Diagnosed today. Questions.

Primavera

Hi everyone,

I found this forum yesterday, before having my discussion of D&C results with my gynecologist today.

The diagnosis was: endometrial adenocarcinoma, endometrioid type (FIGO grade 3).

I'm confused about "grade 3" and stage.

I'm trying to figure out if stage hasn't been determined yet?

I have an appointment for CT scan of chest, abdomen and pelvis this Friday at night. 

My gynecologist referred me to a gynecologist oncologist because she can't treat me anymore, They'll call me tomorrow with an appointment date.

I guess FIGO grade 3 means it is aggressive?

I started spotting, post-menopausal vaginal bleeding back in December 2018. At beginning of January 2019 I went for a physical, got ultrasounds, endometrium was 10mm and heterogeneous. I finally got an appointment with my gynecologist. They did a biopsy but there was not enough tissue (it took 3 weeks to find that out). So now I'm in March and I push for the next step (D&C) in March, not in April. They did one on March 21 and I had a follow-up appointment for April 10, but my gynecologist called me yesterday (March 26) and said she wanted to discuss today. So I went and now I know why.

If anyone can shed light on this, I would appreciate it. I'm scared. I'm 57.

Thank you.

 

P.S.: apologies if I'm posting in the wrong section or adding to a post, instead of starting my own. This is still a bit confusing to me.

NoTimeForCancer

Primevera, you are posting in

Primevera, you are posting in the right spot.  I am sorry you have had to find us, but there is a lot of good women and lots of advice here. 

So this is scary and overwhelming, so try to take a breath.  First, your gyn turned you to a gynencologic oncologist - and that is exactly what you want.  They specialize in the 'below the belt' cancers, and that is who you want to work with.  

This is a process.  One step at a time, so yes, Grade 3 is agressive (BTW - there are lots of us here) but they won't be able to tell you the Stage until they operate.  The tests you are going to be taking are the kind given prior to surgery, so you will probably be scheduled for a complete hysterectomy.  

Chemo and/or radiation are often prescribed - but let's not get ahead of ourselves.  

Again, you want to work with a gyn onc and they will build you a plan.  I know other ladies will be here to lend their support, but you have found a good group.  

janaes

Im sorry you need to be here.

Im sorry you need to be here. But i am glad you found us. Being scared is normal. Just take things a step at a time. You will be okay. You are going in the right direction. Please come here as often as you need. I found great support from here when i went through treatments over two years ago.

oldbeauty

Primavera, welcome....

Welcome to this discussion board where you will be made to feel supported and informed.  As time goes on you will learn more reliable information about your condition.  Relative to stage and grade, at this point it's an educated guess.  Only after the hysterectomy will a detailed pathology be conducted to determine the extent of disease and the histology type of detected cancer cells.  I was diagnosed in 2005 with Stage IC (old system), Grade 2 endometrioid adenocarcinoma.  I do not know what histology must present for endometrioid adenocarcinoma to be a Grade 3, which denotes, as you found, an aggressive type.

It's excellent that your gynecologist referred you immediately to a specialist oncologist.  That doctor will prepare you to undergo a complete hysterectomy in all likelihood.  Many (if not most) practitioners today conduct minimally invasive robotic assisted surgery, although recent studies have been reported in the news that concluded this method is no more effective than the old style "open" surgery.  You should prepare yourself to have a wide-ranging consultation with this doctor, who is a surgeon as well as oncologist.  Feel free to discuss the type of surgery and be sure to ask about sentinel lymph node harvesting to investigate whether the disease has spread outside the uterus.  And, since you are going in to this with one opinion of Grade 3, ask about any genetic or genomic testing the doctor might recommend to further understand the nature of the cancer and what treatment regimens might be most effective.

Try not to get too far ahead of yourself.  No doubt you are worried and maybe fearful at this point.  That is normal.  Don't set too much store on your internet research; you don't have enough info yet to make an informed judgment about how relevant the reported data is to your case.  Generally speaking, it's good that you acted immediately upon experiencing a symptom and that you've pushed to accelerate evaluation.  Early detection and prompt response are positive inputs to your prognosis. There are many long-term survivors on this board, including me.  Although I've had two recurrences, in 2012 and 2016, I am still in reasonably good shape.  

