Speaker 1: You're flat out and your to do list is growing
Speaker 1: by the minute, but unfortunately so is your headache. And
Speaker 1: now you've gone from flat out to flattened. Luckily, panodal
Speaker 1: extra film coated tablets are boosted by caffeine and they
Speaker 1: get to work in as little as ten minutes for
Speaker 1: powerful relief. That's more than just paracetamol. That's one for
Speaker 1: panadal speed based on absorption data contains paracetamol. Always read
Speaker 1: the label or leaflet.
Speaker 2: Oh hey, it's your podfather, Ali Ward. Please do join
Speaker 2: me for a special episode of the podcast program Ologies.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: Usually we look at a specific field per week. Right
Speaker 2: this time, we're doing a deep dive into a mystery
Speaker 2: and a secret that I've kept for a few months
Speaker 2: because I was scared to tell anyone and I didn't
Speaker 2: know what was going to happen. And since I like
Speaker 2: you all to learn from my errors and sometimes my colonoscopies,
Speaker 2: I thought I would answer all the questions that you
Speaker 2: know I ever asked in hopes of maybe a healthier
Speaker 2: and happier life for you and maybe some trauma dumping
Speaker 2: catharsis for me. Let's see. But first, just a quick
Speaker 2: thanks to everyone at Patreon dot com slash Ologies for
Speaker 2: making the show possible. You can join if you'd like
Speaker 2: for a dollar a month. You can submit questions to
Speaker 2: the ologists ahead of time. Thanks also to everyone wearing
Speaker 2: Ologies merch on their bods. You can get that at
Speaker 2: ologiesmarch dot com. And do we sell bathing suits so
Speaker 2: other sunbathing hotties can identify each other? We do, so
Speaker 2: put us on your butts. Also, thank you to everyone
Speaker 2: who sent me well wishes as I have been recovering
Speaker 2: from this mystery surgery, and also for leaving me reviews
Speaker 2: for me to read from my couch, such as this
Speaker 2: recent one from Sea Love, who wrote one show and
Speaker 2: I was hooked. I love how you share your life
Speaker 2: with us, love your guests and all the topics. Please
Speaker 2: stay well and keep potting. Love you dad word, which,
Speaker 2: if I may say, it's an apt one this week
Speaker 2: because I'm about to share perhaps too much of me
Speaker 2: in an effort to stay well. So thank you, Sea Love,
Speaker 2: and also anyone who's ever left review. I've read every
Speaker 2: single one of them, that is the truth, and often
Speaker 2: they make me cry. Speaking of crying, let's reveal what
Speaker 2: in the effing heck is going on with me. Did
Speaker 2: I have a planned abdominal surgery? Is that where I've been?
Speaker 2: Did I have a facelift? Did I get a toe
Speaker 2: removed for cosmetic reasons? Was it fun? How much did
Speaker 2: it hurt? And come along with me as I find
Speaker 2: out what this means for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2: But it's casual. We keep it casual. It's heartfelt, but
Speaker 2: it's important to me and I hope maybe to someone
Speaker 2: in your life. Okay, let's do it. Okay, It's January
Speaker 2: twenty fifth, twenty twenty four, and this is just day
Speaker 2: one of this. I got off the phone with doctor
Speaker 2: earlier this morning, actually earlier this morning. First thing this morning,
Speaker 2: I had a call with a lawyer about estate planning
Speaker 2: and what happens if I becoming capacitated and need a
Speaker 2: power of attorney and living will and an advanced directors
Speaker 2: of all these things. I had this big phone call
Speaker 2: this morning to get all that shit in order. So
Speaker 2: this was a long standing item of my to do list.
Speaker 2: It's taken me years to figure out how to do it.
Speaker 2: But if you're listening to this and you're alive, make
Speaker 2: some preparations in case you die, which you will probably
Speaker 2: not today. But the fun of life is you never know.
Speaker 2: What is not fun though, is paperwork. I know, trust me,
Speaker 2: So do it for the other people you love. Let
Speaker 2: your loved ones know if they should throw you into
Speaker 2: the sea or if they should have a bounce house
Speaker 2: at your wake. And also get a will. If you
Speaker 2: own a home, congrats and get that shit in a
Speaker 2: trust or make arrangements for who gets it if you
Speaker 2: get attacked by a zoo animal or something. So if
Speaker 2: you don't do this whilst alive, it can go into
Speaker 2: like probate and your relatives need to come up with
Speaker 2: lawyers fees just to have the chance to sell off
Speaker 2: your stuff. So let this be your message from me
Speaker 2: and from life that use like legal zoomer, set asided data,
Speaker 2: Google it. I finally did it. I had this big
Speaker 2: phone call on my calendar for weeks and by chance,
Speaker 2: the hospital reached out the very same day, and then
Speaker 2: an hour later I talked to my doctor on the
Speaker 2: phone and learn that there's a ten percent chance I
Speaker 2: have uterine cancer right now there's a ninety percent chance
Speaker 2: that I don't. But the next step we decided is
Speaker 2: to get a hysterect to me, which i'll get late
Speaker 2: next month. If you've ever voted or will vote, it
Speaker 2: affects reproductive rights, particularly for people who were born with
Speaker 2: a uterus. And if you are one of those people
Speaker 2: who have elite, complicated organs that evolved to grow human life,
Speaker 2: congrats and can get real messy up there. It's kind
Speaker 2: of like owning a vintage car or a large fish tank.
Speaker 2: It's cool, it's not always easy. So if you're human
Speaker 2: on a planet Earth, you benefited from these organs because
Speaker 2: you grew inside of them, and you should know how
Speaker 2: they work and what can go wrong. So by listening,
Speaker 2: you're going to relate to the biological sex that has
Speaker 2: to deal with this, and you'll be a responsible human. Also,
Speaker 2: Am I going to die of cancer soon? Let's find out.
Speaker 2: I had asked if I could get a hysterectomy like
Speaker 2: two years ago, and they were like, you can't just
Speaker 2: get a hysterectomy because you're afraid of cancer. I was like,
Speaker 2: but aren't my risks high? I should have had them
Speaker 2: note in my chart that they said no. But either way,
Speaker 2: I'm scared. I'm worried that I got me. I'm worried
Speaker 2: that my life's been too good for too long, and
Speaker 2: this is another shoe dropping. Although it hasn't been that great.
Speaker 2: I mean, I was hospitalized this summer. It's been a
Speaker 2: long roadbag. I had pneumonia, I've been sick a lot,
Speaker 2: my dad died. Things haven't been very super easy. I
Speaker 2: have had a rough go of it. But I'm always
Speaker 2: afraid that if things are going too well, then something
Speaker 2: bad is going to happen. Oh hello, anxiety, how are
Speaker 2: you unfounded? Amazing, great to see you again. So I've
Speaker 2: learned recently that thinking that when things are good, they're
Speaker 2: about to get real shitty soon is not a lot
Speaker 2: of universal karma. It's an anxiety disorder maybe PTSD. So
Speaker 2: thanks therapy for all. Things you can do about this
Speaker 2: include meditating, deep breathing actually physiologically helps. You can talk
Speaker 2: to a friend or a counselor or journal to see
Speaker 2: patterns of the good and the bad in your life.
