Learned something new

Body: 

My mother is faced with an internal endometriosis diagnosis, and possible cervical cancer. She was telling me about it, and my grandmother came up.
Her doctor discovered she had cervical cancer after the birth of her 7th child, so they did a hysterectomy. At the time, this was common.
So, my mom mentioned the time my grandmother got a staph infection, and I remember this because I was around 10 and she almost died from it.
She told me it was from her prolapse surgery...and I was in shock!
First, I had no clue she had a prolapse ever, and had no clue what the surgery that caused the staph infection was about.

No wonder when I told her about my prolapses (i'm very open about them) she knew about the surgery, I thought that was odd that she knew but just figured she thought surgery could fix it.
Poor thing. All I could think of was that I wish I knew then what I know now, and could have supported her in not getting the surgery.
Okay, I knew you ladies would know what I was talking about, and just felt like sharing.

Hi Ihearted

Yes, it is frustrating when you find out that somebody has had an op for prolapse, when they could have possibly managed it themselves. Hey, you were only a kid when your grandmother had her prolapse surgery! That was years before Wholewoman was even started. Just keep telling women that Wholewoman exists, whether they have prolapses or not. One day one of them will probably mention to you that they decided not to have surgery, or they may not even tell you. It's just important that you, and all of us, get the word out.

Re your Mum, invasive endometriosis is not something to be sneezed at, for the pain it causes. Just make sure that your Mum explores all less invasive options for treatment, as there are different symptoms and different difficulties, and different treatments. I have a friend who has just had this surgery in December. It ended up being very complicated, but she is OK now, and looking and feeling much better, though she has another op coming up to close up her bowel so she no longer has an ostomy bag. It is one of those conditions that will end at menopause, but there is so much suffering between now and then.

I don't know much about the cancer side of it, only that I know some women who have had hysterectomy for pre-cancerous conditions and ended up with a lot of suffering as a result of the hysterectomy surgery. The reading I have done suggests that doctors are moving towards only doing hysterectomy for actual malignancy, and just doing continual monitoring in case cancer does develop later. Hysterectomy doesn't get much good press these days but for some reason women still have them.

Sometimes I think that doctors treat women's bodies like buildings. If there is a part of the house that has several things that are damaged, or things that might fall apart in a few years, it is cheaper and more effective just to knock it down and rebuild a new room. If only it was that simple. We throw out more than building rubble when the uterus is removed!

Good luck with your Mum.

Cheers

Louise