Your main focus now should be on settling on a doctor you feel a rapport with and preparing yourself for surgery and making any insurance arrangements that are necessary for surgery and tissue analysis.  Also, there will be an appropriate time to consider whether to seek a second opinion.  Usually, that's after surgery and before you enter adjuvant therapy, which could be radiation and/or chemotherapy (or simply watch and wait, if it's early stage "garden variety" disease.

Best wishes to you as you progress on your journey.  Many ladies will respond to any question you'd like to raise.  Oldbeauty

MAbound

Same start

Your exactly where I was March 2016 with a biopsy that showed grade 3, endometrial adenocarcinoma. That's the hormone driven "garden variety" type of endometrial cancer. Grade refers to how mutated or not the cells are with grade 3 being the most mutated. Stage refers to how far the cancer has traveled from it's site of origin. It can't be determined definitively until a lab tests everything removed during whatever type of hysterectomy you end up having, although my gyn-oncologist tried to make a guess when he first examined me.

I had a radical abdominal hysterectomy and ended up Stage 3a because it had traveled outside to an ovary, a fallopian tube, and a lymph node on each side in my pelvis. A radical hystectomy also removes the omentum, connective tissue, and some para-aortic lymph nodes and does a pelvic wash. It would be a good idea to ask if your surgeon will be testing tissue for ER and PR activity, too. It can come in handy should you need additional treatment after frontline (chemo and/or radiation). It would determine if hormone therapy would be a future option if you need it. There are also those who also recommend a tumor assay so you don't find out that you're chemo resistant after frontline is done. 

We all say dealing with this diagnosis is a marathon rather than a sprint, so prepare yourself for this taking the rest of this year to get through to the other side. All of the testing, dr. appointments, surgery, recovery, pathology results chemo/and or radiation takes time and waiting for things to get going is often the most anxiety producing time. Take it one -step-at-a-time. Your focus now should be getting to know your gyn-onc and understanding the options for the type of hysterectomy you'll have as well as preparing for your personal life to be on hold while you recover. Avoid looking at statistics online because those don't really apply to individuals and quickly become out of date, but remain online forever.

This is scary stuff, but don't panic when relatives and friends share their personal or second hand war stories. The science has made some really great advances in recent years for both beating back this beast and making treatment more tolerable. It's doable, but it doesn't happen fast.  During those interminable waits between getting answers and results, spend your time focusing on whatever step you are facing next and avoid getting ahead of yourself. You can scare yourself silly needlessly doing that. There is a lot of really good information here and if you can't find an answer (the search engine here is not too great) just ask and you'll most likely get any help you need. There's a big learning curve, but knowledge will empower you to ask the right questions and understand the answers you get.

Wishing you the best and standing by for when you need us.

Pat

 

Primavera

Thank you all so much

I'm glad I came over here. It was really confusing on the Internet.

MAbound, thank you so much. You've answered all my doubts.

How long did everyone have as recovery time after a hysterectomy, since I must have one anyway?

zsazsa1

Hello, Primavera.  You have

Hello, Primavera.  You have come to the right place.  First of all, you want to find a gynecologic oncologic surgeon who does a LOT of these surgeries. Keep your appointment with the one that your gynecologist has referred you to, but also find out where the center that does the most cancer treatment is in your area, and the surgeon who does the most gyn/onc hysterectomies, and make an appointment with that one, too, unless they're one and the same.  I live in a relatively small city, and still I had at least 4 local options, plus a nearby research university, without having to even go to Boston or NYC.  Ask the surgeon whether, in light of the recent studies, he/she recommends an open vs a laparascopic approach.

I too had staging CT scans ordered at my request by my GYN - and afterwards I kind of wished that I had had PET/CT instead.  Ask about this.  PET/CT also looks for areas with increased metabolic activity - which could mean cancer.  It's more radiation, and more expensive.  But it is the most thorough.  My oncologists and surgeon uniformly tell me that CT is good enough.  Others on this board have reported the PET component picking up areas that the CT did not.  But it may also pick up areas that have increased activity for other non-cancerous reasons.  There is no definitive answer.  But if you go see a medical gynecologic oncologist right away, before the CT is done, he/she will advise you on which study they feel would be the best. 

Don't worry about chemo and/or radiation now.  Focus on getting in with a medical oncologist to advise you on which test should be done for screening for metastases (CT vs PET/CT), and on finding the right surgeon for the hysterectomy.