Speaker 2: And one thing that I've started doing every day from
Speaker 2: the last like six months is to journal in the
Speaker 2: morning to write down what I'm looking forward to and
Speaker 2: what I'm worried about or what I'm avoiding, and then
Speaker 2: I check back at the end of the day to
Speaker 2: see how it turned out, and over even a week,
Speaker 2: you'll start to see patterns where things didn't go as
Speaker 2: badly as you thought. And if you keep doing this,
Speaker 2: maybe for life you can develop more just trust and
Speaker 2: confidence in your ability to handle some tough situations, and
Speaker 2: that if you already have anxiety, that horrible things tend
Speaker 2: to occur less often than you anticipate. But this was
Speaker 2: cause for real concern, for sure, So I decided to
Speaker 2: make some audio recordings on my phone as I went,
Speaker 2: perhaps it'll help someone you love, maybe that person is you,
Speaker 2: But let's die back in. I'm just making this note
Speaker 2: on the off chance that I decided to document this
Speaker 2: and just kind of see the arc. Normally, these things
Speaker 2: are scarier when you first hear them, and then you go, oh,
Speaker 2: why did I waste all that energy and freaking out again.
Speaker 2: They're probably not going to find anything cancerous in my cells,
Speaker 2: and I'll just be glad that I got it over
Speaker 2: with and I got it out, and it's probably going
Speaker 2: to hurt. I probably won't be able to bone for
Speaker 2: a while from what I understand, and yeah, at least
Speaker 2: I'm documenting this and such. Okay. January twenty twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: All right, So about a week later, they said, please
Speaker 2: bring your vagina and your uterus into your doctor's office.
Speaker 2: So I did, and I brought the rest of my
Speaker 2: body along and you and.
Speaker 4: Debating whether or I should record it. Maybe I should,
Speaker 4: maybe I shouldn't. Do I mean that I can write
Speaker 4: off this whole surgery.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 4: I'm not nervous. I feel like they're going to tell
Speaker 4: me that the surgery is going to be like mid March,
Speaker 4: and they're not going to know anything until I take
Speaker 4: it out. So do I get a second opinion, like
Speaker 4: if something we're wrong with my car?
Speaker 3: I have no idea. All right, here we go.
Speaker 2: So I go in and I meet my surgeon, doctor
Speaker 2: Kamisia Thomas at usc KEC. How was nervous and I
Speaker 2: liked her immediately. So I showed her my crotch and
Speaker 2: it was like a first date, except with insurance. It
Speaker 2: costs less and it was not romantic. But I recorded
Speaker 2: notes as I walked back to the car.
Speaker 4: All right, So I just got back and essentially what
Speaker 4: my doctor's amazing and I love her and she's told
Speaker 4: me that then go to it.
Speaker 3: They can take it out of your stomach.
Speaker 2: Your abdominal cavity, not your actual stomach. So please do
Speaker 2: not email me I love you.
Speaker 3: Or they can just.
Speaker 4: Yank it out of your puss and so show me
Speaker 4: up on those stirrups felt around.
Speaker 3: We had a small uterus.
Speaker 2: I thank you, And she said she could get it
Speaker 2: out that way, which is.
Speaker 3: Awesome, and so that means I'm a great candidate.
Speaker 2: So I learned through going through all this that hysterectomies
Speaker 2: are one of the most common guy know surgeries after
Speaker 2: a cesarean section or a dilation and courathage, which is
Speaker 2: a thing that is done to open up your cervix
Speaker 2: and then clear out tissue after a miscarriage, or to
Speaker 2: do diagnostics. So when you hear of a DNC in
Speaker 2: reproductive legislature, just know that some states and some mail
Speaker 2: lawmakers in the US want to tell no, you can't
Speaker 2: have a vital procedure to deal with uterine tissue. But
Speaker 2: hysterectomies are common, and my surgeon even does them as
Speaker 2: gender affirming care for transmen and non binary folks. And
Speaker 2: they can take your uterus and your cervix and your
Speaker 2: fallopium tubes. They can leave the ovaries for hormones or
Speaker 2: they can take them. Now, this operation can happen three
Speaker 2: different ways. One they may cut into your abdominal cavity
Speaker 2: to just remove it. Or two they can puncture a
Speaker 2: few holes through your six pack to laparoscopically cut some chords,
Speaker 2: and then they remove the organs through your existing VA gene.
Speaker 2: And that second option is easier because you might as
Speaker 2: well use the loading dock that you've got rather than
Speaker 2: just kool aid man through your aps. So those two methods, though,
Speaker 2: they still have pretty long ass recovery time, maybe months. However,
Speaker 2: there's this new technique called VNOTES, which is a plucky
Speaker 2: little acronym for vaginal natural orbit transluminal endyscopic surgery, thanks
Speaker 2: so much, And this lets you totally avoid the abdominal
Speaker 2: incisions altogether. Nothing goes through your abdomen. You just head
Speaker 2: up in there, you cut some stuff, and you be
Speaker 2: beet that mess out of your unused baby shoot. So
Speaker 2: that is the easiest way to do it. And I
Speaker 2: made the mistake of googling this new VNOTES surgery, which
Speaker 2: led me to a YouTube animation with these clean CGI
Speaker 2: graphics and this patient represented kind of by a translucent
Speaker 2: apparition stal cap is secured to the Alexis retractor by
Speaker 2: closing the lever, and the insufflation tubing is connected to
Speaker 2: the insuflation port on the gel sial cap. I'm sorry
Speaker 2: what And I learned that the patient me would be
Speaker 2: in the supine lithotomy position, and then I googled that
Speaker 2: and it means I'd have my legs in the air
Speaker 2: embraces and my ass at the end of the table
Speaker 2: just as look at my crotch as you could possibly
Speaker 2: possibly be for a few hours, which is fine, and
Speaker 2: then they shuttle your guts out of that most sacred
Speaker 2: sexual area. So v not notes, it's all through the shoot.
Speaker 2: You got. That's what we're going for.
Speaker 4: She said that healing is a lot better that way.
Speaker 4: It's easier, it's faster, it's less people on that stuff,
Speaker 4: which is school.
Speaker 3: She's going to schedule me on a Friday morning so
Speaker 3: that I have the whole weekend in.
Speaker 4: That day to recover. I asked what kind of possibilities
Speaker 4: are there for cancer sitting at like ten to fifteen percent?
Speaker 4: Probably that I asked, like, will they take anything else
Speaker 4: while they're in there, like lymph nodes or anything?
