Iwas really quite uncomfortable
and I made a mental note tomyself that the more that I
(34:10):
could move and have somemovement in my day, the better
off that I would be.
And I also noticed, when I didwalk and move, that that was
when a lot of that windiness andthat bloating was kind of moved
and so then I'd be walkingaround the apartment and all of
a sudden I'd just like let ripthese amazing belches and I'd be
(34:32):
farting away as well.
But I definitely live by thetheory that it is better out
than in and, yeah, I was veryhappy to get all of that moving
as often as I could.
But, like I said, they diddefinitely tell me that that was
something that was likely goingto happen and I can guarantee
you that it did so.
The other thing that I noticedwas that I tired really easily.
(34:54):
In that first week I was havingafternoon naps.
For the first few days I wasreally I wasn't doing anything
around the house.
I was not, you know, all thethings that I would normally do
cooking dinners, dishwashers,washing in the dog I literally
did nothing, which is, you know,I'm so incredibly, incredibly
(35:16):
grateful to my husband and myfamily for rallying around and,
you know, looking after all ofthat.
I'm also also very grateful tothe Sonia that existed about two
weeks before the surgery whodecided that it was it would be
a really good idea to freezesome meals.
So I had done some bulk cookingand frozen some meals that
would be easy for my husband tojust.
(35:38):
You know, I'd pull them out ofthe freezer in the morning and
he would, you know, of anevening.
Just you know, have to pop on abolognese sauce, cook some
pasta and voila, there was areally nutritious dinner for us,
and I'd stacked all of thosemeals with lots of really good
vegetables and gut healingingredients as well.
So today, sonia thanks pastSonia for making the decisions
(35:59):
to do things like that, becausethat was really helpful.
So I started doing some short,slow walks.
Like I said, I started off justaround the apartment, moving
around as I started feeling alittle bit stronger.
I then ventured outside andstarted taking some short walks,
literally.
I think my first walk outsidewas like 10 minutes.
I was a little bit nervousabout being outside, I'll be
(36:23):
honest, because I was like ifanyone bumps into me, if I step
off the gutter and do somethingstupid like twist my ankle, I'll
be honest, because I was likeif anyone bumps into me, if I,
you know, step off the gutterand do something stupid like
twist my ankle, I'll be sopissed off.
Yeah, it was funny.
I felt like I really kind ofwrapped myself up and bubble
wrap a little bit on that firstwalk outside.
So you know, I'm sure that'sprobably just a natural instinct
, but I definitely am pleasedthat I took my time to introduce
(36:46):
those walks out around withother people, but I persisted
with them, which was the mostimportant thing.
So today, two weeks in, I'measily getting in a 40-minute
walk.
I'm not as slow as I was, I'malso not as fast as I was, but
it's definitely progressed inthe right direction and I'm
really happy with that.
(37:06):
I have spent a lot of timefocusing on my nutrition.
I had a number of calls with myamazing dietitian friend,
angelique Clark, before mysurgery.
She was one of the ones thatreally prompted me to do that
bulk cooking and freezing of themeals.
We talked about what would begood foods for me to be
reintroducing from a healingperspective, but also not
(37:29):
rushing to introduce fiber tooquickly because, as I said, I
was really kind of windy andgassy, so the last thing that
you want to be doing is eating awhole lot of cruciferous
vegetables and beans and thingslike that and then suddenly
making that even feel worse.
So there was a progression ofintroducing certain fibers over
(37:52):
time as well.
We introduced a probiotic forme as soon as we could to really
start working on my gut healthand repairing all of that
unfortunate damage that happensas a result of anesthetics and
surgery and pain medications.
So really focused on healing mygut, really focused on eating
(38:14):
enough.
Now it's really easy as someonewho's in their fifties, who has,
you know, most definitely gonethrough the whole diet culture
generation where you know eatingless is often our go-to and
particularly at a time whenability to exercise is
compromised.
So one of the things that AngeClark had a really firm talk
(38:38):
with me about was ensuring that,even though my exercise is
significantly reduced, mymovement is significantly
reduced.
My step count each day issignificantly removed.
That movement is significantlyreduced, my step count each day
is significantly removed.
That I didn't fall into thetrap of reducing my calories as
a result, because my body isdoing so much healing and has so
(38:59):
much recovery to do, it isgoing to rely on all those
calories.
It's going to rely on theprotein intake to make sure that
we maintain my muscle and Idon't lose too much muscle when
I'm not able to train the waythat I like to train.
So there was a really big focuson making sure that my nutrition
was as well-rounded andbeneficial for healing and
(39:24):
recovery as it could be.
I'm not going to say that Ididn't also eat the cakes that
beautiful people dropped off forme, and I had some chocolate
and hot chocolates on days whenI was feeling a bit glum and sad
.
But 80-20 rule 80% of the timeI'm eating to really absolutely
prioritize my health and myrecovery.
(39:45):
But you know what, we're allhuman.
I've enjoyed the treats as wellalong the way and this is just
a season in time and there willbe plenty of time down the track
to get back into all of myexercise and sort out what my
body looks like after that.
So focus has been hugely onnutrition, hugely on rest.
I was able to go back to myomega-3s.
(40:05):
I was able to go back to myomega-3s.
My HRT so because I was on areally well-established HRT
routine prior to surgery wentstraight back onto that after
surgery.
You know estrogen has a reallyhigh anti-inflammatory benefit
to the body and so it was reallyimportant that I, you know,
reintroduce that as soon aspossible.
(40:26):
And also, I'm still takingprogesterone, even though I no
longer have a uterus and need itfor protection of my uterine
lining.
I was absolutely benefitingfrom the sleep benefits and some
of the anxiety reducingbenefits of progesterone.
So I'm continuing with myprogesterone as well.
Back onto my omega-3s, becausethey are also highly
(40:47):
anti-inflammatory.
So really doing everything thatI can to ensure that my body
has the best chances possible ofrecovering and recovering well.
No driving for two weeks.
So I also drove today, actuallyfor the first time post-surgery
too, which was a very excitingmilestone to achieve
(41:08):
post-surgery too, which was avery exciting milestone to
achieve.
One of the things I wanted totouch on in a little bit more
detail was my return to exercise.
So this was an area where Ireally found the information
that came from my surgeoninitially, but also when I was
researching online, looking formore detailed information.