There is still widespread influenza in most of the US.  If you didn't have a flu shot yet, ask about getting a quadrivalent (4 strains) flu shot right away.  If you never had chicken pox, measles, or mumps, get tested right away for antibodies, and if you aren't immune, ask about getting a chicken pox vaccine right away, or a shingles vaccine (it's the same virus, just a much stronger dose), and possibly an MMR.  You want to be sure you are immune to chicken pox, measles, and mumps before chemo.  Most women get screened for this when we have a first pregnancy - but I think you never would have been screened.  There's  always chicken pox circulating at low levels in the US, because some children are unimmunized, and because shingles lesions also shed chicken pox virus.  Unfortunately, we are also seeing measles in the US now, due to people declining the MMR for their kids.  I'm your age, and I had measles when I was a year old, but a lot of people our age didn't have measles, and may have only had one dose of the vaccine - you are supposed to get two.  If you're not immune (they can check it very easily on a blood test), it's possible that your oncologist would recommend that you get the appropriate vaccine right now - your immune system will be done responding before you start chemo, which best case scenario would be about a month from now.  Your GYN can order the antibody screen for chicken pox, measles, mumps, and rubella tomorrow, you can have the results back within a couple of days, and you could get the immunizations on Monday.  The issue is that you want to be immune to these infectious diseases before you start chemo, and it takes a month to respond fully.

Forgive me, it's a lot of information to digest.  But it is important to know.  These were all the things that I knew, or wished later on that I had known, at the time of diagnosis.  Decisions about chemo and radiation come later on.

Know that the women here are with you.  Some of us are in treatment, some are long term survivors.  I find the support and advice of the women on this website to be invaluable.

zsazsa1

I had a laparascopic

I had a laparascopic hysterectomy, and the recovery was very quick and easy.

EZLiving66

Primavera said:

Thank you all so much

I'm glad I came over here. It was really confusing on the Internet.

MAbound, thank you so much. You've answered all my doubts.

How long did everyone have as recovery time after a hysterectomy, since I must have one anyway?

Hello Primavera! I also have

Hello Primavera! I also have a Grade 3 cancer and after reading the internet, waited to die. My hysterectomy was done four years ago this coming September and, I'm still here.

You are lucky going in that you know your grade. My biopsy came back as a Grade 1 so my oncologist/gynecologist did not sample any lymph nodes or do a pelvic wash. It was only afterward that in the final pathology report they discovered I had UPSC which is always a Grade 3 cancer.

My hysterectomy was the easiest part of this journey. I literally danced out of the hospital within 20 hours of my surgery. It was so much easier than my gallbladder surgery back in 1994. 

We are here for you! Keep us updated and ask anything you want.

Love, 

Eldri

CheeseQueen57

One Day at a Ti

You’re where I was in 2016. Click on my picture to see how it all worked out. I’m still here and in fairly good health. I’ll be thinking about you and prepare for your journey. But try to take one day at a time. And go to the best cancer center you can. We’ll all be with you on your journey. 

MAbound

Post op pain management

I forgot to add: Ask how your surgeon manages post-op pain. Opiods are known constipators and can complicate recovery. I was given Dilaudid at first and developed Ileus. That prolonged my hospital stay and was not fun. I was switched to IV Toradol. It's the IV form of Ibuprofen and it was like a miracle because it treated the inflammation that causes the post-op pain without the constipation issues or making you feel like you are under the influence. It made walking so much safer for me. It's hard on the kidneys, though, so you can't take it for long, but any reason to get the IV out sooner is a positve because it gets you home quicker. Hospitals are hot beds of infection, so the shorter the stay the better.

Forherself

Great advice here

So sorry to hear you are dealing with this.  Everyone here does understand what you are going through, and that is such a help.   One thing I wanted to add.  Pathologists can have different diagnoses looking at the same slide.  A gynecological patholoigist changed my diagnosis.   I was very surprised that they had different diagnosis, but learned that the slides are often difficult to put in a category.  It is something I wish I had been more aware of.   And don't read all the OLD studies about endometrial cancer. They used to assume if there was no myometrial invasion that it hadn't spread.  So they gave women the wrong stage.  Now they surgically stage every woman to get a more accurate diagnosis.  I try and not read anything that is over 10 years old.  