Speaker 3: And she said, they can do a visual inspection of it.
Speaker 4: If they see something that looks like it is cancer,
Speaker 4: they could just grab lymph nodes right then and there,
Speaker 4: but typically they wait for pathology and they see if
Speaker 4: it is cancer, they see if it's stage three or beyond,
Speaker 4: then they'll go back in for the lymph nodes.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to get some basics down. So uterus
Speaker 2: it's about a fist sized hollow place where baby grows
Speaker 2: for the stork plucks it out with its beak and
Speaker 2: then puts it on your doorstep. And lining the uterus
Speaker 2: is this thing called an endometrium, which is tissue that
Speaker 2: grows thicker during a person's monthly cycle, and then if
Speaker 2: they don't use all that blood to make another person,
Speaker 2: then it gets sloughed off and it gets ejected out
Speaker 2: the badge as a period. Now on the topic of
Speaker 2: an endometrium, so when someone has endometriosis, it means that
Speaker 2: endometrial like tissue grows in places it is not invited,
Speaker 2: in places outside the uterus, like on the fallopian tubes
Speaker 2: that lead to the ovaries, and sometimes in places that
Speaker 2: are not even your reproductive organs, such as one's bladder
Speaker 2: or large intestines like your colon's, Like, how did I
Speaker 2: even get involved in this? No, get out of you,
Speaker 2: leave me alone. There's also thoracic endometriosis, which is when
Speaker 2: uterus like stuff crops up on or around the lungs
Speaker 2: or on that wall of muscle in your abdomen. The
Speaker 2: diaphragm sending shooting nerve pain that radiates through your shoulder
Speaker 2: and your back. So this can cause excruciating misery and
Speaker 2: a massive drop in quality of life. Is there a
Speaker 2: cure for endometriosis? Some folks offer for a total hysterectomy
Speaker 2: and or surgeries to root around like a truffle pig
Speaker 2: and excize it in other parts of the body if
Speaker 2: they can even locate it. There's pain management, but no
Speaker 2: cure really, so why not now? In the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: textbook The Paragraph Handbook of Critical Menstrual Studies is a
Speaker 2: chapter titled the womb Wanders not Enhancing Endometriosis Education in
Speaker 2: a Culture of Menstrual Misinformation and its author, Heather Guidone,
Speaker 2: is a program director for the Center for Endometriosis Care
Speaker 2: and writes that quote embedded in the centuries old assertion
Speaker 2: that the womb was a nomadic entity wandering about the body,
Speaker 2: causing hysteria and distress. Persistent menstrual and misconceptions remained prevalent
Speaker 2: where pain disorders like endometriosis are concerned, and she continues
Speaker 2: derived from the misogynist antidiluvian belief that painful menstruation was
Speaker 2: ordained by nature as a punishment for failing to conceive.
Speaker 2: Pregnancy has long been suggested as a treatment or even
Speaker 2: cure for endometriosis. So heck, you want to avoid painful periods,
Speaker 2: just stop having them by growing and then ejecting a baby.
Speaker 2: That's convenient. It doesn't hurt at all. Now, I have
Speaker 2: friends who have endometriosis, and one of them frequently has
Speaker 2: to pull over to the side of the road just
Speaker 2: to writhe in pain and then just get back into traffic.
Speaker 2: She's had laparoscopic surgery to find it, and it's still
Speaker 2: a mystery. Where it is. One hundred and seventy six
Speaker 2: million people around the world have endometriosis. No one knows
Speaker 2: what causes it. But that was a whole sidetrack because
Speaker 2: I don't even have endometriosis, So what's going on?
Speaker 3: Then?
Speaker 2: Here's what going on with me. So I happen to
Speaker 2: be in the elite, elite one percent of folks whose
Speaker 2: ovaries just dip out early the Irish goodbye. So you're
Speaker 2: born with all the eggs you'll ever have in your life,
Speaker 2: which means that the egg that turned into you grew
Speaker 2: inside of your mom, in your grandma. I don't know
Speaker 2: about you, but my grandma was a bitch, So that's
Speaker 2: weird that we were just such juicy turduck in roommates,
Speaker 2: the three of us for a bit, but that's again,
Speaker 2: that's not the point. Also, once I had a dream
Speaker 2: that my grandma came to me and said, sorry, I
Speaker 2: was kind of evil and abusive. It's just that I
Speaker 2: didn't even really want kids. I wanted to be an artist,
Speaker 2: but it was in nineteen forties and of Catholics, so
Speaker 2: I had six kids and hated everyone. And when I
Speaker 2: say that this conversation came to me in a dream,
Speaker 2: I mean during a pharmaceutical grade mushroom trip that I
Speaker 2: took at the suggestion of my fairy, buttoned up Western
Speaker 2: medicine psychiatrist. And I tell you an experience I'll never forget.
Speaker 2: What a party it was in my brain anyway, because
Speaker 2: my particular ovaries retired early and put up a gonefish
Speaker 2: and sign before I turned thirty five, and this was
Speaker 2: medically not according to plan. It took three years of
Speaker 2: going to doctors to figure out what was up. I
Speaker 2: had three male doctors tell me maybe it was just stress,
Speaker 2: and two two looked me in the face and asked
Speaker 2: me if I could just quit my job and find
Speaker 2: someone to marry, which stressed me out even more. But
Speaker 2: I essentially I went through menopause like fifteen years too early,
Speaker 2: and I had to figure out how to navigate relationships
Speaker 2: and how to process that. Kids weren't really in the
Speaker 2: cards for me personally, even though someone with primary ovarian
Speaker 2: failure can foster or adopt or even have a kid
Speaker 2: with a donor egg, or sometimes your ovary might just
Speaker 2: grown one to life or pop out an egg unannounced,
Speaker 2: which is rude. But for myself, I just kind of
Speaker 2: knew it wasn't my destiny, which is a little bit
Speaker 2: of a part of why I'm your Internet father or
Speaker 2: your dad work. I just just kind of didn't identify
Speaker 2: it with motherhood. But like endometriosis, primary ovarian insufficiency or
Speaker 2: premature ovarian failure. What I've got is what's called idiopathic,
Speaker 2: and that comes from the Greek. All of this for
Speaker 2: idios just meaning an ignorant person, and idiopathic medically just
Speaker 2: means no one knows why it happens, which means no
Speaker 2: one studied it enough. I guess now, if you have
Speaker 2: nards and you're still listening, you're one of the good ones,
Speaker 2: or you might be saying, what does this even have
Speaker 2: to do with me? Okay, So, if your hormone makers
Speaker 2: them nuts suddenly and just without warning, shut down the factory,
Speaker 2: imagine not having that cocktail of chemical messengers that you
Speaker 2: rely on.
Speaker 5: No, I would suck women, I would suck.