There was just not a lot ofinformation out there, or the
(41:30):
information that is out there isvery simplistic and it's quite
vague.
So really, the guidelines areno heavy lifting for the first
six weeks, which means nothingheavier than six kilos, and then
you can resume gentle exercisesix to eight weeks
post-operatively.
(41:51):
Now, for me that was prettyfrustrating because, as somebody
who has worked as a fitnessprofessional and in the fitness
industry for many, many, manyyears, you know there was very
rarely a day that went by that Iwasn't regressing somebody's
exercise for some reason thatwas personal to them, or I
(42:11):
wasn't progressing them for somereason that was personal to
them, and I found it really hardto wrap my head around there
being a hard stop date and ahard start date, but that start
date was literally like 12 to 15weeks down the track and I,
because of how my brain works,because of the exercise that I'm
(42:33):
used to doing, because of whatI know about fitness and health,
I really wanted to know whatwas supposed to happen in the
gaps, in much more personalizedand finer detail than I was
being given, and I found thatvery, very frustrating as a
result.
Detail than I was being given,and I found that very, very
frustrating.
As a result, I emailed mysurgeon when I was about a week
post-surgery and I outlined myfrustrations.
(42:54):
I also gave her a lot moreinformation on what my personal
history is from an exerciseperspective and I asked her for
a more personalized frameworkand timelines for what I should
be able to do.
Obviously, I'm very, very bodyaware, so anytime that I feel
(43:15):
anything that doesn't feel right, I can guarantee you I'm going
to pull way back from that.
I'm also very, very invested inensuring that my body heals the
way that it's meant to.
So I want my pelvic floor to befully functional and
bulletproof.
I want my TVA and my coreactivation to be the same fully
(43:35):
functional, bulletproof.
I don't want to start havingpelvic floor issues five years
down the track, 10 years downthe track.
It's really important to methat I do respect all of the
healing and recovery that mybody needs to do, but I also
just needed a more personalizedframework and timeline to be
(43:55):
able to work within.
She was amazing.
She emailed me back literallywithin half an hour with a much
more detailed framework that wasbroken down into what I can
expect and what is reasonable inthe first six weeks, then from
week six to 10, then from week10 to 12, and with the aim to be
back to full trainingpost-surgery 12 to 14 weeks.
(44:19):
So that was really, reallyhelpful for me.
And if you are someone that alsowould benefit from having more
structure and frameworks aroundthings like your recovery and
what you can expect from areturn to exercise perspective
or a return to work perspective,and you feel you're not getting
that from your surgeon, then Ihighly highly recommend that you
(44:43):
do reach out and ask for theinformation.
You know, we really do have tostill advocate for ourselves so
often, and I found that this wasthe one time and the one kind
of area that was super importantto me, that I felt that I
needed to just keep being thatsqueaky wheel and put my hand up
(45:03):
and say actually, no, sorry, Istill need more information, I
still need to know more.
And you know, in the end,that's what I got and I'm really
happy with what I've got.
I work very closely with astrength and conditioning coach,
so her and I have a great planthat we are sticking to.
You know, that is very rightnow, at week two.
It is very simple and it isvery breathwork oriented and it
(45:27):
is literally just aboutreconnection with my TVA and
reconnection with my pelvicfloor through my breath and
through very, very limited,controlled movements.
So I'll share a little videoonto my Instagram account that
will give you an idea of whatthat looks like.
I'm also going to share on myInstagram account some pictures
(45:50):
of what my dressings looked likewhen I came home, how swollen
my belly was, what my incisionslook like now, two weeks later,
and some of the different thingsthat I'm doing to aid my
recovery from a complementarytherapy perspective as well.
So do go and check out myInstagram, which is really easy
to find.
I'm at Sonia Lovell, and you'llbe able to find the visuals
(46:12):
there that will go alongside theinformation that I'm sharing in
this episode.
I hope that that has coveredoff everything that I can think
of that I wanted to share withyou.
As I said, this first episodeis a little bit longer.
The follow-ups from this willbe nowhere near this long.
Thank you for listening.
If you've made it all the wayto the end, I appreciate you and
your time, and also for holdingspace for me to share what is a
(46:35):
very, very personal story.
Now, if you are someone who'sbeen through a hysterectomy, or
if you're preparing for one, orif you're supporting someone
else on this journey, I reallyhope that the information and
experience that I've offeredtoday has given you a little bit
of insight or reinsurance.
Again, just a reminder that yourbody, your choices and your
(46:58):
recovery are entirely going tobe your own.
There is absolutely no oneright way to do this, and if
this episode has brought upquestions, if there's anything
that you want to share from yourown story, I'd love to hear
from you.
You can reach out to me via myInstagram account.
If you're an Instagram user,just hit me up on my DMs or you
can drop me an email.
(47:19):
I'll add my email into the shownotes, but it's sonja at
sonjalovellcom, and, yeah, I'malways open to being able to
share more information, or ifthey are questions that you have
that I didn't answer in thisepisode, then I can answer them
in the next episode as well.
I hope you found this episodehelpful.
Please consider leaving areview on whatever platform that
(47:42):
you happen to be listening from, and also sharing it with
someone else who you think mightbenefit from hearing.
Take care of yourself and Iwill see you for the next
episode, which will be fourweeks post-surgery.
Welcome to the Dear Menopause podcast.
I'm Sonya Lovell, your host Now.
I've been bringing youconversations with amazing
menopause experts for over twoyears now.
If you have missed any of thoseconversations, now's the time
to go back and listen, and youcan always share them with
anyone you think needs to hearthem.
This way, more people can findthese amazing conversations,
(00:24):
needs to hear them.
This way, more people can findthese amazing conversations.
Hey there, and welcome totoday's episode of Dear
Menopause.
Now, today's episode is apersonal one.
I'm going to be talking aboutmy recent hysterectomy, the lead
up, the surgery itself and myrecovery so far.
(00:48):
So today I am recording thistwo weeks post my operation.
Now this is a raw and honestconversation about my own very
personal experience the physical, the emotional and everything
in between.
But before we dive in, I wantto be really clear.
This is my story.
Clear.
(01:09):
This is my story.
Every person's experience witha hysterectomy is different.
Our bodies, our histories, ourreasons for having the procedure
they all shape how we navigateit.
