I have enough of D and C

Never bothered to know the exact words of the abbreviation until I needed and experienced that myself, not just once but three times. Could not even catch what the words that the gynaecologist was saying. As usual, I went to my books for information. D and C, in medical terms, is dilation and curettage.

Thursday, 28 August 2003. I was bleeding continually for 18 days. As a diagnostical and a therapeutical remedy, a D and C procedure was done. Specimens submitted to the laboratory showed features of simple/cystic endometrial hyperplasia. More medical terms, which I understood as unhealthy cells, which would become cancerous, if untreated. That was frightening. I was at the risk of developing cancer in my uterus!!

I watched the doctor administered the general anaesthetic injection and saw him walked out of the operating theatre. I didn’t feel sleepy or drowsy at all. I thought I was fully awake all the time. I saw the nurse moving about in the room, cleaning, and wondered why the doctor had not returned. I asked the nurse “when is the doctor going to operate?” The nurse looked at me “it is already done”.

That was not the end of my experience with the D and C. The gynaecologist would perform another D and C after I have completed a 6-month hormone replacement therapy. The cause of my menstruation period gone hare-wired and the unusual bleeding was a drop in my progesterone hormone. The next D and C was necessary to ensure that there were no more unhealthy cells and eliminated.

Thursday, 25 March 2004. Like the first D and C in August 2003, it was all over before I realised it – smooth and painless, thanks to the general anaesthesia, although it takes at least 2-3 hours to wear off the drowsiness effect of it.

Friday, 6 May 2005. Was it the emotional stress of a deteriorating husband-wife relation or was it the emotional and physical stress of moving house from one city to another that contributed to my hormone imbalance this time? Or simply, was my body entering the pre-menopausal stage? Specimens showed that the oestrogen output in my ovary was okay and no trichomonas or yeasts detected. I was not menopausing. I did not have any fibroids in my uterus, neither was I infected with any venereal diseases in my reproductive organs. So what’s wrong with me? My periods were still irregular and I was still experiencing indefinite bouts of unusual discharge and bleeding.

The new gynaecologist that I saw in the new city suggested the same remedy to my medical problem – a D and C. What! Another one? Third time in barely 2 years’ period!! Another general anaesthesia – is that why I think my memory is not as good as before????? I am grateful to say that was the last D and C.