Speaker 2: So without enough estrogen, you may have hot flashes and
Speaker 2: feel like random, searingly hot fevers. Your brain can't always
Speaker 2: remember things because estrogen is helpful in making dopamine, as
Speaker 2: discussed in our two part ADHD episode, So you may
Speaker 2: start having massive executive functioning issues as many people going
Speaker 2: through natural menopauseits experience and progesterone, which you also don't make.
Speaker 2: If your ovary's peace out can have a really calming effect.
Speaker 2: So if your ovaries tank, you may find that irritability
Speaker 2: is just causing you to do things like research huts
Speaker 2: on remote islands far away from anyone who choose too loud.
Speaker 2: And I shall also say that, unfortunately, there's this company
Speaker 2: called Rosebud Woman, and they make Obgin approved plant based
Speaker 2: vulver and vaginal moisturizers for people going through paramenopause and
Speaker 2: menopause and pre and post natal business and really anyone
Speaker 2: in need of skincare for down there. And the founder
Speaker 2: of this company was going through menopause and found that
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff made for discomfort was really just
Speaker 2: lube geared for sex, or it was really medicalized. So
Speaker 2: she made this company which has gone on to do
Speaker 2: like Gangbusters and has been written up by Oprah and
Speaker 2: Wired and Allure and Vogue and Vanity Fair and I
Speaker 2: use it all the time. I have some Another fun
Speaker 2: fact about Rosebud Woman is that the founder is my
Speaker 2: husband's mom, Christine Mason, and it's a family run business.
Speaker 2: I definitely had an inside track, and I'm very glad
Speaker 2: Rosebud invented this stuff for people like us, So just
Speaker 2: a genuine plug for them. You can use it on
Speaker 2: all kinds of all of us. Even if you're not
Speaker 2: a woman anyway, If you have a vary in failure
Speaker 2: early and your doctor cares, they will put you on
Speaker 2: estrogen replacement therapy, which is great. They might even check
Speaker 2: your testosterone levels and give you a supplement for that,
Speaker 2: which is awesome. So stick with me here because here's
Speaker 2: where all my problems started. So if you're on estrogen,
Speaker 2: you need to take progesterone at the same time to
Speaker 2: prevent your endometrial lining from building up since you're not
Speaker 2: doing any perioding. Here's the hitch. So they'll usually give
Speaker 2: you a synthetic progesterone called a progestine For some folks,
Speaker 2: no problem o, two thumbs up. For others, this makes
Speaker 2: things worse and it really fucks with your head like
Speaker 2: hormonally think like crying jags, irritability, like terrible pms all
Speaker 2: the time. I was one of those people. So I
Speaker 2: was just trying to go about my life while also
Speaker 2: feeling like absolute hot constantly. So if your doctor is good,
Speaker 2: they will care, and they might try you on progesterone
Speaker 2: not progestine, and some people tolerate it better. It'll make
Speaker 2: you feel right again. But if you're in a pandemic
Speaker 2: and can't get to see your doctor because there are
Speaker 2: morgues on wheels in our major cities. You might stop
Speaker 2: taking your synthetic progesterone before learning of other options. If
Speaker 2: you do this for a few years, you won't feel great,
Speaker 2: and that unopposed estrogen can lead to cancer. How can
Speaker 2: you tell, Well, you suddenly start bleeding and you think,
Speaker 2: oh boy, howdy, maybe my ovaries work again, But also
Speaker 2: you google to learn that this is a symptom in
Speaker 2: ninety percent of uterine cancer patients. And then when you
Speaker 2: tell doctors what's happening and that you stopped taking your
Speaker 2: progesterone a year or so ago, they might stifle a
Speaker 2: horrified gasp, and then, without any anesthesia, shove a tool
Speaker 2: into your uterus and try to scrape out flesh with
Speaker 2: some sort of hospital melon baller to look at it
Speaker 2: under a microscope. So this endrometrio biopsy hurts a lot
Speaker 2: most pain you've ever felt. Maybe you've been hit by
Speaker 2: a car before and got your hand chewed up by
Speaker 2: an escalator like me, This hurts more just on a
Speaker 2: random Tuesday afternoon, and it's not really something you can
Speaker 2: tell people back at the office. Like if you had
Speaker 2: been hit by a car, nobody buys you a beer. Now,
Speaker 2: if their tests are inconclusive, because that pumpkin Scooper didn't
Speaker 2: go deep enough, they got to figure something else out.
Speaker 2: They might do a pelvic ultrasound. In my case, they
Speaker 2: did and they found it all normal. I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: but I was still feeling awful and was having fevers
Speaker 2: a lot and losing blood. So I found a new
Speaker 2: doctor and it turns out that my ultrasound was not
Speaker 2: at all normal. If I had been in my teens
Speaker 2: and would have been normal, but no, for someone with
Speaker 2: my history, it was abnormal and worrisome. So good thing
Speaker 2: I asked a new doc because it might be saved
Speaker 2: in my life.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: In this case, my new doctor, doctor Thomas, was proactive,
Speaker 2: and I love her for that. Now, if they find
Speaker 2: a cancer goblin in there, how big is that.
Speaker 3: Stage one is?
Speaker 4: It's only in the first fifty percent, the inner fifty
Speaker 4: percent of the uterine lining. Over fifty percent is stage two,
Speaker 4: and then outside the universe is stage three. But she
Speaker 4: said they can do a visual inspection and sometimes cancer
Speaker 4: looks like she described it as like algae on your organs.
Speaker 4: I think the pathology report comes in a few days later.
Speaker 4: I did discuss, like, why if I had a thick
Speaker 4: enometrium as someone who's postmenopausal, how did no one flag that?
Speaker 3: She was like, they should have.
Speaker 2: Again, very glad I switched doctors and found someone who
Speaker 2: actually looked into this.
Speaker 3: So that's kind of the scoop. Look, you got a scoop.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 4: I asked how many people are on the surgical team,
Speaker 4: just curious. I wanted to get kind of like a
Speaker 4: Gray's anatomy visual of it. And it's her, another surgeon,
Speaker 4: an anesthesiologist, and nurse.
Speaker 3: There might be a physician's assistant in there, she said.
Speaker 3: During their surgery if they see anything that looks suspicious,
Speaker 3: that they can in the middle of the operation, tech
Speaker 3: to Jarrett and say, hey, we're going to take more
Speaker 3: out of her, and I'm sure he'll say go for it, man,
Speaker 3: and got a little speculum of mahu haa. She's very
Speaker 3: gentle and kind and yeah, she seems proactive and that's exciting.
Speaker 3: She said when she walked in that she recognized me
Speaker 3: from somewhere, and I was like, do you ever maybe
Speaker 3: watch like kids shows? The kid's science shows? Like on Netflix, or.
Speaker 4: I was like, maybe I'm just in a hospital too often,
Speaker 4: who knows, But anyway, Yeah, this is how it's going
Speaker 4: to go. March first. I just want to get it
Speaker 4: lanked out. I'm really eager to see what the pathology
Speaker 4: report says. And I wish I've known so much of
Speaker 4: this before. Not all progesterones make you feel terrible.