Primavera

Forherself said:

Great advice here

So sorry to hear you are dealing with this.  Everyone here does understand what you are going through, and that is such a help.   One thing I wanted to add.  Pathologists can have different diagnoses looking at the same slide.  A gynecological patholoigist changed my diagnosis.   I was very surprised that they had different diagnosis, but learned that the slides are often difficult to put in a category.  It is something I wish I had been more aware of.   And don't read all the OLD studies about endometrial cancer. They used to assume if there was no myometrial invasion that it hadn't spread.  So they gave women the wrong stage.  Now they surgically stage every woman to get a more accurate diagnosis.  I try and not read anything that is over 10 years old.  

Yes, great advice.

Are you talking about the pathology report from the D&C where I had the type 3? I have to say that number scares me. I was so hoping for a 1 or a 2.

It said on the report that it had been reviewed by another doctor and that they agreed on the findings.

MAbound

Ride home after surgery

Sorry, it's been a while and tips just keep popping into my head.

Whatever kind of hysterectomy you have, the ride home can be quite uncomfortable, so take a pair of your softest, loosest pants or pajama pants to the hospital with you for the trip home. You'll probably be distended and very tender if you have a long incistion.

Buy a belly binder on Amazon or have a pillow to "splint" your belly in the car. You will feel every bump in the road.

Have gas-x on hand at home for the killer gas pains that can happen with the robot procedure. They inflate your abdomen with gas so they can see what they're doing in there and it can travel to places like your shoulder and be quite uncomfortable. Walking, walking, walking at home and the gas-x really help. Not sleeping flat is also a good idea.

Primavera

MAbound said:

Practical advice for first step

1. Take someone or a tape recorder with you to your appointments. There's a lot to take in when you are in a bit of a state of shock with this diagnosis and it helps to have a second set of ears.

2. Write down your questions as they occur to you and take them to your appointments. A good doctor is going to schedule more time with you in the beginning expecting them from you. None of us started out knowing anything in the beginning. 

3. Don't be afraid of an open abdomen procedure if that's the route your surgeon recommends. Easier isn't always the best option down the road. There is some concern now that robot procedures for cancer puts one at higher risk for recurrence and I'm resting easier now about what I went through with the open surgery.

4. Ask your surgeon about who's going to help him with the surgery. They never do it alone and who helps him/her can be important. Mine used a urosurgeon to protect my bladder during the procedure and I've been real glad of that after reading here about some of the issues others have had to deal with post-op.

5. The vaccination advice is good, but bear in mind that doing it before surgery will likely delay it. I got my surgery done within 2 weeks of diagnosis because my surgeon had a cancellation because of someone getting a tetanus shot. In any case, be a germaphobe this year if you aren't already.

6. Learn what you can about genetic and genomic testing and what your insurance will cover or if you can afford to self pay for it. It's not an issue before surgery, but will be after, probably during chemo. I wasn't prepared for it, so didn't ask the right questions when they would have been helpful.

7. Decide how you are going to want to handle icing your hands and feet during chemo to prevent neruopathy. You want what you need on hand for that first infusion and there's a lot of ways you can do it that are discussed in threads on this forum. Developing neuropathy from chemo (it's a permanent side effect) is no joke, so you want to do anything you can to prevent it. You can use it to prevent hair loss, too, but you really need to focus on protecting your hands and feet the most for quality of life after treatment.

8. If you have the open surgery, arrange for someone to be with you most of the time while you are in the hospital. Staff are scarce and busy and it really helps to have someone there to help you with the little stuff and to get you up and walking to wake up your intestines after they've been paralysed for the surgery. Just as drinking tons during chemo is critical, walking a lot right after surgery will save you a lot of recovery time and pain and get you home quicker. It's not easy to do when your connected to an IV, have a foley catheter in, and are feeling tired from any pain meds, so having a visitor who helps this way is very important.

11. Give yourself permission to focus on you this year. Yes, others need you, but for you to be there for them, they are going to have to take care of you for a while. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but it's a long tunnel.

 

 

Thank you so much for all

Thank you so much for all this info. I'm at work right now, but I'll make notes from it later.

Someone will always be with me at any kind of surgery or treatment. My aunt and uncle were there every time I woke up and moved from room to room while they did the D&C. And to take me home.

I'm not afraid of open surgery. I just think that all these doctors do laparascopic or the Davinci surgery? (Have to check out that Davinci surgery a bit more, not sure if it even applies to me.

I'm not sure I understand "icing your hands and feet during chemo to prevent neuropathy"?