So while I hope that what Ishare here is helpful,
validating or maybe evencomforting, please remember it
is not medical advice and itmight not reflect your own path
or outcome.
(01:29):
So this episode is for anyonewho's curious, perhaps preparing
for their own surgery orsupporting somebody who is, or
maybe you just want to betterunderstand what this experience
can look like.
I thought the best place tostart was a brief overview
(01:49):
introduction to myself.
As much as I have been the hostof Dear Menopause for well over
three years now, I don't alwaysshare a lot of my own story on
here.
So I am 55 years of age, I'meight years post-menopause and I
was diagnosed with breastcancer in 2017, when I was 47.
(02:12):
And it was as a direct resultof my cancer treatments that I
experienced a medically inducedmenopause.
So that was, as I said, at theage of 47, it was eight years
ago.
So I am very, very muchpost-menopausal.
This episode today is part oneof what will most likely be a
(02:35):
five-part series.
I'm planning to kind of dolittle updates along the lines
of week two, which is what thisepisode is.
This is all post-surgery.
So week two, week four, weeksix, week nine and week 12.
So today's episode is by fargoing to be the longest because
(02:57):
I'm going to dive into the why,the how, the recovery, some
questions that I had for mysurgeon immediately after
surgery, and then a little bitabout what these last two weeks
have looked like.
So strap yourselves in.
Today is going to be a longerepisode, but the follow-up
episodes will probably be, Iwould imagine, much shorter,
(03:19):
because they are just going tobe check-ins on what's changed
since my last episode for mephysically, mentally,
emotionally.
What have I been doing from arecovery perspective?
How has my body changed in thatperiod?
So I hope that you enjoy them.
The very first place, now thatwe've got the introduction out
of the way, is to probably talkabout why I ended up having a
(03:42):
hysterectomy.
Why I ended up having ahysterectomy, particularly for
somebody that is, as I said,eight years post-menopause.
So in September last year sothat was September 2024, I
experienced a very sudden onsetof what is called
post-menopausal bleeding.
I quite literally went to thetoilet to do a wee.
(04:05):
I wiped afterwards and wasextremely surprised to find that
there was a significant amountof blood.
That was really freaky, I'm notgoing to lie.
That really took me by surprise.
It was concerning and, yeah, Ikind of panicked.
Now.
I'd had no pain, I'd had noindications that anything was
(04:27):
kind of not quite right, thatthere would be any reason for
the bleeding.
I'm not going to lie.
I literally even sat there andthought where has the blood come
from?
Is this vaginal blood?
Is it from my bladder?
Is it from my bowel?
Like it was really that kind oflike you know thought process
that I went through when, whenit all kind of happened.
You know thought process that Iwent through when it all kind
of happened.
There was something about it,though that didn't very much
(04:49):
make me confident that it wasvaginal bleeding that I was
experiencing.
That resulted in some veryquick calls to my GP, who very
quickly got me in to see agynecologist, who very quickly
got me in to have a pelvicultrasound and which fast
tracked to having a hysteroscopy, which is a day surgery
(05:11):
procedure, and all of thathappened within about five days.
So obviously, given my healthhistory, my history with cancer
and the fact that I was eightyears postmenopausal, there was
a really strong, you know, driveto find out why this was
happening and obviously theresults of the pelvic ultrasound
(05:31):
as well indicated that myuterine lining was very, very
thick.
I think, from memory, anythingover, you know, the number four
is, which I think is fourmillimeters, is anything under
four is like, considered okay,but I think from memory mine was
(05:52):
like around 14 or somethinglike that Like it was a
significant overgrowth of myuterine lining, so hence why I
was kind of put into ahysteroscopy really quickly.
So as a part of thehysteroscopy, my beautiful
gynecologist, dr Talat Appel,described it as going in and
doing some gardening, basically.
So she said that she mowed thelawns, which was trimmed my
(06:14):
uterine lining right back.
She did a bit of weeding so shetook out I think there may have
been a small polyp, a smallfibroid, nothing that was
concerning, but she removedthose while she was in there and
obviously there was pathologythat was sent off as well.
So that happened in Septemberlast year.
Now they continued to bleedeven after that procedure.
(06:39):
My pathology at that point cameback all clear, which was great
.
But there were some very minorcell changes that were not
necessarily concerning, but theykind of were like just, you
know, like a little bit of anorange flag, if you like.
So we decided that the bestcourse of action was basically
just to do some really closemonitoring and just kind of, you
know, see whether the bleedingthat was continuing was just as
(07:02):
a result of the hysteroscopy,and we just let that play out
and see what happened.
So I also played around, withthe support of my GP, with my
progesterone that I was taking.
So we upped the dose of myprogesterone.
We tried with vaginal insertionof my progesterone rather than
taking it orally.
We played around with that fora couple of months but nothing
(07:24):
really made any difference and Iwas kind of probably like it
was almost became like having aperiod again.
I'd kind of have two or threeweeks where there'd be no
bleeding and I'd get reallyexcited and I'd think, okay,
this is it, it's done now.
And then out of the blue I'dstart bleeding again.
I'd bleed for a few days andthen I'd stop again.
(07:46):
Now the bleeding was neverreally heavy, initially
immediately after myhysteroscopy and particularly
after my gynecologist inserted aMirena during the hysteroscopy,
purely from a precautionaryperspective, whereas while we
were waiting for the pathologyto come back on the uterine
(08:06):
lining to just make sure that ifthere were any you know
sinister cells lurking around inthere, that the marina would
create some protection from that.
So when my pathology came backclear, we removed the marina and
I did have some quite heavybleeding, initially after the
removal of the marina, butongoing.
So when I fell into this kindof cycle of almost having
(08:30):
periods again, the bleeding wasactually quite light in the
scheme of things, I really waswearing period undies and that
was about all that I needed.
Some days it was really nothingmore than I'd just go to the
bathroom and I'd wipe and therewould be blood.
But I wasn't like heavybleeding.
So I was very lucky in therespect that it wasn't heavy
menstrual bleeding.
(08:51):
It wasn't painful, I didn'texperience any pain.
But, being eight yearspost-menopause, there was
obviously a concern that I didcontinue to bleed.
So, as I said, we decided tokind of move forward at that
point, just with some monitoring.