Speaker 3: You can't just wait it.
Speaker 4: Out, and if you're bleeding or have something abnormal, like
Speaker 4: get a second opinion, if you don't feel like you're
Speaker 4: being listened to, so frustrating, but yeah, you really got
Speaker 4: to advocate for yourself, all right.
Speaker 3: Keep it posting, all right.
Speaker 2: So all of this has been going on in the
Speaker 2: background for me for months, and I spent a lot
Speaker 2: of February just wringing my hands waiting for this big
Speaker 2: surgery to happen on March first. I mentioned it to y'all,
Speaker 2: but didn't tell you what it was, and I told
Speaker 2: a few friends, but I didn't even want to tell
Speaker 2: my mom in those weeks because I just didn't want
Speaker 2: her to worry. And I had also learned from when
Speaker 2: I had pneumonia that instead of suffering and hoping that
Speaker 2: people offer you the comfort and the soup that you'd like.
Speaker 2: Just tell them straightforwardly what you need. Tell people you
Speaker 2: could use some support or some FU, and ask them
Speaker 2: ahead of time if you need to check in on you,
Speaker 2: and don't just expect people you love to read your mind,
Speaker 2: especially if you're usually the kind of person who tries
Speaker 2: to be independent and not burden anyone. So I had
Speaker 2: already processed a lot of the fertility stuff and the
Speaker 2: womanhood complexities and relationship insecurities caused by ovarian failure, you know,
Speaker 2: eight or so years ago. And trust me, if you're
Speaker 2: going through something like this, you're going to need some
Speaker 2: extra TLC, maybe a counselor a therapist that can talk
Speaker 2: you through it, or a support group. But for this
Speaker 2: potential cancer news I've been going through and the surgery,
Speaker 2: I decided to just man up and invite a little
Speaker 2: group of girlfriends over two days before the operation, just
Speaker 2: to say goodbye to my reproductive system and to eat
Speaker 2: a cake. And my pre op appointment was the same day,
Speaker 2: bright and early, and also I was giving a keynote
Speaker 2: speech to four thousand people for NASA an hour after
Speaker 2: this appointment is exciting, So it was a busy day.
Speaker 2: So let's head in. Let's learn what to expect during
Speaker 2: this pre op appointment.
Speaker 3: Doctor Thomas.
Speaker 4: Uh, is this for like a free yeah? Behind you
Speaker 4: and then just make them right? Oh?
Speaker 2: Look at this solo aging makes me sad. I was nervous,
Speaker 2: feeling optimistic, and then I glanced at the back wall
Speaker 2: of the elevator and I skimmed the bulletin board of
Speaker 2: informational flyers. Look at this.
Speaker 6: Look at this elder abuse, active shooter response.
Speaker 2: Solo aging. What the fuck U?
Speaker 3: This is the sadness bullets.
Speaker 4: And it's kind of like.
Speaker 2: Onward board, Alison, Ward. They gave me my hospital I
Speaker 2: d bracelet hang onto with the songs?
Speaker 4: Can you please verify spilling of your name dated?
Speaker 2: Oh wait, this is Raymond's.
Speaker 3: Oops.
Speaker 2: That's okay. I don't know what he's getting, but if
Speaker 2: it's better, then I'll take it.
Speaker 3: No wild card, do it after the surgery.
Speaker 2: I'm on it. I filled out some forms just about
Speaker 2: my health history, and one asked if I had any
Speaker 2: religious affiliations. Nice.
Speaker 7: It is just a little scary in case we have
Speaker 7: to have someone pray over your dying body.
Speaker 2: Allison, Yeah, before any surgery. That'll usually have you come
Speaker 2: in and confirm some stuff when.
Speaker 4: You've had anesthesia previously, any trouble with nausea or stomach
Speaker 4: upset afterward? No, not that excellent. Take a look at
Speaker 4: these two columns. See if you've had any of those,
Speaker 4: either now or in the past.
Speaker 2: What constitutes mental disease?
Speaker 4: It could be depression, anxiety, anything like that.
Speaker 2: Who doesn't do I need to let the CC.
Speaker 4: I'll just know I'm not a real redhead.
Speaker 5: Actually, yeah, it's good to know.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I let them know. Good.
Speaker 5: And even if you did, you'd be okay.
Speaker 2: It's actually the other way around, and it's it's better
Speaker 2: for them to know what you are, a real redhead.
Speaker 2: Oh so they give you a little more Okay, if.
Speaker 4: We check in at time thirty and surgery seven thirty, Like,
Speaker 4: what time do they start doing anesthesia? So what they
Speaker 4: do is they bring you into the operating room and
Speaker 4: they actually don't give you the anesthesia until you get
Speaker 4: into the operating room.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, So yeah, they say that they want you
Speaker 2: to have this Nur's words, a nice clear head, because
Speaker 2: you're going to be asked many times if you know
Speaker 2: that you're getting an operation and what it's for and
Speaker 2: when Jarrett had acl knee surgery a few years back.
Speaker 2: You can see the chunicular traumatology episode if you have
Speaker 2: bad knees, and we'll link in the show notes, but
Speaker 2: they have you write yes on the body part they're
Speaker 2: operating on to make sure that they have written bodily consent.
Speaker 2: And I wondered, I'm like, do I need to take
Speaker 2: a sharpie and like write on my inner thigh like
Speaker 2: this hole, not this one with arrows. That'd be fun. Also,
Speaker 2: if you're wondering how many holes are down there where
Speaker 2: people pee out of, you can enjoy the urology episode
Speaker 2: about crotch parts with it truly surgeon doctor Fenwa Millhouse.
Speaker 2: But also we have a philology episode about Dix with
Speaker 2: doctor Emily Willingham. We got a gynecology one with doctor
Speaker 2: Philippa Ribink and Lincoln it all together, perhaps a dolerology
Speaker 2: episode with doctor Rachel's Softness, which is about pain.
Speaker 8: Or you know it's I got to learn my little
Speaker 8: yellow sweater.
Speaker 2: Some people bring their favor a little blankie yellow. Really,
Speaker 2: just about the Nasset talk, I mean it truly was
Speaker 2: thrilling to give a keynote talk for Nassa. I was
Speaker 2: so excited and it went great, but yeah, it was
Speaker 2: just a little bit of it, a tad's day. But
Speaker 2: that night I had invited those few close lady friends
Speaker 2: I've known for decades over and they made me feel
Speaker 2: so loved and so cared for earnestly, I who want
Speaker 2: to cry just thinking about it. My friend Catherine brought
Speaker 2: a cake with the words I'm over it. And my
Speaker 2: friend doctor Carra Santa Maria, who's been through this surgery
Speaker 2: of but laparoscopic, brought me special pillows that helped her.
