Cleared!
I had my doctor's appointment bright and early this morning at 8:30.
The doctor looked at my incision (well, it's more of a scar now) and was pleased at how well it's healed and that there are no gaps whatsoever or any spots that are having trouble. She said the nerve sensitivity on my belly will eventually go away. She recommended boxers, I told her I'd been wearing boyshorts, and she seemed pleased to hear a tip she could pass on to her other patients.
Then she gave me my pelvic exam. There was no speculum, I guess she wasn't interested in looking at my cervix (I can't imagine it really looks any different than it used to). She did a manual exam, first putting her fingers inside me and putting the other hand on my belly and finding my ovaries (which were right where she left them). Then she did some more feeling around inside there, she seemed to feel all around my cervix and pleased with that she pronounced me fit and cleared. She said I still had some fluid in my abdomen but that would slowly go away (yay! it's fluid, I might actually get rid of some of this belly!).
She told me I could go back to all my old activities, but I should go slow and try things out and if I have any pain or trouble, I'll need to take it easy. I'm free to have sex. But with my husband out of town, that'll still be a week.
We talked about my bleeding back at the five week mark. She said that she was quite careful to get out all the endometrial tissue she could to keep me from having a mini-period. Of course with only one cycle so far, it's really too early to tell. She said give it a few months and see if I do have the bleeding again. I told her I wasn't worried if I did, I just want to know what to expect (should I keep buying panty liners?). We agreed that a mini-period has its advantages, as it means that my remaining uterine tissue will still put out a little bit of hormones which will give some feedback to the ovaries and I'll have a better sense of my ovaries if I do have a mini-period as I'll be able to tell when I hit menopause.
I also got a copy of my pathology report. She gave me the big news when I was there last, but frankly I forgot most of it instantly and only managed to keep the big info like - 12 fibroids, one polyp and 630 grams.
There's lots of technical stuff on the report, but I was curious what sort of position my fibroids were in. It turns out that most were intramural (within the muscle of the uterine wall) and some were subserosal (on the outside of the uterine wall). The largest one was 11 cm (4 1/3 inches) - but apparently there were four of them in a row (all about the same size) that formed one super long "master fibroid" that was about 19 cm (7 1/2 inches) long and about 8 cm (3 inches) around (that was what my surgeon described as the "Japanese eggplant" they removed).
I can't say I miss them in the slightest. I'm glad there was nothing alarming in the pathology report either.
At the end of the appointment, my doctor said that she'll see me next May for my yearly Pap and exam.
Any questions or feedback? Feel free to email me.
Posted by Elizabeth M. on September 21, 2004 04:53 PM