So I was going in and havingthree monthly checks with Talat.
She was doing ultrasounds.
(09:11):
We were, you know, keeping aneye on the endometrial lining,
or sorry, the uterine lining,and that was starting to
re-thicken a little bit as well.
So that was noted.
I went and saw her in.
I had two checkupspost-hysteroscopy.
It was the checkup in May ofthis year so May 2025, that we
(09:34):
decided that the lining was kindof starting to thicken up again
and it was, given my healthhistory, given the anxiety that
it was causing me to have thisunexplained ongoing bleeding,
that the best course of actionwas probably going to be looking
at some surgery.
(09:54):
Given my age, given my desire tonot have any children even if
I'd wanted to, I couldn't anywaymy kids are in their 20s For me
, the choice to remove myreproductive organs was not a
difficult choice.
For someone that has survivedcancer and gone through a lot of
(10:17):
grieving and emotional labor asa result of that, this really
for me didn't feel like asignificantly huge emotional
decision to remove myreproductive organs.
I definitely knew that I didn'twant to live with a constant
fear and anxiety of what mightbe going on down there.
(10:38):
I already have to have a numberof annual checks as a result of
my breast cancer.
I just really didn't feel theneed to add anything else into
that mix.
So it was a very easyconversation between us that a
hysterectomy was probably goingto be the best outcome to give
me the quality of life that Ifought really hard to have and,
(10:58):
you know, really remove all riskof anything sinister you know
sinister happening down thetrack Now in terms of any kind
of questioning around what hadcaused the thickening of the
lining, continued growth of thatthe most common cause that I've
spoken with my GP, I've spokenwith my gynecologist, I've
(11:20):
spoken with my surgeon.
I've also had conversations withother friends that are all
clinicians as well.
The thing that everybody keepscoming back to most commonly for
me is that it was probablycaused by the tamoxifen that I
took as a part of my breastcancer treatment.
So my adjuvant therapy beganabout nine months after I
(11:44):
finished my treatment, so bythen it was kind of the end of
2017.
I went on to tamoxifen.
We also played with letrozole,which I really didn't tolerate
and didn't like, and I went backonto tamoxifen and I was on
that for about three yearsbefore I did make a personal
decision to stop taking that.
(12:07):
That's a whole other topic andconversation, so I'm not going
to dive into that right now.
All we're going to talk aboutis the fact that I had taken
tamoxifen for three years andthis was now probably about four
years since I'd taken thetamoxifen that I was having
these problems.
So there is a lot of research.
I'll link, actually, to acouple of papers in the show
(12:28):
notes of this episode.
There is evidence to show thattamoxifen does in fact cause an
overgrowth of the uterine liningand it is not a side effect.
That was explained to me when Iwas put on it.
Can't tell you why that was thecase, but it was, and so
therefore it wasn't somethingthat I was aware could be an
(12:48):
ongoing issue.
I like to think that if I hadbeen told, then perhaps we could
have done some baseline testingat different points in time to
ensure that that wasn'tsomething that was actually kind
of getting out of control andhappening.
So that's really where I sit interms of the.
Did this bleeding occur?
(13:10):
Why was the lining thickeningand growing when it really
shouldn't have been given?
I was eight yearspostmenopausal, so, yeah, let's
kind of like just cover that offthere and leave that and move
into the hysterectomy.
So, as I said, it was in the Mayof this year so now that is
about three months ago that wedecided a hysterectomy was going
(13:33):
to be my best course of action.
I took a little while to decidewhich type of hysterectomy I
was going to have, and when Isay that, I don't mean that I
was involved in the choice ofwhat was being removed and what
wasn't, but I was definitelyable to make a choice over the
type of surgery that I had, inthe sense that there is
(13:55):
laparoscopic hysterectomies andthere is robotic laparoscopic
hysterectomies.
Now I did a lot of researchinto both options and decided
that for me, from a personalcomfort level, from a returning
to my desired quality of life asquickly as possible, and also
(14:17):
being fortunate enough to beable to make this decision
because it was the moreexpensive option, and I also
happen to be fortunate enough tolive in the middle of Sydney,
so I have very easy access tothese facilities that I would
have the robotic laparoscopichysterectomy.
So that, as I said, for me wasall about the fact that it is a
(14:40):
less invasive surgery.
It is said to reduce the amountof pain that is experienced
post-surgery, less blood lossand also a faster recovery.
So they were the big thingsthat ticked boxes for me.
So, as I said, you know, goingback to my breast cancer
(15:01):
experience, you know I spentthree years recovering from the
treatment that I had for breastcancer.
You know I had surgery, I hadchemotherapy, I had radiotherapy
and then I had adjuvant therapyand you know it really did take
me three good years to recoverphysically, emotionally, from
(15:21):
the toll that that took on meand I was very clear that if I
was going to have major surgerywhich, let's be honest, a
hysterectomy absolutely is Iwanted to be able to go with
this type of surgery that wouldreduce all of that recovery time
.
For me, living a life with avery high quality of life is
(15:43):
very, very important to me.
I've made a number of decisionsover the years, all based on
ensuring that I am experiencingthe highest quality of life, so
that is why I chose to moveforward with having the robotic
laparoscopic surgery, and itmeant, when I did have my
surgery, I actually had threesurgeons in the room with me.
So I had my robotic surgeon,who was Dr Tanu Rao, who is just
(16:10):
absolutely divine.
I had her assistant was inthere with us as well, as well,
as my beautiful gynecologist, drTala Ahol, was also in there
with me as well.
So, you know, I was very welllooked after and I felt very
safe, knowing that theseincredible women all have my
back, all have my best interestsin mind and that, you know, my
(16:32):
risk of anything going wrong wasreally kind of as controlled as
possible.
So when we discussed what once Imade that decision that I was
going to have a roboticlaparoscopic surgery, I was then
able to start diving into myown research around what having
a hysterectomy actually meant.
It's not something that I hadspent a lot of time thinking
(16:55):
about.
I'd never had to in the past,so I really went into a bit of a
deep dive into, okay.
So what does this actually mean?
And it meant that when I wentto meet with before my surgery,
I had a long list of questionsfor her, because the more that I
researched and found out, themore questions that came up for
(17:15):
me that I wanted answered priorto my surgery.
So what was removed from aorgan perspective, if you want
was my cervix, my uterus.
