Newly diagnosed, question regarding scans prior to surgery

Momschooling

Update at 14 weeks: I went to get checked out just to make sure everything was healing normally since I am still dealing with some discomfort, mostly vaginal cuff area. Thank God everything has healed normally but I was advised to get pelvic floor treatment. I had an enlarged uterus for years due to large fibroids and it likely caused some problems for my pelvic floor muscles. I am doing things normally, but still feel the need to rest more because of the pelvic discomfort, hopefully therapy will help. I have my ovaries, so I am not dealing with menopause yet which I am grateful for, but that will probably be arriving in the very near future... I go back for another check in 6 months.

NoTimeForCancer

Thanks for popping back and let us know how it is going. Remember, you had MAJOR surgery and it takes longer to recover than you think. Continue to be kind to yourself as you move forward.

cmb

Other women here have had pelvic floor therapy and found it useful. Hopefully it will work for you as well. But NoTime is right -- recovery from surgery can take time.

thatblondegirl

Momschooling,

Thx for letting us know how you’re doing. I’m glad that you’re doing well other than the discomfort.

😎, A

Momschooling

Thanks you all, yes I keep reading healing takes time and I am really trying to be patient and focus on week by week recovery and not compare 😀

Momschooling

I wanted to give yet another update because the one at 14 weeks turned out not to be accurate. Hope this can help someone and please just trust and listen to your body. So, after the 14 week appointment I increased my activity, thinking I am fine and need to push a bit more even though I felt the same, then about 9 days later I started bleeding/spotting suddenly. I was 2 hours from leaving to the airport to return home and I of course freaked out, it had been 12 weeks since I had seen any kind of spotting and this was much more. Dana Farber got me in immediately and this time I was looked at much deeper than before to find the source of the bleeding. My cuff is apparently very high up and not easy to view, but this time a large spec was used and she could see well. I still have some stitches and cuff is not totally healed, plus I had some granulation. I was given silver nitrate (that was horrible) and told to rest for 1 week. I postponed my flight and lounged around for a week and was in a lot of discomfort. The next week she said the nitrate had worked however now my cuff was inflamed and she cleaned out everything (this felt like when I had the endometrial biopsy, extreme pain) but things improved a few hrs after that. I did make it back home and can be as normal as I feel (no sex though). She said it could be 6 months before full healing at the cuff, all the other locations looked great, never had trouble, not even with the c section type incision but the cuff is just taking its time. I am hoping I won't have to return again until my 6 month visit in July. She did say she occasionally sees this and most often with those not having radiation or chemo, she doesn't know why. Also, I need to increase protein and not worry about trying to lose weight right now when I am in the process of healing. I had been trying to maintain the weight loss I had, which means calories have to be reduced because I can't do as much physically, but this is not helpful to healing properly it seems.

cmb

I'm sorry to read about the difficulty you've had with the cuff healing. So frustrating when the other areas are all doing well. Since I couldn't even tolerate a biopsy to begin with, I can't imagine how painful cleaning out the inflamed tissue was. But I hope that the cuff can finally heal now.

While I try to eat a balanced diet, I have noticed over the years that having a larger portion of protein such as fish, eggs or chicken occasionally does not seem to affect my weight, although indulging in other foods can cause me to gain, if I'm not careful. Protein is also more filling for me, making it easier to bypass other tempting options. So you may not find that you regain as much weight as you fear when eating more protein.

Interesting comment about the relationship between the cuff healing and radiation/chemo. I don't believe I've heard that before.