Speaker 2: And a friend and scheduling producer Noel Delworth gave me
Speaker 2: a whole basket of tea and treats and a cozy
Speaker 2: mug and a fleece hoodie, and Lazette brought slippers and
Speaker 2: a blankye even though I told everyone no gifts, just hugs,
Speaker 2: and all in all, I'm just very lucky and glad
Speaker 2: that on the eve of something so scary that I
Speaker 2: just asked these palas to be there for me and
Speaker 2: they showed up and we also got to eat pizza.
Speaker 2: So if you or someone you know was going through
Speaker 2: something scary, sea of a little gathering just might make
Speaker 2: them know that they're caring for It really helped me
Speaker 2: a lot. But the night before the surgery, things got
Speaker 2: pretty real for me.
Speaker 5: I guess now i'd be the time when i should
Speaker 5: be recording this, but the night before eight o'clock, I've
Speaker 5: got to be up at five am to be at
Speaker 5: the hospital of five thirty, and I'm just crying a lot.
Speaker 5: This is the first time I've been really really scared
Speaker 5: about it, and it's working late so that he can
Speaker 5: take a couple of days off, and I'm just I'm
Speaker 5: scared of it hurting. I'm scared of waking up in
Speaker 5: the middle of it. But I'm scared that tomorrow is
Speaker 5: going to be like some line where it was like
Speaker 5: before you had something really wrong with you and after,
Speaker 5: And I'm just a right of crossing that boundary, I guess,
Speaker 5: and feeling relieved it all know, but also just really
Speaker 5: scared that this is like another big shoe that's going
Speaker 5: to drop. I keep thinking I'm so lucky in my life,
Speaker 5: and i am, but it's also like it seems like
Speaker 5: everything's really great and terrible all at once, all the
Speaker 5: time realist or anesthesia.
Speaker 2: So when Jared got home, he was such a comfort,
Speaker 2: And before we went to sleep, he opened up his
Speaker 2: NOTESAUP on a sphone just to take down any questions
Speaker 2: that we might want to ask the doctor right before surgery.
Speaker 2: And so I asked him to write down things like that,
Speaker 2: you know, is anyone going to see my but hole?
Speaker 2: How many people are going to see it? Can you
Speaker 2: make sure nobody looks at my butt hole too much? Also,
Speaker 2: once you remove my organs, are you going to take
Speaker 2: a picture of them so that I can use them
Speaker 2: for my LinkedIn profile? Can you please do any cather
Speaker 2: or business when I'm completely unconscious? So in a minute,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you which of those questions we actually asked.
Speaker 2: But first we're going to take a break for some
Speaker 2: sponsors at the show. But wherever we do, we're going
Speaker 2: to donate to a cause. And this week I'd like
Speaker 2: it to go to the Monovistic Cancer Awareness Club, which
Speaker 2: is a group of high school students in northern California
Speaker 2: who create posters spreading awareness on various cancers. They write
Speaker 2: letters to cancer patients. They collab with San Francisco's Cancer
Speaker 2: Support Community. They host big sales to donate to cancer research,
Speaker 2: They make care packages for patients, and they share survivor
Speaker 2: stories and support anyone affected by cancer. And this club
Speaker 2: is actually started by my niece in memory of my dad,
Speaker 2: your grandpad, who passed away from cancer in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: So Sophia, you're a gem my dear. I'm sorry this
Speaker 2: episode does pretty grow. I don't love that my family
Speaker 2: might listen, but hey, it's my truth and my crutch.
Speaker 2: Maybe it'll help someone all right. Thanks to sponsors of
Speaker 2: the show for making that donation to the Manifestic Cancer
Speaker 2: Awareness Club possible.
Speaker 1: You're on the bus an hour from home, in bumper
Speaker 1: to bumper traffic, creeping forward a few inches at a time,
Speaker 1: someone's kids are screaming, and suddenly your.
Speaker 4: Back is too.
Speaker 1: Luckily, Panadal extra film coated tablets are boosted by caffeine
Speaker 1: and they get to work in as little as ten
Speaker 1: minutes for powerful relief. That's more than just paracetamol. That's
Speaker 1: one for Pana doll speed based on absorption data contains paracetamol.
Speaker 1: Always read the label or leaflet.
Speaker 2: Get value.
Speaker 9: You can't argue with at Tesco with their amazing cloak
Speaker 9: card prices. Have the perfect night in with their finest
Speaker 9: frozen pizza meal deal. Get the finest frozen pizza, chips
Speaker 9: and ice cream all for six euro like our delicious
Speaker 9: spicy salami, hot honey and do you or Margarito wood
Speaker 9: fired pizzas served up with their crispy chunk each and
Speaker 9: ice cream like se Silda caramel or pistachio for dessert.
Speaker 9: Can't argue with that shepping store or online tesco.
Speaker 2: Every little helps avail a bit of most stories. Prices
Speaker 2: very inn express. Okay, let's figure out what is up
Speaker 2: and what the prognosis is. Come along, okay, cre off room.
Speaker 2: I brought a blanky. I have an IVY line in
Speaker 2: and it kind of hurts. I'm scared, but it's gonna
Speaker 2: be a go Okay, so yes, I brought a blanket
Speaker 2: that my mom knitted for me years ago, and ten
Speaker 2: out of ten bring a blanket to the hospital if
Speaker 2: they'll let you. I stole this hot tip from doctor
Speaker 2: Santa Maria, and it is great because not only is
Speaker 2: it cozy and warm and a comfort, but also hospital
Speaker 2: blankets suck shit and they are like thinner than a
Speaker 2: tortilla and they're only warm for like two minutes if
Speaker 2: they're fresh out of the blanket. Ovens and then you
Speaker 2: feel like a dick asking for more layers of them.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I was very happy that I brought that along.
Speaker 2: Definitely recommend I was ready to go and doctor Thomas
Speaker 2: came in asked if we had any questions, and we
Speaker 2: asked a few of them, but the catheter and anesthesia.