I had a bilateral cell panectomy, which means that both of my
fallopian tubes were removed,and there was a question mark
over what we would do with myovaries.
So on ultrasound and in thehysteroscopy, my ovaries had
(17:39):
looked healthy, and so one ofthe questions that Dr Rao had
for me and we spoke about a lotin our meeting prior to surgery
was what we were going to dowith my ovaries Now.
As I said, I'm 55.
So my ovaries, as much as I'mpostmenopausal, are still
producing some natural hormonesfor me estrogen, progesterone
(18:02):
and it was in my best interestto be able to keep my ovaries if
they were healthy, if there wasnothing going on that caused
any concern for the surgeonsthat were in my surgery, and so
we kind of went into surgerywith a plus minus attitude.
It was like I signed a waiverbefore I went into surgery to
(18:23):
say that if when they got inthere they had a look at my
ovaries and they really wereeither unhealthy or they were
compromised or there was anyreason for them not to be kept,
that they would have mypermission to remove those as
well.
The other procedure that I haddone while I was in there was a
high uterosacral ligamentsuspension.
(18:44):
Now this came about as a resultof a conversation that I had
with Dr Rath.
I am somebody that hasextensive experience and history
and a huge passion for veryheavy lifting at the gym.
So I do a lot of resistancetraining, I do a lot of very
(19:05):
heavy lifting, olympic lifting,that type of thing.
So you know we're talking 80kilo plus sometimes more than a
hundred kilos on the bar, and itwas very, very important to me
that my pelvic floor would be,would not be compromised as a
result of this surgery.
Okay, and one of my biggestquestions was around a potential
(19:31):
vaginal prolapse at some pointin time.
So that was why Dr Raosuggested that we do an
additional procedure while I wasin there, which was the high
utero sacral ligament suspension.
And what that means in verySonia layman terms is that when
she attached my vaginapost-removal of the cervix and
(19:54):
the uterus to the ligament thatwas going to support it
post-surgery, that it wasactually kind of pulled up and
tightened to a higher ligamentwithin that kind of anatomical
structure to ensure that it wasgoing to be really stable,
(20:15):
really strong and definitelyremove as much risk as possible
of there being a vaginalprolapse down the trap.
And you know, just kind oftalking a little bit about why
that was so important for me is,if you're not familiar with
Olympic lifting big, heavy barmovements where you're loading
the spine significantly, one ofthe most important things that
(20:39):
you need to be able to do tobrace and protect your spine,
protect your core, protect yourbody from injury is create
intra-abdominal pressure throughholding of your breath during
those movements, and it's a verycontrolled breathing technique
but it does create an incredibleamount of intra-abdominal
(21:02):
pressure and that was where myconcerns came for keeping my
pelvic floor as healthy and safeand structurally sound as
possible, as well as thisconcern over my vaginal prolapse
, given the structures that holdmy vagina in place were
actually being removed as a partof the surgery.
So, yeah, that's just a littlekind of segue into why we chose
(21:25):
to throw in this additional kindof little procedure as well
while she was in there.
So that was all the actualphysical procedures that were
going to take place during mysurgery and I was really happy
with all of that.
One of the things that blew meaway in my first meeting with Dr
Rao prior to surgery, as I said, I went in with a great big
list of questions.
(21:46):
I wanted to know, if theyremoved my cervix and my uterus
and my fallopian tubes, thenwhat were my ovaries going to be
attached to?
What was my vagina going to beattached to?
You know, if you take away apiece of something, then how is
that then structurally sound?
And you know I wanted answersto all those things.
(22:08):
I also wanted to understandwhat would happen to the space
that was created in my pelvicregion once those organs were
removed, and the answer to that,if anybody's interested, is
that your bowel and your bladderand your intestines all kind of
, over time, they reconfigurethemselves and they move in to
(22:31):
take over some of that spacethat has been created by the
removal of your uterus and yourfallopian tubes.
So, yeah, I had those sorts ofquestions that I wanted answered
and she was so patient and sogenerous and she actually made
the comment while we weretalking that, you know, this was
(22:52):
the appointment was myappointment.
The appointment was designed toensure that every question that
I had prior to surgery I hadthe opportunity to ask and that
she would answer.
You know, and that was reallythat was really encouraging to
me.
It made me feel really safe.
It made me feel very cared forwe don't always walk out of
(23:13):
specialist appointments, or even, sometimes, our GP appointments
, feeling like our doctors haveactually held space for us to
ask all the questions that wewanted.
Regardless of how silly youmight think your question is or
how unimportant you might thinkyour question might be to them,
it's still important to you.
So she really went a long wayfor making me feel like she was
(23:35):
holding space for me to be ascomfortable as possible with the
surgery that we were going tomove forward with.
So then let's talk about theactual surgery.
So I was in surgery for abouttwo and a half hours.
I had surgery on the 23rd ofJuly, so that is actually two
(23:56):
weeks ago today that I'mrecording this.
This podcast episode is goingto be published on Friday of
this week.
I'm recording this today.
It's Wednesday and today is mytwo-week post-op kind of
anniversary, if you like.
So, two and a half hours insurgery.
They were able to keep myovaries, which I was really
really happy about.
(24:16):
And one of the things I didn'tmention earlier was one of the
reasons why, you know, we werehoping to be able to keep my
ovaries was because they'restill I think I mentioned that
they're still producing, youknow, a baseline of hormones.
For me, what that means is thatI'm still getting that very you
know the heart protection, thebone protection of my own
(24:39):
hormones being produced, and youknow we want to be able to take
advantage of that for as longas we can, and so I was
absolutely stoked.
It was actually one of thefirst things that they told me
when I was coming out from underthe anesthetic was we kept your
ovaries.
I was really happy to know that.
So, yeah, everything else thatI talked about went completely
(25:00):
to plan.
I had absolutely nocomplications, no concerns.
It really, from then on, wasjust a matter of me recovering
and healing.
So that was fantastic.
One of the things that I had,which I have not experienced
before, was explained to mebeforehand that I would have
this, and that was that I wokeup with a catheter.
(25:21):
It was fun.
For anyone that's not had acatheter before, yeah, that was
not something that I'veexperienced before, and where
that became not uncomfortable itwas never uncomfortable, but it
became limiting with mobility.
