I am Woman

November 16, 2006

I am Woman

I was just talking with Evelyn, calling to see how I'm doing since I just had surgery, and recovering at home and i'ts been a week to the day and I'm beginning to have cabin fever. Friends have been dropping by to bring food and keep me entertained, and my sisters Minda and Hazel drove 14 hours from Reston VA to hang out after I came home from the hospital last Friday. My daughter JayJay left her family to accompany me to the hospital and remained until she saw I had plenty of company. My son Stephen, was very sweet. He blocked off his weekend to hang around me and was very charming and solicitous to all the Titas, debating the affairs of the world and discussing philosophy, the war, god,redemption,the US midterm elections, etc., even sitting down with them to complete a quorum for mahjong and stayed up until 2 AM to lose $5. All this attention for a very routine hysterectomy, which half of the women I know have done long before me. Evelyn had hers removed in the 80's, the old way, by opening her belly. I had the benefit of new technology and new philosophy in women's health, preserving the quality of life. I had the supracervical laparoscopic hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, to remove an ovarian cyst that had doubled in size in the last 6 months. They took out all my unique defining female organs through a small tube inserted through a tiny cut just below my belly button, and left no incision scar after the procedure. Because it left the cervix still anchoring the vagina, I was spared dissection in the pelvic floor which accounted for some prolapsed bladder and low back pain in some women, and the new sensitivity here is that it left the vagina intact, whereas in the old way the vagina had to be shortened to close off the part where the cervix was, and this accounted for loss of sexual responsiveness and painful intercourse in some women. Like this would be a major need, since Johnny had been dead 2 years and the dating game had never been one I enjoyed playing. But hey, it's good to have it preserved, you never know. So here I am, a truly liberated woman, I have gotten rid of the organs that kept me victimized, from feeling bloated and fat and cramping pain, from being smelly and messy during certain periods every month, from being penalized with unwanted pregnancy if I only go for sex for pleasure and throw contraception responsibility to the wind, from having too many sites where something can become diseased and kill me, uterine cancer, ovarian disease, breast cancer, cervical cancer, etc,. So I feel truly free. Now this discourse is for the benefit of those who were inquiring if I am getting depressed because my womanhood had been cut away. Oh my! Don’t they know that womanhood is in the brain, and the sexiest organ is the brain? That it is the seat of orgasm? I bet you I can have an orgasm rivaling Meg Ryan in that movie restaurant scene without anyone or myself touching any body parts! So I’ll keep my brains, thank you.

But I am very grateful for the caring and attention I have received from everyone, I feel very lucky.