Ep. 119 - Women’s Health Issues I Never Talked About Before: Removing My Ovary, Battling Ovarian Tumors and My Personal Wellness Journey
This week's episode goes personal. I talk about my recent salpingo-oophorectomy (aka removal of ovary and tube), ovarian tumors and my wellness journey.
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Ep. 119 - Losing My Ovary, Ovarian Tumors and My Health Journey (TRANSCRIPT)
[00:00:00] Stephanie: Hi mamas. And welcome back to mommy's on a call. I cannot believe the kids are going back to school soon and summer vacation is almost over. I wanted to take a moment though, to step back from all of the interviews to share a little bit about what's been going on in my life and why this summer all my podcast episodes have been a little bit irregular and not consistent. Normally I would be releasing an episode every week. And even though I had things in the queue, a lot of stuff was going on behind the scenes.
And while I'm an outgoing person, I tend to shy away from sharing my own personal life and stories, for some reason, and so when it comes to talking about my personal life, I close off and go a little silent. But this summer there's been a lot going on health wise between every kid getting sick and then me personally having to have surgery. So I had to put the podcast on the back burner until we all healed and rested.
But my hope is with this episode is by sharing my story that maybe this will help someone else out there. I guess, after sitting in bed for days, binge listening to Jenna Kutcher's new book, how are you really, well, literally being stuck in bed, recovering from surgery and some other weird virus I caught for my kids that wasn't COVID.
A lot of this that I already knew in the back of my head started to just come out. But it's interesting how the universe works. I shared a little snippet on my personal Instagram story recently post-surgery and through a few people, I was connected to one of my friend's moms who was facing a similar circumstance, and I was able to talk to her and support her on her journey, getting an oophorectomy.
Similarly, my story from last year in January, having an ovarian torsion helped another one of my girlfriends discover the same health issue while being pregnant. She actually called me to ask what my, all my symptoms were and I walked her through what happened. Instead of the doctors thinking she was having an ectopic pregnancy, she was able to advocate for herself at 16 weeks pregnant and get the right test done. This possibly saved her own baby. Despite the pain she went through. And just a couple weeks ago, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
These were all signs. That I could not keep quiet anymore. Before I get into my story about undergoing surgery to remove ovarian tumors, which resulted in losing my ovary and tube, which is called a salpingo-oophorectomy. I'm probably butchering that. I still don't understand how they name these things.
Anyway, I diverge, I wanted to step back and give a little context in my health journey and how I got to this point.
Women's health has always been an issue of mine. I didn't get my period until I was 16 years old. I was put on birth control at an early age to quote, regulate my hormones since I didn't have regular periods. And then despite having the HPV vaccine, I somehow got HPV and also the strand that could potentially be cancerous. In my twenties. I struggled with hormone imbalances, irregular periods, terrible PMs, multiple years of irregular pap smears, a LEEP procedure and more. But I always thought this was just the way of being a woman.
And then at the age of 31 and only three months before my wedding. When I was what I thought at the peak of my health and fitness. I mean, this was like a year into wedding boot camp of eating healthy daily CrossFit, yoga, or Pilates, and trying to be as fit and perfect for my wedding. I had a successful health blog called cupcakes to CrossFit and I was in the best shape or so I thought.
One day, I get a phone call from my gynecologist after my quarterly pap smear. Yes. Quarterly, because of all the irregularities, telling me that I needed to drop what I was doing. And immediately go to the gynecological oncologist. She had made an appointment with.
Excuse me. I thought I'm a healthy 31 year old. What could be wrong? It turns out that I was one of the unlucky ones whose HPV turned into early stage cervical cancer. Luckily they found it early and it hadn't spread, but it did mean that I would have to stop all of my working out and everything that I was doing so I could have a cervical cone biopsy, meaning they would cut out part of your cervix with the bad cells, hoping to contain it.
As the doctor nonchalant told. as the doctor nonchalantly told me the range of possible outcomes from likely having difficulty carrying kids due to a weakened cervix to never having kids, because my cervix would be too damaged and could possibly be removed.
I felt like I was watching a bad movie. It was only three months away from getting married and. The thought of possibly never having kids was something that never crossed my mind at the age of 31. And ironically, the cancer part scared me way less than the thought of never having kids.
You would've thought this experience would've been my wake up call, but it wasn't. Fortunately my surgery was a success and although I lost a good portion of my cervix about the size of a pinky, I was going to be able to have kids.
My doctor did tell me though it was probably the second worst case she had seen in her practice.