I'm a little bit upset this morning because yesterday my gynecologist made sure to get me with the CT scan office asap, and also called this amazing gyn/oncologist right away (she did it herself in front of me) and asked for the fastest appointment. This morning, their coordinator called and gave me an appoinment for Tuesday at 9am, but she said it was with another doctor. And when I asked, she said that the doctor I was hoping to get an appointment with is only available in three weeks, and that my gyn wanted me to get in as soon as possible.

I really liked the credentials on the one they recommended. But it looks like I cannot afford to wait.

I had the flu shot (don't know which one) at the office, then my primary physician gave me a tetanus shot and also a hepatitis B shot.

I'm even not sure what ilnesses I had as a child. I've been pretty healthy since I remember. I don't take vitamins or any medication and have never had surgery. Since I hardly get colds or headaches, I don't take anything for pain. All I know is NyQuil used to get me anxious and shaky when I had a cold, so I stopped taking anything. When I got colds I could shake them in a day or two. Last year I had the first flu shot, and then after that I got the flu! Crazy.

I don't touch anything on my way to the office in New York City at all and I'm constantly washing my hands, but lately, my office went into the "one huge room for everyone" kind of office and sometimes people are coughing near me.

I was asking about how long the recovery was because I wanted to know if I need to work from home or if I could come back to the office a day or two a week after the hysterectomy. I guess it all depends on which kind I get.

MAbound

Primavera said:

Yes, great advice.

Are you talking about the pathology report from the D&C where I had the type 3? I have to say that number scares me. I was so hoping for a 1 or a 2.

It said on the report that it had been reviewed by another doctor and that they agreed on the findings.

Grade 3

The grade gives a hint that the cancer has been there for awhile and that it'll be harder to treat than a lower grade. It' doesn't mean that you'll necessarily have an advanced stage, but treatment with at least chemo is probably going to be a given.

It puts you at higer risk for recurrence, so you want to throw the kitchen sink at it during frontline treatment. I had the "gold standard" of surgery, chemo with Taxol and Carboplatin for 6 infusions 3 weeks apart (timed to when cancer cells would be most active) and 30 rounds of 3D-CRT radiation therapy plus a vaginal boost, followed by nearly 2 years on Megace therapy because I was ER and PR positive. The taxol got changed to taxotere after the 1st infusion because of the neuropathy I developed right away. There are different issues that can come up with chemo, but the doctors and nurses have a lot of tricks in their bag for dealing with them as they come up. 

Bear in mind that different doctors have different opinions on how to proceed and your needs and experiences may be different than mine. The "gold standard" is not a guarantee. It's what seems to be effective for most, so that's currently the go-to frontline treatment. Some people are resistant to that regime and hence why a tumor assay might be helpful. It's awful when we hear that somebody went through frontline only to find out that it was pointless and they have to continue on with something else.

It's almost 3 years after I finished chemo and I'm almost starting to believe I might be cured. It's a tough journey to get here, but it's doable and possible to otherwise live you life in between it all. The biggest thing was the support I got here and never stopping to learn as I went along. 

 

Primavera

EZLiving66 said:

Hello Primavera! I also have

Hello Primavera! I also have a Grade 3 cancer and after reading the internet, waited to die. My hysterectomy was done four years ago this coming September and, I'm still here.

You are lucky going in that you know your grade. My biopsy came back as a Grade 1 so my oncologist/gynecologist did not sample any lymph nodes or do a pelvic wash. It was only afterward that in the final pathology report they discovered I had UPSC which is always a Grade 3 cancer.

My hysterectomy was the easiest part of this journey. I literally danced out of the hospital within 20 hours of my surgery. It was so much easier than my gallbladder surgery back in 1994. 

We are here for you! Keep us updated and ask anything you want.

Love, 

Eldri

Thank you

I've read your blog. Hoping that one day I can breathe easier about this.

MAbound

Primavera said:

Thank you so much for all

Thank you so much for all this info. I'm at work right now, but I'll make notes from it later.

Someone will always be with me at any kind of surgery or treatment. My aunt and uncle were there every time I woke up and moved from room to room while they did the D&C. And to take me home.

I'm not afraid of open surgery. I just think that all these doctors do laparascopic or the Davinci surgery? (Have to check out that Davinci surgery a bit more, not sure if it even applies to me.

I'm not sure I understand "icing your hands and feet during chemo to prevent neuropathy"?

