Hi =)

[ShaunaMorris]

Hi everyone,

I have been looking for an online community of younger women who have had hysterectomies for quite awhile now and just happened to stumble across your group here on Cafe Moms.

I'll start out with a little bit about myself and my story..

I'm 31, I live in NE Ohio with my husband and our three-year-old son, Kiefer. I'm a work at home Mom and I love to cook! I also love to read, right now I'm working my way through the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I also love to design websites, I have quite a few now. SAince my surgery this past September I decided to start my own business from home. It's really rewarding and allows me to do everything I love all at once. I won't get into all the details though!

So, I had my hysterectomy Sept. 15th 2009 at age 30. I had female troubles for as long as I can remember. It started with painful heavy periods with clotting for years. Then came the fibroids, then an ectopic pregnancy in 2005 which required emergency surgery. I lost my left ovary and fallopian tube during that surgery. The Doctor told me I still had a fair chance of having a successful pregnancy in the future.

A year later I had a miscarriage, and then the next year I got pregnant with our son. I had a lot of bleeding at first and we didn't think the baby would make it, but with a lot of bed rest and taking good care of myself our dream was finally realized. I thank God everyday that I was able to have a child, I know there is plenty of women out there who would make wonderful Mothers and cannot have any. So, when I start feeling sorry for myself, I just remember that.

About 6 months after I had Kiefer I started feeling very weird. Always tired, mood swings, depression, abdominal pains..and so on. I went to the Doctor and he wanted to prescribe me medication for depression, I tossed it in the trash can and went to another doctor..No luck there either, he did a test for thyroid and that came back fine. So, I went on thinking I was either dieing or crazy for quite some time, Until the Spring of 2009. One day I was playing airplane with my son on our bed and I got this pain that was unbearable. My husband took me to the Emergency Room and after a CT Scan and ultra sound we found out a had a partially solid ovarian cyst that was 13 cm X 10cm in size, slightly larger than a big grapefruit.

They gave me pain meds, sent me home with follow up instructions to see my gyn. So, my doctor put my on birth control pills to try to shrink it and did special bloodwork for ovarian cancer. The bloodwork came back only slightly elevated, and we continued on the path to try and shrink it. Instead of shrinking it grew even more, and I spent the entire Summer last year completely miserable. Finally in August it was decided that the cyst had to come out. When I went in for the surgery it as with the understanding that my doctor would try to remove only the cyst through laparascopy, but if needed she would remove the ovary and do biopsies on the cyst and if cancerous take samples from the surrounding organs. So, I woke up a few hours later to find out I had a vaginally assisted laparascopy hysterectomy. With no ovaries left, I was started on HRT a few days later.

The cyst was not cancerous thankfully, but my Doctor was concerned it may turn cancerous since it was partially solid and so did what she thought was best for me. Im simply glad to be alive to raise the son I already have.

Last Summer, I realized that I may die, and it scared me so badly. It made me realize how precious life is, and that we must make each moment count. So, that is what I have been doing since. I didn't have much of a hard time after surgery with recovery. I'm on the climara .1mg patch, and it helps. It's not perfect, I do get hot flashes and heart palpatations sometimes, but even with that I still feel a lot better than I did before the surgery. I eat quite well, have lost some weight, and try to exercise as well.

So, that's my story! I'm off to read everyone elses, feel free to contact me anytime.

Shauna Morris

[TiaraMom19]

 Hi,welcome....and what a strong young woman you are!Im 43 and had my hysterectomy at 41.I still consider myself kind of young so I understand how you feel.

Yet like you mentioned I feel blessed to have had 2 wonderful children.Anyhow I am sorry you are going through so much health wise.Its so good that you are keeping up on your health.You have a husband and son who need you in tip top shape.

You sound like a high achiever....you go girl!Just remember to slow down sometimes and enjoy TLC too!

Blessings,Tia

[Mommy-Nette19]

Hi and welcome. I too have been looking for online groups for young women who have had hysterectomies. Your story is like many of the women that I have seen on here. I am sorry that you have to go through this. It is a blessing that you have two, and I'm sure beautiful, children that you are proud to have. I'm a 22 yr old mother of 3 awesome kids.2 boys and 1 girl. I had my emergency hysterectomy on october 2, 2009 when I was 21, about an hr after I gave birth to my last son. I went through a major bout of depression and I am still dealing with it today. I still have my ovaries and tubes so that I don't have to go through early menopause. I am thankful for that. but it is still hard because I wasn't ready to give up my ability to have more children. I feel that we all share a bond that others probably don't understand. As I said earlier, welcome and I hope tand look forward to all of us getting through this together!!