For me was in the first fewhours post-operative, so by the
time that I kind of got, I wasin recovery for a while.
(25:42):
Then I got taken back to myroom.
I was very much kind of trappedin one position I guess, and
that was literally lying flat onmy back.
So I had a catheter which wason my right side and I had a
multiple.
I had three cannulas in my leftarm and so and I don't my body
(26:02):
does not tolerate cannulas verywell.
It's also happens to be thesame that I had all of my
chemotherapy treatment in.
The veins really are a bit kindof cranky in that arm now.
So I really don't find cannulascomfortable.
So I was kind of trapped in this.
You know, lying on my backposition, I had the three
cannulas on my left and then Ihad the catheter coming down my
(26:25):
right side and I really feltlike I had no wiggle room
whatsoever.
So that was something that Ikind of really struggled with
for the first few hourspost-surgery.
I also had a slight reaction tothe anesthetic, which made me
pretty cranky.
My poor husband.
I sent him home because I waslike I am not in a good space,
(26:46):
I'm not doing well at this pointin time and we're only talking
a matter of hours after mysurgery, and I decided that the
best thing for him to do wasprobably just to go home.
And it's really hard being thatperson sitting in a hospital
room watching the person thatyou love the most in the world
not do well and knowing they'vealso just gone through this
really significant surgery.
So, yeah, I sent him home andhe came back the next day and
(27:10):
got me, which was very lovely.
So I did end up only spending24 hours in the hospital.
Basically, I was discharged thenext day.
I think I left the hospital kindof around 4 o'clock in the
afternoon, so it was a littlebit longer than 24 hours, but I
was only in the hospital overone night, which is really it
really surprised me actually,because I kind of really
(27:32):
struggled those first, probablyabout 12 to 18 hours
post-surgery, in the bed that Iwas in.
I was really uncomfortable, Icouldn't eat because I was
having a little bit of reactionto the anesthetic and you know,
I couldn't move.
I didn't find that verycomfortable.
And Dr Rao came and saw me thefirst morning to check in on how
I was doing and I was kind oflike, oh look, I'm okay, but I'm
(27:55):
really not doing.
They checked my wounds and theychecked all my vitals and
everything and I hadn't used anypain meds gosh for probably
about four or five hours at thatpoint.
And she was like, okay, well,you can go home today, you'll be
fine.
And I was kind of like in myhead I went, yeah, right, I'm
going home today, so nothappening.
But I was like, okay, cool,thanks, and cause I had actually
(28:20):
preemptively booked to be infor the two nights and so I knew
that I had up my sleeve.
I could stay if I needed to and, of course, if there's a drama,
you're going to stay inhospital anyway.
But not long after that I wasable to have some breakfast and
I kept that down.
That made a huge difference.
They took the catheter out.
That made a huge difference tomy mobility and how I felt.
And then the nurse got me upand I had a shower and all the
(28:43):
important things when you'recoming out of surgery.
I passed wind, I did a wee, Ifully emptied my bladder and I
had a shower and I was actuallyquite surprised that a couple of
hours after doing all of thosethings I felt really good in the
scheme of things, of course,but I felt really good.
I found myself kind of pacingaround the room.
(29:04):
I was doing calf raises, I wasdoing tiny little pushups
against the wall.
One of the things that they talkto you about is the potential
for some pain post-operativelyas a result of the gases that
are used to extend your abdomenso that they can get in through
the incisions that they make.
And it's like when you have aknee surgery or anything like
(29:26):
that laparoscopic surgeryeverything's blown up and the
gases that they use for that canget trapped in your body and
they kind of can move aroundthroughout the body and then
they can get trapped in certainparts of the body.
One of the areas I believe thata lot of people experience some
pain can be shoulders, and theydo say that the more that you
can move, the less likely thatthat is, because you start
shifting all of that around andremoving it from your body.
(29:49):
So once I realized that I couldget up and get moving, I was
really keen to kind of keep mybody moving as often as I could.
I was really lucky.
I actually never experiencedany of that pain that they tell
you is a potential, so I'mreally really grateful that I
didn't experience that.
I did keep myself moving once Igot home, just walking around
(30:12):
our apartment I was literallypacing from one end to the other
as often as I could, because Iwas really conscious of keeping
my body moving and keepingenergy moving through it, as
well as all those internal gasesand fluids and everything.
So yeah.
So once I realized that Iactually felt okay, I was moving
around in the hospital, thethought of spending another
(30:34):
night in the hospital I reallywasn't looking forward to,
because they come and check youevery three hours.
Every three hours I was havingmy temperature taken, my blood
pressure taken and my oxygenlevels checked and you know they
come in, they turn the lightson, they have a chat to you, you
know.
So it's a very disruptive timebeing in hospital.
(30:54):
So when I realized that youknow, dr Rao had given me
permission that morning to gohome, I felt okay.
I was like you know what Iactually really like to just go
home and sleep in my bed.
So that was what we chose to do.
My hubby came and got me and Iwas back home.
So only one night in thehospital, which turned out to be
really good, I did have afantastic sleep that night in
our own bed.
(31:15):
I think I slept 10 hours.
It was much better than I wouldhave got if I'd stayed in the
hospital.
So, in terms of what my healingand recovery has looked like for
the past two weeks so it's beentwo weeks since I had the
operation the first week wasreally a significant change
(31:37):
physically.
So that first afternoon when Icame home, I realized how much
swelling I had through myabdomen, my tummy was.
I literally said to my husbandI look like I'm six months
pregnant, like I was just reallybloated and swollen and
obviously there's a significantamount of inflammation going on
(31:59):
in that area as well.
I have four incisions that weremade for the surgery.
They are very small.
I actually measured them thismorning so that I could give you
this information.
They're about one to one and ahalf centimeters long each and I
only have three that arevisible.
One of them is actually rightthrough the center of my belly
(32:19):
button and I'm sorry if thatmakes anyone squeamish.
I've realized by the reactionson the faces of a couple of
people I've told that to thatthat is kind of a little bit
freaky for some people.
But it does mean that I willonly have three scars, if you
like, and given what theyalready look like, they are not
going to be much of scars.
Like I really don't thinkyou'll be able to see much in a
(32:42):
few weeks at all.