I got married, went off of birth control and surprised like many women out there. We couldn't get pregnant. We tried every month. And finally the doctor diagnosed me with P C O S, which I found out later to be a completely incorrect diagnosis. Another lesson learned, do your research. I don't know why I just took her diagnosis of P C O S as. Yep. That's what I have, but a lot of the things made sense and I just assumed, yep. She's the doctor. That's what I have. Although I didn't have most of the symptoms that you would think. I was skinny. I didn't have face. Hair growing. I didn't have really any of that. And to be honest, I don't even think I did a blood test to confirm insulin resistance, but I took my diagnosis P C O S.
And I went on fertility drugs because knowing I had P C O S meant that I wouldn't be able to get pregnant naturally.
A few chemical pregnancies later, we finally got pregnant with our first child and after many visits to the high risk perinatal specialist, my cervix actually held up and via C section, I had my first baby chase.
Getting pregnant again, though. Wasn't easy. And as an only child I almost gave in and said, one is just fine. We don't need to have anymore. Two miscarriages later though, I found out I was fortunately pregnant with a baby girl.
After having Mia, I decided to focus on getting my pre-baby body back in shape. I started eating clean, working out and low and behold while I was still breastfeeding. I thought something was off and I find out I'm actually pregnant again. How could that be? I thought I was broken. At 11 months postpartum, I was pregnant with another baby girl.
It's crazy how eliminating the stress of getting pregnant, starting to eat healthy again, and really focusing on improving my own health and mindset. I somehow miraculously got pregnant while breastfeeding, while being told I could never have kids with a third child.
After I had Zoe throughout my entire postpartum period. I started to feel weird pains, especially in my lower abdominal area. At one point I actually thought I was pregnant again and freaked out because I started to feel those weird bubbles you get when you're like 14 weeks pregnant, that like quickening feeling. And it was also really bloated, but it wasn't going away.
I started going to a pelvic floor, physical therapist and a pelvic floor pilates specialist, as soon as I was cleared, because also three C-sections aren't kind on your body. I thought that all my problems were related to being postpartum.
Having a third C-section in less than five years, having two C-sections within 19 months, starting to eat terrible again, gut health going downhill, and a lot of stress from well being stuck at home during a global pandemic with three kids, five, and under mind you, this was all in 2020. And so I just believe that all of these problems were related to being postpartum. And instead of getting to the root of things, all the professionals were telling me, you just had a baby, this is normal, and maybe you need to journal more to release the. No kidding. I was having legit pains in my abdomen and regular cramping, but I was told to journal. And nothing against journaling. Trust me, I still do it. But that as advice to alleviate that I should have listened to my intuition that something was actually wrong with my body.
For months I had on and off pains, but again, it was brushed off as new mom's stuff. Add on the fact that this was now January 2021. I was 11 months postpartum with an 11 month old, a two and a half year old and a five and a half year old at home. And like most moms at the end of 2020, I was burnt out exhausted and stressed. I was tired of being a teacher, caregiver, cook cleaner play date, food source, yes, because of a newborn on top of being an entrepreneur, a wife, a friend, et C. All I wanted was a break.
The amount of roles I was playing in my everyday life had completely overwhelmed me. I was in turbo mode just trying to get through the day that I kept ignoring every sign that my physical body was actually in trouble and was screaming for help until it physically manifested and I collapsed.
On Martin Luther king weekend, January, 2021. During the height of COVID, I was sitting on the couch with a heating pad and the pain struck again. This time it was way worse. And I actually thought I was having an appendicitis. I normally don't complain. And I was also trying to avoid all hospitals because high peak of COVID, but I couldn't handle it anymore. And I collapsed on the floor and begged to go to the ER.
It turns out after the ultrasounds and CT scan, they discovered giant like eight centimeter and 10 centimeter masses in my OV. But thanks to COVID protocols. They told me they couldn't operate because cysts were considered elective surgeries, not emergency and I would be discharged.
Luckily I had an OB that advocated for me, and I was able to stay overnight for observation. Halfway through the night on full morphine, the pain was unbearable and they discovered I was having an ovarian torsion. That's when your ovary twists upon itself and blood flow stops.
Think of it as your arm going numb, but instead you're ovary.
Something like this is extremely rare. And so if you even suggest you're having a ovarian torsion, most people think, uh, not likely, but I was having it. having an ovarian torsion was actually deemed an emergency. And so I was booked for surgery on a Sunday of a holiday weekend to look into getting a cystectomy.
During the surgery, they ended up discovering more giant ovarian cysts on both ovaries ranging from five centimeters to 10 centimeters, which were mainly hidden in all of the ultrasounds, but that was causing my ovaries to twist. The cysts, which I found out later by biopsy ended up being tumors, mucinous cystadenomas AKA ovarian tumors were actually pulling my ovary down and I was having intermittent torsions.
