September 2009: finally had my oopherectomy - hellooo hot flashes!

Finally had my oopherectomy. My ovaries and tubes are gone. My risk of getting ovarian cancer now is greatly decreased. The surgery and recovery were a piece of cake compared to my mastectomy surgery. This surgery was laparoscopic and outpatient. I arrived at the hospital at 5:45 am and I was home by 3:00 pm. No nausea from the anesthesia. All went smoothly and only a couple small pieces of surgical tape on my belly from the tiny incisions, which he made right on the scar from my TRAM reconstruction surgery. Not that I care anymore about scars, I have so many now!

Hello menopause! The only side effect I’ve been feeling since the surgery is an increase in quantity and severity of hot flashes. Since I started chemotherapy I had been having hot flashes (chemo can sometimes send you into menopause, or as some call it, “chemopause”, but it can be temporary) and I kind of started getting used to them, but they had been getting less and less frequent.

The hot flashes that I experience now are worse – hotter and longer lasting. Pretty annoying, but not impossible to live with. Hopefully they will eventually go away.