So I'm stoked with the recoveryof my skin of how clean and
tidy and tiny the incisions arereally does kind of blow my mind
a little bit to think of what Ihad done versus the external,
you know, kind of visibility ofwhat I'm left with, if you like.
(33:06):
Now, one thing that I did noticevery, very, very obviously,
particularly in that first week,was I was extraordinarily windy
.
We are talking, farting andbelching.
My husband was like oh my God,I think I think that we should
like rent you out as a wind farmyou are seriously making so
(33:30):
much noise and I was, kind of,you know, told that that was,
that was something that you knowwould happen, and that the more
that I moved, that I reallynoticed.
There was one day in particularwhere and I can't remember why
I actually hadn't moved as muchas I would have liked.
I'd kind of, you know, sleptthrough the night.
I haven't slept through thenight, let's be honest.
(33:50):
I had slept and then I kind of,you know, got up, maybe done a
little bit of a walk up and downthe apartment, then I'd laid
down on the lounge and watchedsome TV and read a book and, you
know, got up to go to thebathroom and that was kind of
about it.
And by the end of that day Iwas really quite uncomfortable
and I made a mental note tomyself that the more that I
(34:10):
could move and have somemovement in my day, the better
off that I would be.
And I also noticed, when I didwalk and move, that that was
when a lot of that windiness andthat bloating was kind of moved
and so then I'd be walkingaround the apartment and all of
a sudden I'd just like let ripthese amazing belches and I'd be
(34:32):
farting away as well.
But I definitely live by thetheory that it is better out
than in and, yeah, I was veryhappy to get all of that moving
as often as I could.
But, like I said, they diddefinitely tell me that that was
something that was likely goingto happen and I can guarantee
you that it did so.
The other thing that I noticedwas that I tired really easily.
(34:54):
In that first week I was havingafternoon naps.
For the first few days I wasreally I wasn't doing anything
around the house.
I was not, you know, all thethings that I would normally do
cooking dinners, dishwashers,washing in the dog I literally
did nothing, which is, you know,I'm so incredibly, incredibly
(35:16):
grateful to my husband and myfamily for rallying around and,
you know, looking after all ofthat.
I'm also also very grateful tothe Sonia that existed about two
weeks before the surgery whodecided that it was it would be
a really good idea to freezesome meals.
So I had done some bulk cookingand frozen some meals that
would be easy for my husband tojust.
(35:38):
You know, I'd pull them out ofthe freezer in the morning and
he would, you know, of anevening.
Just you know, have to pop on abolognese sauce, cook some
pasta and voila, there was areally nutritious dinner for us,
and I'd stacked all of thosemeals with lots of really good
vegetables and gut healingingredients as well.
So today, sonia thanks pastSonia for making the decisions
(35:59):
to do things like that, becausethat was really helpful.
So I started doing some short,slow walks.
Like I said, I started off justaround the apartment, moving
around as I started feeling alittle bit stronger.
I then ventured outside andstarted taking some short walks,
literally.
I think my first walk outsidewas like 10 minutes.
I was a little bit nervousabout being outside, I'll be
(36:23):
honest, because I was like ifanyone bumps into me, if I step
off the gutter and do somethingstupid like twist my ankle, I'll
be honest, because I was likeif anyone bumps into me, if I,
you know, step off the gutterand do something stupid like
twist my ankle, I'll be sopissed off.
Yeah, it was funny.
I felt like I really kind ofwrapped myself up and bubble
wrap a little bit on that firstwalk outside.
So you know, I'm sure that'sprobably just a natural instinct
, but I definitely am pleasedthat I took my time to introduce
(36:46):
those walks out around withother people, but I persisted
with them, which was the mostimportant thing.
So today, two weeks in, I'measily getting in a 40-minute
walk.
I'm not as slow as I was, I'malso not as fast as I was, but
it's definitely progressed inthe right direction and I'm
really happy with that.
(37:06):
I have spent a lot of timefocusing on my nutrition.
I had a number of calls with myamazing dietitian friend,
angelique Clark, before mysurgery.
She was one of the ones thatreally prompted me to do that
bulk cooking and freezing of themeals.
We talked about what would begood foods for me to be
reintroducing from a healingperspective, but also not
(37:29):
rushing to introduce fiber tooquickly because, as I said, I
was really kind of windy andgassy, so the last thing that
you want to be doing is eating awhole lot of cruciferous
vegetables and beans and thingslike that and then suddenly
making that even feel worse.
So there was a progression ofintroducing certain fibers over
(37:52):
time as well.
We introduced a probiotic forme as soon as we could to really
start working on my gut healthand repairing all of that
unfortunate damage that happensas a result of anesthetics and
surgery and pain medications.
So really focused on healing mygut, really focused on eating
(38:14):
enough.
Now it's really easy as someonewho's in their fifties, who has,
you know, most definitely gonethrough the whole diet culture
generation where you know eatingless is often our go-to and
particularly at a time whenability to exercise is
compromised.
So one of the things that AngeClark had a really firm talk
(38:38):
with me about was ensuring that,even though my exercise is
significantly reduced, mymovement is significantly
reduced.
My step count each day issignificantly removed.
That movement is significantlyreduced, my step count each day
is significantly removed.
That I didn't fall into thetrap of reducing my calories as
a result, because my body isdoing so much healing and has so
(38:59):
much recovery to do, it isgoing to rely on all those
calories.
It's going to rely on theprotein intake to make sure that
we maintain my muscle and Idon't lose too much muscle when
I'm not able to train the waythat I like to train.
So there was a really big focuson making sure that my nutrition
was as well-rounded andbeneficial for healing and
(39:24):
recovery as it could be.
I'm not going to say that Ididn't also eat the cakes that
beautiful people dropped off forme, and I had some chocolate
and hot chocolates on days whenI was feeling a bit glum and sad
.
But 80-20 rule 80% of the timeI'm eating to really absolutely
prioritize my health and myrecovery.
(39:45):
But you know what, we're allhuman.
I've enjoyed the treats as wellalong the way and this is just
a season in time and there willbe plenty of time down the track
to get back into all of myexercise and sort out what my
body looks like after that.
So focus has been hugely onnutrition, hugely on rest.
I was able to go back to myomega-3s.
(40:05):
I was able to go back to myomega-3s.
My HRT so because I was on areally well-established HRT
routine prior to surgery wentstraight back onto that after
surgery.