Luckily the torsion didn't cut off blood flow fully and I was able to keep my ovaries after that surgery. The surgery though was more extensive than they predicted. I had a lot of blood loss and they removed what they could, but given the circumstances, they weren't able to get it all. And I ended up spending half a week solo in the hospital.
This was not the vacation I had asked for. I definitely manifested my new year's 20, 21 mom's weekend solo vacation wrong.
But instead, this was my wake up call. I needed to start prioritizing myself and listening to all the advice I had received and been sharing on this very podcast mommy's on a call.
My children, including my nursing baby at the time, survived just fine at home without me. Nothing burnt down. Everyone was fed bathed and got to where they needed to be. But above all, everyone was still loved and taken care of. It didn't matter how, or if the laundry got done, if the dishes were put away correctly, all that mattered was that they missed their mommy's hugs. And if I was not healthy, happy, and present, there was no way I could be there for them.
Sadly, I had to immediately stop breastfeeding and the recovery was like having a fourth. C-section when I got home from the hospital, I made a promise to myself that my health would be my number one priority above anything.
I quit most of my business coaching things. I took a step back from my business strategy business, and I decided that I would only keep the podcast because my health and wellness was number one. And through this, I started diving into what does this mean? What does this journey?
I knew the chances of the tumors were coming back were high because they said they couldn't remove everything since I was bleeding excessively. And so from that point, onward, January, 2021 until now, I decided to make a commitment to figure out how to begin to heal myself from the inside out. And this, I embarked on my health journey, an attempt to salvage what I could
From holistic hormone health to functional medicine doctors to tapping into my newly found spirituality and mindfulness to starting classes at the Institute of integrative nutrition. I realized that this natural curiosity I've had for my entire life for health and wellness was slowly manifesting into something bigger.
Flash forward to 2022. And in March, my gynecological oncologist discovered more ovarian tumors while they were still less than five centimeters, the threshold for surgery, I knew it was only a matter of time before I would have to get them removed. Again.
I was faced with more decisions, what to do next. All I wanted to do was get through my 40th birthday, which was in June, before another surgery. And before potentially losing my OV.
In June, I had another ultrasound and my tumor was already measuring at seven centimeters. That's like a small lacrosse ball. And my doctor said that it had to be removed in the next month or else I could face another torsion.
Many of my friends suggested that I just take both ovaries since there were tumors on both and be done with it. But what they didn't realize is it's not that easy. I did a lot of research during the last year and a half.
And the side effects from going into early menopause is almost worse than actually potentially getting another surgery. For me, losing both ovaries was not going to be an option. My paternal grandmother. Had a total hysterectomy in her thirties and passed away at an earlier age than my grandfather. Doing my research and again, I am not a doctor, but menopause sides of going into early menopause can lead to dementia and early death and cardiovascular disease.
My grandmother had dementia, which did not run in our family and did die at an earlier age than she was potentially expected to. Immediate menopause was not gonna be an option for me. And I basically said losing both ovaries was not an option unless I was in a life threatening situation.
As you listen to this episode, I'm now in recovery for my surgery. I was afraid to record this episode beforehand because I wasn't sure what to expect, what would happen, how I would be feeling. And even what part of the story I wanted to share. I actually started drafting this episode almost immediately after the surgery, but due to not feeling great. And my body telling me I really needed to rest. I decided to hold off until now to share my story.
I'm happy to announce that the potentially cancerous tumor is benign. And although it ended up being at the time of surgery, Over 11 centimeters, which is about the size of a navel orange. And it engulfed my left ovaries so badly that they had to remove that and the tube, hence a Sal pingo ectomy, again, butchering it, but they were able to save my right ovary and remove just a smaller, benign tumor there.
well, I knew there was a 70% chance I would lose an ovary. And I even spoke with the doctors about, you know, do I wanna save eggs just in case I didn't, because we were done having kids. I have three beautiful kids, three healthy children. And I also just turned 40. I know that I I'm done having kids, but it was also sort of a strange moment of reality for me.
I. Felt like I was losing that physical part of me that literally helped bring life into this world. And for a few days I felt really sad and almost had to mourn the loss of my ovary.
We'll never know which ovary produced the eggs that grew my three healthy children that I thought I could never have. I'm super grateful they function for the time being and functioned when they did.
As I open up to more and more women, I realized that this is why I was put on this wellness journey to not only help my own recovery, but also to get my health and wellness coaching certification so that I can help others change their own lives.