I'm a little bit upset this morning because yesterday my gynecologist made sure to get me with the CT scan office asap, and also called this amazing gyn/oncologist right away (she did it herself in front of me) and asked for the fastest appointment. This morning, their coordinator called and gave me an appoinment for Tuesday at 9am, but she said it was with another doctor. And when I asked, she said that the doctor I was hoping to get an appointment with is only available in three weeks, and that my gyn wanted me to get in as soon as possible.

I really liked the credentials on the one they recommended. But it looks like I cannot afford to wait.

I had the flu shot (don't know which one) at the office, then my primary physician gave me a tetanus shot and also a hepatitis B shot.

I'm even not sure what ilnesses I had as a child. I've been pretty healthy since I remember. I don't take vitamins or any medication and have never had surgery. Since I hardly get colds or headaches, I don't take anything for pain. All I know is NyQuil used to get me anxious and shaky when I had a cold, so I stopped taking anything. When I got colds I could shake them in a day or two. Last year I had the first flu shot, and then after that I got the flu! Crazy.

I don't touch anything on my way to the office in New York City at all and I'm constantly washing my hands, but lately, my office went into the "one huge room for everyone" kind of office and sometimes people are coughing near me.

I was asking about how long the recovery was because I wanted to know if I need to work from home or if I could come back to the office a day or two a week after the hysterectomy. I guess it all depends on which kind I get.

Breath

I know all of this is coming at you fast and furious, but that is because we want you to know what we wish we had known when we started on this journey. It's a lot, but don't let it make you feel that you have to learn it all at once or send you into a panic because there might be delays along the way. 

There is time to get necessary pre-op testing and more appointments to ask questions. There is time to prepare for surgery and it's ok if it gets delayed because of any vacinnations you've already had. This cancer doesn't grow that fast that waiting a month or more is going to make that much of a difference.

Waiting is just the hardest part because you want it out of you, like yesterday. Take a breath and just use the time to prepare with the advice you get from your doctor and here. If the anxiety is too much for you, many of us have had to ask for help from anti-anxiety meds and you shouldn't hesitate to ask for that if you need it to cope.

Being in New York is both a blessing and a curse. You have many good options for treatment that others don't have easy access to, but the logistics of getting around and germs is a nightmare. My daughter was treated for a tongue lesion at MSK and had an ovary removed at Mt. Sinai, so I have experience with what your going to be dealing with. My sympathies.

If you are single and have to work through all of this, look into what your employer offers for disablity. You may or may not need to use it, but it helps to understand how that would work ahead of time. There are plenty of people, like Robin Roberts, who manage to keep working, but working from home in that area would make things a lot easier for you if you can do it.

Primavera

MAbound said:

Breath

I know all of this is coming at you fast and furious, but that is because we want you to know what we wish we had known when we started on this journey. It's a lot, but don't let it make you feel that you have to learn it all at once or send you into a panic because there might be delays along the way. 

There is time to get necessary pre-op testing and more appointments to ask questions. There is time to prepare for surgery and it's ok if it gets delayed because of any vacinnations you've already had. This cancer doesn't grow that fast that waiting a month or more is going to make that much of a difference.

Waiting is just the hardest part because you want it out of you, like yesterday. Take a breath and just use the time to prepare with the advice you get from your doctor and here. If the anxiety is too much for you, many of us have had to ask for help from anti-anxiety meds and you shouldn't hesitate to ask for that if you need it to cope.

Being in New York is both a blessing and a curse. You have many good options for treatment that others don't have easy access to, but the logistics of getting around and germs is a nightmare. My daughter was treated for a tongue lesion at MSK and had an ovary removed at Mt. Sinai, so I have experience with what your going to be dealing with. My sympathies.

If you are single and have to work through all of this, look into what your employer offers for disablity. You may or may not need to use it, but it helps to understand how that would work ahead of time. There are plenty of people, like Robin Roberts, who manage to keep working, but working from home in that area would make things a lot easier for you if you can do it.

I actually don't live in New

I actually don't live in New York. I live in New Jersey and my doctors are all there. I only come to NYC to work and only three times a week. I could make it two if I wanted to.

Unfortunately, I have my own small company with just me. So I would like to keep on working. But I wanted to still come to the city/office so that I can put files on servers and take more with me.

But I never had an operation. I don't know how it feels and although I tolerate pain pretty well, this will be new to me. The internet says recovery for a hysterectomy is about two months, but not sure what that means. I'm sure it's not two months in bed.