You know estrogen has a reallyhigh anti-inflammatory benefit
to the body and so it was reallyimportant that I, you know,
reintroduce that as soon aspossible.
(40:26):
And also, I'm still takingprogesterone, even though I no
longer have a uterus and need itfor protection of my uterine
lining.
I was absolutely benefitingfrom the sleep benefits and some
of the anxiety reducingbenefits of progesterone.
So I'm continuing with myprogesterone as well.
Back onto my omega-3s, becausethey are also highly
(40:47):
anti-inflammatory.
So really doing everything thatI can to ensure that my body
has the best chances possible ofrecovering and recovering well.
No driving for two weeks.
So I also drove today, actuallyfor the first time post-surgery
too, which was a very excitingmilestone to achieve
(41:08):
post-surgery too, which was avery exciting milestone to
achieve.
One of the things I wanted totouch on in a little bit more
detail was my return to exercise.
So this was an area where Ireally found the information
that came from my surgeoninitially, but also when I was
researching online, looking formore detailed information.
There was just not a lot ofinformation out there, or the
(41:30):
information that is out there isvery simplistic and it's quite
vague.
So really, the guidelines areno heavy lifting for the first
six weeks, which means nothingheavier than six kilos, and then
you can resume gentle exercisesix to eight weeks
post-operatively.
(41:51):
Now, for me that was prettyfrustrating because, as somebody
who has worked as a fitnessprofessional and in the fitness
industry for many, many, manyyears, you know there was very
rarely a day that went by that Iwasn't regressing somebody's
exercise for some reason thatwas personal to them, or I
(42:11):
wasn't progressing them for somereason that was personal to
them, and I found it really hardto wrap my head around there
being a hard stop date and ahard start date, but that start
date was literally like 12 to 15weeks down the track and I,
because of how my brain works,because of the exercise that I'm
(42:33):
used to doing, because of whatI know about fitness and health,
I really wanted to know whatwas supposed to happen in the
gaps, in much more personalizedand finer detail than I was
being given, and I found thatvery, very frustrating as a
result.
Detail than I was being given,and I found that very, very
frustrating.
As a result, I emailed mysurgeon when I was about a week
post-surgery and I outlined myfrustrations.
(42:54):
I also gave her a lot moreinformation on what my personal
history is from an exerciseperspective and I asked her for
a more personalized frameworkand timelines for what I should
be able to do.
Obviously, I'm very, very bodyaware, so anytime that I feel
(43:15):
anything that doesn't feel right, I can guarantee you I'm going
to pull way back from that.
I'm also very, very invested inensuring that my body heals the
way that it's meant to.
So I want my pelvic floor to befully functional and
bulletproof.
I want my TVA and my coreactivation to be the same fully
(43:35):
functional, bulletproof.
I don't want to start havingpelvic floor issues five years
down the track, 10 years downthe track.
It's really important to methat I do respect all of the
healing and recovery that mybody needs to do, but I also
just needed a more personalizedframework and timeline to be
(43:55):
able to work within.
She was amazing.
She emailed me back literallywithin half an hour with a much
more detailed framework that wasbroken down into what I can
expect and what is reasonable inthe first six weeks, then from
week six to 10, then from week10 to 12, and with the aim to be
back to full trainingpost-surgery 12 to 14 weeks.
(44:19):
So that was really, reallyhelpful for me.
And if you are someone that alsowould benefit from having more
structure and frameworks aroundthings like your recovery and
what you can expect from areturn to exercise perspective
or a return to work perspective,and you feel you're not getting
that from your surgeon, then Ihighly highly recommend that you
(44:43):
do reach out and ask for theinformation.
You know, we really do have tostill advocate for ourselves so
often, and I found that this wasthe one time and the one kind
of area that was super importantto me, that I felt that I
needed to just keep being thatsqueaky wheel and put my hand up
(45:03):
and say actually, no, sorry, Istill need more information, I
still need to know more.
And you know, in the end,that's what I got and I'm really
happy with what I've got.
I work very closely with astrength and conditioning coach,
so her and I have a great planthat we are sticking to.
You know, that is very rightnow, at week two.
It is very simple and it isvery breathwork oriented and it
(45:27):
is literally just aboutreconnection with my TVA and
reconnection with my pelvicfloor through my breath and
through very, very limited,controlled movements.
So I'll share a little videoonto my Instagram account that
will give you an idea of whatthat looks like.
I'm also going to share on myInstagram account some pictures
(45:50):
of what my dressings looked likewhen I came home, how swollen
my belly was, what my incisionslook like now, two weeks later,
and some of the different thingsthat I'm doing to aid my
recovery from a complementarytherapy perspective as well.
So do go and check out myInstagram, which is really easy
to find.
I'm at Sonia Lovell, and you'llbe able to find the visuals
(46:12):
there that will go alongside theinformation that I'm sharing in
this episode.
I hope that that has coveredoff everything that I can think
of that I wanted to share withyou.
As I said, this first episodeis a little bit longer.
The follow-ups from this willbe nowhere near this long.
Thank you for listening.
If you've made it all the wayto the end, I appreciate you and
your time, and also for holdingspace for me to share what is a
(46:35):
very, very personal story.
Now, if you are someone who'sbeen through a hysterectomy, or
if you're preparing for one, orif you're supporting someone
else on this journey, I reallyhope that the information and
experience that I've offeredtoday has given you a little bit
of insight or reinsurance.
Again, just a reminder that yourbody, your choices and your
(46:58):
recovery are entirely going tobe your own.
There is absolutely no oneright way to do this, and if
this episode has brought upquestions, if there's anything
that you want to share from yourown story, I'd love to hear
from you.
You can reach out to me via myInstagram account.
If you're an Instagram user,just hit me up on my DMs or you
can drop me an email.
(47:19):
I'll add my email into the shownotes, but it's sonja at
sonjalovellcom, and, yeah, I'malways open to being able to
share more information, or ifthey are questions that you have
that I didn't answer in thisepisode, then I can answer them
in the next episode as well.
I hope you found this episodehelpful.
Please consider leaving areview on whatever platform that
(47:42):
you happen to be listening from, and also sharing it with
someone else who you think mightbenefit from hearing.
Take care of yourself and Iwill see you for the next
episode, which will be fourweeks post-surgery.
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