Stephanie’s Robotic Hysterectomy
daVinci Robotic Hysterectomy
Age at Surgery 49
Location: Garland/Texas/United States
I have had a couple of fibroids since our son was born in 1996 that my Dr(s) had been monitoring. Almost three years ago, the Dr. I have been going to since 1989 retired. I stayed with the practice that he and his practice partner started 20+ years ago. His partner actually released our son and I from the hospital after birth. Anyway, almost a year ago, I went in for my yearly exam. The Dr said my uterus was enlarged and he wanted to come back in 2 weeks for a sonogram. I went in and they said my fibroid had begun to grow and had caused the enlarged uterus. At the time we discussed options of ablation, hysterectomy or just monitoring. I had just started a new job and didn’t feel I could take the time of for any procedure then. I made an appointment for 6 months later for follow up sonogram. I informed my supervisor that I might be scheduling surgery. When it went back in May, the fibroid had grown a centimeter each direction. The Dr said it would continue to grow until I started menopause and that it was still small enough to perform surgery laparoscopically. He also said we could continue to monitor, but it would eventually be too large to perform robotic laparoscopic surgery. Given the fact that I was still having regular periods and didn’t know when menopause would begin for me, my husband and I opted to go ahead and have the surgery. I did not have any of the typical symptoms of fibroids other than pain during intimacy (which I didn’t actually connect to the fibroid until we resumed intimacy after release from Dr). I did not seek other opinions because I have been with the best Doctors in our area so I trusted his advise. He was the first one in our area to utilize the DaVinci Robotic System.
My hospital stay was short. I checked in the morning of surgery and was home by 3:30 the next afternoon. I don’t remember much about the day of my surgery. I remember getting the first anesthesia medicine in my IV and feeling very relaxed. I don’t remember anything after the second anethestia medicine was given until I woke up in my room. I remained in bed the rest of that day. I still had the caterer in until about 6 am the next morning. The nurse took it out and then they started getting me up and moving. I had effects of the anesthesia for several days. I remember sleeping a lot.
The most important thing I learned during my recovery was to listen to my body and to rest when I needed to. Overall my recovery was pretty easy. I had a couple of small bleeding episodes early in the process and took one round antibiotics after noticing a little bit of odor. Other than that recovery went pretty smooth. My biggest issue was dealing with insomnia at night. I could go to sleep, but I would wake up at 2 am and be wide awake for several hours. I was released to drive at 2 weeks and go back to work at 4 weeks. After my 8 week Dr follow up, I was fully released with instructions to go in for yearly and smear at 4 months.
I am type 2 diabetic, so I was very careful about what I was eating during recovery. I had protein shake smoothies regularly and drank a lot of water. My health right now is probably better than it has been in many years. I am glad I went ahead and had the surgery. Having no periods is a bonus but beyond that the pain I didn’t associate with the fibroid is gone.
The biggest pieces of advice I would give someone considering surgery is to listen to your body, be informed about your choices and ask questions. Talk to other women who have had this surgery. Seek a second or even third opinion if you are not sure. I trusted my Dr and felt no pressure from him to have surgery. I was able to ask him questions and got straight forward answers. Having a hysterectomy is a big decision so being informed is the most important thing when considering surgery.
