I haven’t been running much this year, although I did eat all the food in New York City for my birthday. My endometriosis finally became too much to live with and I had a hysterectomy immediately after I returned from NYC. When I find a moment, I’ll post some amazing food photos! But first, a little about why I haven’t been running or sharing much.

Back in January, I woke up in pain (more pain than usual since I’ve been in pain and sick since about June of 2015), which led to a hysterectomy on June 5. All the usual endometriosis and fibroids were removed along with my cervix, uterus, and ovaries. I just had my one month post-op yesterday and I am healing nicely. I have some energy, but it’s depleted quickly, and I still have pain off and on.

After a long wait in the waiting room, I finally got to head into surgery prep.

I ended up waiting a long time in surgery prep.

My surgery was so late, I only got to eat an easily digestible dinner and breakfast. The food looked amazing.

I woke up off and on until I figured out how to turn onto my side.

I had a milkshake for dinner and breakfast.

Waiting for Artboy to pick me up to go home.

Waiting for to go home in my yellow socks.

Lenore checks out the recovery supplies.

Lenore hung out in bed with me a large portion of the time. The other two, not so much.

My heating pad is a dinosaur.

Lenore was the perfect recovery companion

Another day in bed.

My initial recovery view from our balcony.

My first outing at the movies. Reclining seat, pillow, blankets, pajamas, oxy, and food delivery.

First time sitting on couch after surgery; Lola came to investigate.

After a week or so, I was able to rest outside with the firepit.

And lucky for me, I just found out that I have to take hormones to keep my endometriosis at bay. We were hoping I could skip it, but alas, I have to suffer through another 10 years or so of hormones. I have yet to see how my diet will play into this. I followed an endometriosis diet that helped alleviate some of the symptoms for short periods of time. There was always a point a couple of years after excision (when the endo had grown back or a cyst popped up) that almost anything caused me pain and I followed an even stricter diet. For now, I will continue to eat healthy (mostly plant-based–my IBD cut out a lot of trigger fruits and veggies, so I am eating unprocessed locally sourced meat for the time being).

I have to keep reminding myself that this surgery was prefaced by 20+ years of pain, cancer, cysts, fibroids, endometriosis, and general bad lady health juju. I can’t compare my surgery recovery to that of others and I need to take it slow. The pain I have currently is where endo was removed, but just doing a bit too much causes pain in my V-Cuff and that is both excruciating and terrifying.

I have been walking–a lot. I am up to 2.5 miles, although that 2.5 mile walk also gave me a day of pain, so I am pulling back to 2 miles and will attempt 2.5 miles again next week. I have taken up a “runner” schedule and am alternating a long day (2 miles) with a short day (1 miles) and only doing one long run a week at a “fast” pace. What feels fast to me is actually incredibly slow, but it’s more about effort. I am improving and will continue this until I am approved to run again, which will be in August or September. Surgeon is confident I can start a day of running a week in August (short slow runs), but I have to survive July first. Everything is difficult and the smallest thing causes pain.

I am planning on walking a half in late September and a 10k/full double in early December. Any running I do during those races will be a bonus and will bring me in under the time limit. That should put me in shape for Dopey in January.

So I’ve been in pain for months and had surgery and this lovely little blog, mostly for people who support my charity runs, has fallen along the wayside. I’ve made a promise to chronicle my return to running post-hysterectomy, so I will try to post more often now that I’m not doped up bingeing on Netflix as much.