Speaker 2: And then Jarrett pulled up the notes app and told
Speaker 2: Doctor Thomas that I wanted to ask if anyone would
Speaker 2: see my butthole. I don't know she knew we were kidding,
Speaker 2: because of course, your whole junk is like in the limelight,
Speaker 2: your ass in the air spread eagle with like a
Speaker 2: volleyball teams where the people fixated on the star of
Speaker 2: the show, which is your crotch. But the doctor at
Speaker 2: least humored us and said that don't worry, that won't
Speaker 2: be the focus of the operation. And she also said
Speaker 2: that yes, once they take out my organs, she's going
Speaker 2: to take a picture for me. Now, while we were
Speaker 2: waiting to go in the hospital, pacystep went off and
Speaker 2: it was an announcement that the staff should report to
Speaker 2: the ICU for a code blue. And now, if I
Speaker 2: had not been doing this podcast for so many years,
Speaker 2: I would have completely not even registered. I would have
Speaker 2: thought that it was like a secret code for like
Speaker 2: bagels in the breakroom, but no, so code blue in
Speaker 2: a hospital means that there's a cardiac arrest or someone
Speaker 2: is flatlining, and so me and Jarrett and the nurse
Speaker 2: kind of went silent. I was sending the person good vibes,
Speaker 2: and then like maybe a minute later, as this nurse
Speaker 2: was adjusting my v the speaker's kind of crackled again,
Speaker 2: announcing a cancelation of the blue code, and I asked
Speaker 2: a nurse like if that was a good sign, like
Speaker 2: if the person is okay, and she just stopped, and
Speaker 2: she looked at Jarrett like should we tell her? And
Speaker 2: I'm still hoping that it was a cancelation the person
Speaker 2: was okay, So I made a wish that that person
Speaker 2: just pulled through suddenly, and then I asked for drugs,
Speaker 2: so the antithesiologist gave me something to calm the jitters,
Speaker 2: and the nurses agreed it would kind of feel like
Speaker 2: a margarita, and within milliseconds I could have committed karaoke
Speaker 2: with no remorse. And then I remember being wheeled into
Speaker 2: the oar and feeling like, you know when You're in
Speaker 2: a restaurant. You're looking for the restroom, but you accidentally
Speaker 2: just barge into the kitchen and you're like, WHOA, I
Speaker 2: don't belong backstage like this. I shouldn't we see in
Speaker 2: all this equipment and people. But in the oar, in
Speaker 2: that fog, I realized, Hey, I'm the main course, just
Speaker 2: surrounded by trays and napkins and little knives. These folks
Speaker 2: are about to cook. So I remember getting on a table,
Speaker 2: but then the next thing I know, I'm coming to
Speaker 2: hours later in a recovery bed, and it feels like
Speaker 2: there is a tiny man trapped in the void of
Speaker 2: my baby baker area and he's trying to get out
Speaker 2: with a pickaxe, or like some sort of beaked animal
Speaker 2: is trying to hatch out of my abdomen. And I
Speaker 2: remember having no control of my face and frowning the
Speaker 2: hardest I've ever frowned. I couldn't just wincing in paint,
Speaker 2: And I asked Jared to take a picture of my
Speaker 2: face for austerity and friends. I just saw it again
Speaker 2: looking at the room pictures. I look like a sculpture
Speaker 2: of myself made of white cheddar cheese that someone tried
Speaker 2: to microwave like a little greasy. Every feature has succumbed
Speaker 2: to the gravity of my pain. So they gave me
Speaker 2: a little more painkiller, which took it from like an
Speaker 2: eight on the pain scale to a reasonable three. So
Speaker 2: the drugs worked again, but parts of my body did
Speaker 2: not work. March first, four, ten pm, still in recovery.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be recording this, but I'll be
Speaker 2: glad that I did. Still in the recovery room, been
Speaker 2: here for like four hours. My bladder refuses to cooperate.
Speaker 2: It will not pee. It's not gonna pee, Like, what's
Speaker 2: your problem? They say, it's asleep anyway. So I'm still here.
Speaker 7: I'm groggy, but hating there.
Speaker 2: Okay, by so the nurses literally sent Jarrett to the
Speaker 2: cafe to get me two coffees in a big water.
Speaker 2: I drank it all. Finally happened at five pm. We
Speaker 2: went home, five hours later than we were supposed to.
Speaker 2: But I got posted up on the couch eating a
Speaker 2: frozen otter pop thing, and I was really lucky to
Speaker 2: have jareded to just fetch things at my women, get
Speaker 2: me soup and stuff. And with the type of laparoscopy
Speaker 2: through the abdomen, which I didn't have. Your muscles need
Speaker 2: weeks to repair themselves, and like sitting up standing walking
Speaker 2: is all from what I understand, somewhere between oh ouch
Speaker 2: and why why was I born? Like hurt so bad?
Speaker 2: I was lucky that I didn't have that I had
Speaker 2: this newer v notes method and doctor Thomas later told
Speaker 2: me that it was a good surgery and it was
Speaker 2: fun vibes in ther which I like to hear. I
Speaker 2: feel like I threw a good little party, even though
Speaker 2: I was in hardcore stirrups and not much of a conversationalist.
Speaker 2: But I'm glad I have pictures of it, like a
Speaker 2: very goopy photo booth.
Speaker 7: All right, twenty four hours out March second, ten am
Speaker 7: yesterday was a bit painful at the end when I'm
Speaker 7: home only and I have a brofen. The surgeon was
Speaker 7: great and so far they didn't see any tumors or anything.
Speaker 7: But they got to send it off to pathology and
Speaker 7: they let me look at a picture of what my
Speaker 7: disemboweled reproductive organs looked like, and it was horrifying. It
Speaker 7: looked like a turn up made out of meat. It
Speaker 7: was disgusting, but it's not mine anymore. It's funny to
Speaker 7: think that it's in a freezer somewhere. I don't know
Speaker 7: if they incinerated, but someone slicing it up like a
Speaker 7: deli ham and they're going to take a peek at it.
Speaker 7: So anyway, I'm doing one thousand percent better than I
Speaker 7: thought I was going to be doing.
Speaker 2: And I'm eaten a pediolyte otter pop on the couch.
Speaker 2: Who so Yeah, a good several days on the couch, napping,
Speaker 2: and I took the opiates for just a day, but
Speaker 2: they made me feel a bit loopy. It was a
Speaker 2: lot harder to cross stitch and tyl and all was
Speaker 2: working fine. Pain was honestly about like a two or
Speaker 2: three out of ten once I got home from the hospital,
Speaker 2: which was amazing. But the hardest part was knowing that
Speaker 2: I had to wait a whole week for the pathology report.
Speaker 2: Just not sure what they found. But yeah, just at
Speaker 2: this point, just a few days on the couch went by,
Speaker 2: and then got a surprise. I pressed record on the
Speaker 2: voice notes app.
Speaker 7: All right, seven point thirty seven on March the fourth.
Speaker 5: It's a Monday.
Speaker 7: I'm three days out from the surgery, and I thought
Speaker 7: i'd been way more pain, but I'm doing pretty well.
Speaker 7: I'm on ibprofen tail and all.
Speaker 2: I went to the movies, I.
Speaker 7: Did some walking around and didn't expect to get pathology
Speaker 7: reports for another week, they told me. And then I
Speaker 7: on the way home from seeing Dune two, I opened
Speaker 7: up my email and saw the pathology reports were in
Speaker 7: and they are clear and I do not have cancer.
Speaker 2: And car has some to say about that.
Speaker 5: Very excited.
Speaker 7: I don't have cancer. It's really good news, and I
Speaker 7: feel elated, and also like I'm still holding on my breath, like,
Speaker 7: so is there something else bad I should know about?
