Salute!

It will be a slightly different New Year's Eve this year. I'll be spending it recovering from surgery.

As I prepare to lose an organ -- one that's been with me for years, one that was highly valued but underutilized -- I am reflecting on moving into the rest of my life without it. Will I miss it?

I'm banking on 'no'. At my age, I really have no use for a uterus. It did not produce children, will not now produce children and would only be there for the downside now -- all the things that can go wrong with an aging organ.

Still, I'd like to offer a salute to my uterus -- it's been good to me up until these last few years. I could still keep it -- it's my choice, although the doctor recommends removing it. It's just that I simply can't find a good reason to preserve it. Even after removal of the tumor, there can still be issues that hamper my life -- another fibroid, continued bleeding, etc.. So with nothing but downside ahead of me, I've elected to have it removed. Oh, I'll still have my ovaries and all, which is the really important part at this point....but now, I'll never have to suffer through another menstrual cycle again. I'd really like to find a way to be sentimental about that, but I just can't. Thinking about that makes we want to celebrate. I never want to see a maxi pad again as long as I live. I will feel no tug at my heartstrings (or abdomen) as I bypass the feminine protection aisle at the grocery store. None at all.

So as I leave my uterus in 2009 and move into 2010 without it, I don't really have any regrets. I don't regret not using it to have children (I'm still not really a kid person and have probably saved some child a load of childhood misery). Up until recently, it was pretty good to me period after period after period. So I must say 'thanks' to my uterus and give it a big salute as I go off into the wild blue yonder without it. Cheers!