Ribbons

Primavera said:

I actually don't live in New

I actually don't live in New York. I live in New Jersey and my doctors are all there. I only come to NYC to work and only three times a week. I could make it two if I wanted to.

Unfortunately, I have my own small company with just me. So I would like to keep on working. But I wanted to still come to the city/office so that I can put files on servers and take more with me.

But I never had an operation. I don't know how it feels and although I tolerate pain pretty well, this will be new to me. The internet says recovery for a hysterectomy is about two months, but not sure what that means. I'm sure it's not two months in bed.

surgery

I have only had a couple of surgeries., Well, I did have 3 C-sections when I was young, but was not put under for those. So my first real surgery was a couple of years ago for my rotator cuff which I had injured. Then this past October when I had the full hysterectomy. I would say the rotator cuff surgery was easier but had a very long recovery period, for me the hysterectomy itself was more intense but had a much quicker recovery time. I ended up staying overnight in the hosp. but I could have gone home the same day. They do blow you up with gas if it is not an open surgery, and that takes a few days to go away, the main thing is they don't want you to lift anything for 6 to 8 weeks. I was very nervous going into surgery, but they take good care of you. One of the first things they give you is an anti-anxiety medication and after that you really don't care what happens! You wake up after the surgery and feel like it has been a very short time and feel surprised that it is all over. You feel kind of sleepy for a while. I felt like I would just accept what was happening and appreciate all the attenition. You have to have someone to take you home of course, and it is really helpful to have someone stay with you for a few days. Just relax and let people wait on you.

MAbound

Primavera said:

I actually don't live in New

I actually don't live in New York. I live in New Jersey and my doctors are all there. I only come to NYC to work and only three times a week. I could make it two if I wanted to.

Unfortunately, I have my own small company with just me. So I would like to keep on working. But I wanted to still come to the city/office so that I can put files on servers and take more with me.

But I never had an operation. I don't know how it feels and although I tolerate pain pretty well, this will be new to me. The internet says recovery for a hysterectomy is about two months, but not sure what that means. I'm sure it's not two months in bed.

It depends

Like Eldri said, recovery from robotic surgery is pretty easy, but even with not having a big external incision, the interior of your body is going to need 6-8 weeks to completely heal, so expect to have lifting restrictions. Don't push that because you will be at risk for pelvic organ prolapse if you overdo it. Your uterus helps with keeping things in their place and with it gone things can move to where they can cause you unpleasant problems.

The open surgery recovery is a bit rougher. I went home with a foley catheter and drainage tube coming out of my stomach for four weeks. You won't be going into the city with those at all, believe me. 

I started in on chemo the same day I had my post-op appointment at four weeks. The nurses said these surgeons would start chemo right after surgery if they could get away with it. 

I was sent directly to the chemo room right after removal of the staples, catheter, and drainage tube which was about 2 feet long inside of me and felt really weird coming out. I had staples from pubis to navel, but no pain with removal. Getting the catheter out was such a relief, but incontinence can happen, especially if you get up too late that first night it's out. I wish I had known to have had an incontinence pad on that night while sleeping because I slipped and fell in my hurry while half asleep to get to the toilet in time. They are handy to have if the chemo irritates your bladder too much, too, but that's were drinking tons of water to flush out the chemo really helps.

I know it sounds awful, but really, the worst thing was when I got Ileus. Being prepared and motivated should help you to avoid that and you'l be fine. You sound young and that puts you in a lot better position for a quicker recovery than those of us past menopause.

My daughter paniced in the OR because it was her first surgery and they were removing part of her tongue as well as dissecting her neck for sentinal lymph nodes. Jumped right off the table. Be sure to alert your surgeon and especially the anesthesiologist that this is your first experience with surgery so that they can sedate you during pre-op if you need it. The unknown is always so much scarier than the reality, especially when you'll be in a holding area that your family can't follow you to for awhile. She was so much more relaxed when she had her ovary removed because she had a better idea of what  the whole thing was going to be like. You don't need to fear it, but sometimes you can't help it.

I'm hoping others chime in with their advice because the whole thing is not always the same for everyone and I feel like I'm monopolizing with giving you advice based on just my experience. You have the same type and grade of cancer as me, so I'm hoping my perspective and outcome so far will be helpful for getting you through this, but I'm no more expert at this than anyone else is and don't want to give you the false impression that everything will be exactly the same for you as it has been for me.