My mission through this podcast and business was always to help women, especially mom, take ownership over their own health and wellness to create sustainable lifestyle changes and live. Healthy happy fulfilled lives so that they can be present and thriving for their children, their partners, and especially themselves.
I've always wanted to help moms and this motivated me even more to really go out there and make a difference. My parents always said, without your health, you have nothing. And I look at that, no matter how much money in the world, you have, no matter what material goods you have, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything.
And so I wanna make sure that I can help moms prioritize their own health and wellness so that they can be there and they can be there for their kids and the future generations. And that they can also show up for the.
So through all of this specifically, just the last year and a half of going through surgeries and really tapping into my body.
Here are four top lessons I learned that I hope you take away with too.
My number one was really to listen to your body and trust your intuition. Nowadays, there's a lot of medical gas lighting and don't get me wrong. I love doctors. I wanted to be a doctor. A lot of my friends are doctors. There is nothing wrong with traditional conventional medicine. It has saved so many people and I'm a true believer in it.
But sometimes, you know, yourself, Better than anyone else does. They know the textbook, they know the symptoms, they can only do so much, but if you truly are feeling something, not feeling right and you know, that there's something wrong like I did, you really need to just stop for a second and listen to your body untrust and then advocate for yourself. Go to as many people as you can and ask for the test because without getting those scans without really going through all of that and really staying on top of, of discovering what was wrong with me, I never would've known and I would've just brushed it off as, oh, it's just another mom thing I deal with.
And that leads to number two. Do your research and know your options. Understand all the different side effects, all the different ways to approach something. And don't just assume what someone telling you is the final say I went through a year and a half of researching and even doing different lab tests and testing different things to figure out, you know, what was the root cause of these things.
But without that knowledge, I probably would've one month after my last surgery said, Take my ovaries and I'll never have to deal with this again, but had I not done the research there would've been tremendous side effects for my future. So do your research.
Number three, health is so much more than food and fitness, which is all I ever focused on.
I was always taught, eat a healthy diet and workout, and that's how you'll be healthy, but I was doing those things and yet I still got a cervical cancer diagnosis. So how was that true? And the more and more I've been studying, the more I realized. It's more important to focus on the other aspects of wellness as your primary source of health. Mental, emotional, spiritual relationships, home environment, career, et cetera. Basically what fuels yourself, your lifestyle. Lifestyle is so important. And most of our chronic illnesses out there can be prevented through sustainable lifestyle changes.
We all see symptoms, but we don't really get to the root cause of what is really triggering us in our bodies. And so really tapping into that and learning that health is more than just what you eat and how you move will really change things.
I mean, I attests me getting pregnant unexpectedly with my third child and yes, she was an accident, but the best accident in the world. And I will admit that. It wasn't just because I started eating clean and going back to Pilates. But it was because I started to reduce my stress. I started to change things in my life and really focus on personal development.
I started to meditate every day. I think now I'm at three plus years continually of meditation every single day. And again, meditation for people can be taking a walk in nature. It doesn't have to be sitting there going, um, or doing something that seems too woooooo for you, but it's what brings you to being mindful and then the present.
And I think focusing on all of those things for me really has helped me heal.
And number four, which at first I had this as like my three lessons learned. And then after the last two weeks I realized this was a really important lesson because apparently I didn't listen to it, which was rest. Rest is just as important as anything else.
In a go, go, go culture, a hustle culture. Uh, everyone's busy when you ask someone, what have you been up to? Oh, we're just so busy. Rest is almost just as important as eating, taking time to quiet your mind, rest your body and recharge is an important piece of food.
After having surgery and then catching this awful kid virus. I think the universe basically told me you literally have no option but to rest because I started to brainstorm this podcast episode. And then I started to work on another business plan. And then I started to do stuff cuz I was sitting in bed and the universe basically said, Stephanie. You need to just rest heal, focus on healing.
And so I think for me, rest is gonna be something I incorporate almost more in my daily life moving forward, because again, Health overall health and wellness is the most important aspect of being the best mom, the best partner, the best friend, the best to yourself.
So I hope you learn something with this. I also hope you understand, and forgive me a little for being super irregular on this podcast this summer, it was never my intention on skipping weeks and not publishing interviews and doing all this. But I had a lot of personal healing going on and I really am grateful for you all. I'm grateful to be here. I'm grateful to have someone to share my story with.
So anyway, I hope to be sharing more about my wellness journey about things that have been working. Um, so yeah, that's kind of how it's gonna go moving forward. Thank you. And we'll be back to a couple interviews moving forward. And if there's anything else you're interested in hearing about, please feel free to send me an email or send me a DM on Instagram @StephanieUchima.
Love you all.