Speaker 7: But that's just anxiety talking. And I am really glad
Speaker 7: that I got it taken out so that I don't
Speaker 7: have to worry about it being a taking time bomb
Speaker 7: in my crotch as it has been. And it's bonkers,
Speaker 7: and we're going to go get some pasta. And now
Speaker 7: now I got to figure out what I'm going to
Speaker 7: do with the rest of my life, since it's not
Speaker 7: going to be as short as I thought it might be,
Speaker 7: at least I mean, I could get killed tomorrow, but
Speaker 7: you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Anything can happen to anyone at any time, so very earnestly.
Speaker 2: Let's try our best to be grateful for what we're
Speaker 2: working with. And I'm so grateful for health insurance. I'm
Speaker 2: lucky I have it because this whole shebang would have
Speaker 2: easily cost me twenty thousand dollars out of pocket, absolutely
Speaker 2: inaccessible without health insurance, which is horrifying. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: got the email. I screamed a little, I cried. I
Speaker 2: let my friends and family know. My mom sent me
Speaker 2: a picture of her, my sister Janelle, and my brother
Speaker 2: in law Steve eating a tiny ice cream cone to celebrate.
Speaker 2: And if you we've listened to the episodes of taking
Speaker 2: care of my late father, you know that it's our
Speaker 2: family's little toast to him as well. So they ate
Speaker 2: those for me that night, and I cried looking at
Speaker 2: the pictures. So yeah, life, life is not perfect. It
Speaker 2: never will be. Sometimes things hurt a lot. Sometimes you
Speaker 2: don't see things coming. Sometimes you do and then they
Speaker 2: veer and they spare you at the last second. And
Speaker 2: this time I feel really lucky. I got I'm getting
Speaker 2: a little more time than I thought.
Speaker 3: It's time to live life a little bit.
Speaker 8: We're limits and it's best.
Speaker 5: It's this is exciting it's so very exciting. I love you.
Speaker 4: I love you.
Speaker 3: It's weird, it's good.
Speaker 2: So thanks for listening this far. Thank you to everyone
Speaker 2: who thought of me on the first It meant a
Speaker 2: lot to me. This is the scariest thing I think
Speaker 2: I've ever been through. I feel very lucky that we
Speaker 2: caught anything before it turned into something worse. So ask
Speaker 2: smart doctors, not smart questions, and if you need a
Speaker 2: second opinion, and get it. It might save your life.
Speaker 2: On a follow up call with doctor Thomas, she let
Speaker 2: me know that with the condition I had and some
Speaker 2: cell abnormalities, it could have later developed into something cancer.
Speaker 2: So here's to what I'm very lucky to consider a success.
Speaker 2: So I hope this right along. I know it is
Speaker 2: a lot of info, too much info, but I hope
Speaker 2: it was informative enough so that if you know someone
Speaker 2: going through a health issue, any health issue, or one
Speaker 2: like this, I hope this gives you some ideas on
Speaker 2: how to support them, or maybe for you, how to
Speaker 2: ask for support, or how to take care of yourself,
Speaker 2: or how to try to stay calm and optimistic until
Speaker 2: you get all the facts, or maybe you or someone
Speaker 2: you know is getting this actual procedure for gender affirming
Speaker 2: care or endometriosis or another reason. And now you know
Speaker 2: more about it if you don't have this anatomy, but
Speaker 2: if you vote in any country others, reproductive health is
Speaker 2: on the line, so you'll better educate yourselves in those matters,
Speaker 2: how things work, so you know how much it matters.
Speaker 2: And a new study came out recently the cancer's on
Speaker 2: the right and young adults, So monitor your health, don't
Speaker 2: ignore funky stuff, and just know that the sooner you
Speaker 2: get it checked out, the easier and potentially the cheaper
Speaker 2: it's going to be. And the fact that I live
Speaker 2: in a country where so many people don't have access
Speaker 2: to healthcare is cutting to me. No pun intended since
Speaker 2: they did take my guts out, but again, vote like
Speaker 2: someone else's life depended on it. Special thanks as always
Speaker 2: to Aaron Talbert who addman Theologies podcast Facebook group with
Speaker 2: assist from Bonnie Dutch and Shinnefeltis. Thank you for their
Speaker 2: support too. Our scheduling producer and care package angel is
Speaker 2: Noel Dilworth. Susan Hale so supportive and is also our
Speaker 2: managing director. Kelly ar Dwyer makes the website Aveline Malick
Speaker 2: makes the transcripts, and of course our lead editor and
Speaker 2: mpath is the lovely Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio. Thank
Speaker 2: you to the whole team for busting out some encores
Speaker 2: as I recovered, and thank you to doctor Carris Anna
Speaker 2: Maria for all the advice, Lazette, Sarah, Crystal, Catherine, Dayalon,
Speaker 2: Noel Susan for having cake. And farewells to Mike, go
Speaker 2: Nads and.
Speaker 6: Mackenzie for the dinner and all the supportive check in
Speaker 6: texts to my mom sisters and of course your pod
Speaker 6: mother Jared Sleeper for taking such good care of me
Speaker 6: during this time and always again his mom's company, Rosewood
Speaker 6: woman who hal loves that stuff.
Speaker 2: Honestly, if you stick around to hear a secret. First off,
Speaker 2: this whole episode is just a sloshing bucket of TMI.
Speaker 2: So how are you thirsty still? But I will tell you.
Speaker 2: As I was in recovery, drinking the cafeteria coffee and
Speaker 2: water and just begging myself to pete so that I
Speaker 2: could go home, one nurse and Jarrett got on either
Speaker 2: side of me and walked me to the bathroom. I'm
Speaker 2: like doubled over and On our way there, we passed
Speaker 2: the nurses station, where their tones seemed to suggest they
Speaker 2: were gossiping about like probably another nurse, and one of
Speaker 2: them went her back to we said what is wrong
Speaker 2: with her? And I had the rare opportunity to say
Speaker 2: I just had a hysterect to me, and then they
Speaker 2: all fell silent for like one tense moment, and I
Speaker 2: got to go aha, and it was a good time.
Speaker 2: I scared him, but we all had a happy little
Speaker 2: chuckle about it. Also, if you think of it, it's
Speaker 2: nice to bring a little tree, like some cookies or
Speaker 2: a fruit basket or something for the staff taking care
Speaker 2: of you.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: Heads up. Jare brought him cookies, which was good since
Speaker 2: we were there five hours later than we were supposed
Speaker 2: to go. Anyway, thank you for listening this far. It
Speaker 2: means a lot to me. I'm glad we all know
Speaker 2: what happened during my planned abdominal surgery and I'm back
Speaker 2: doing my best. Take care of yourself, Okay, byebye.
Speaker 10: Pacadermatology, homeiology, ry doo zoology, lithology, yeah, technology, meteorology, ptology, anthology, ceriology, selenology.
Speaker 5: You won't be needing that anymore.