After the Surgery: Jenn's Healing Journey Insights on Endometriosis & Recovery

The whole gang's back together again!  Jenn returns from her surgery recovery and shares her recent experience with endometriosis surgery, recovery, and all of the emotional and physical implications. She reflects on the importance of community support, self-care, and trusting our intuition in navigating complex health decisions.

Today, we touch on:

• Jenn’s decision to proceed with the hysterectomy and ovarian removal.
• The healing validation that comes from this surgery.
• Trusting that we are making the best decision that we can with the information that we have available at the time, regardless of the outcome.
• Navigating medication, hormonal changes & treatment options post-surgery.
• The sneaky nature of endometriosis.
• The emotional impact of losing reproductive organs.
• Coaching ourselves through the patience necessary for recovery from major abdominal surgery.
• The blessing that is community support during recovery and midlife.
• Leveraging health challenges to reset mindset, values, and clarity regarding meaningful priorities to shake up those old, automatic habits and patterns that no longer serve us.  
• Practical tips for recovery, including the use of supportive accessories like hysterectomy pillows for comfort and as reminders to slow down.  

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates

01:35 Surgery Insights and Decisions

07:11 Pathology Report and Validation

10:24 Navigating Post-Surgery Emotions

15:14 Hormone Replacement Therapy Discussion

17:58 Understanding Lab Results Post-Surgery

20:44 Community Support and Personal Growth

30:00 Resetting Priorities and Values

Resources & Links:

• Hysterectomy Pillow - https://a.co/d/0aKUvSHb

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Real women.

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Real talk.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Real messy.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

This is Messy Midlife. Hi, everybody, and welcome back to Messy Midlife. Hey ladies.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hi Jen. Hi, Elisa.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

I'm so happy to be back with you guys. It's only been a couple of weeks in podcast world since, I think actually only one episode since we last talked. Uh, but it's been a couple of weeks in real life since we've actually all been together because it's I had surgery recovering and I was just not gonna do it. I was not gonna take the time to do anything other than heal, which was a really hard thing for me, but I did so much better than other surgeries. So I'm happy to see you guys.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Happy to see you too. It's great to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Happy you're doing well. Yeah, so I figured there's been enough talk about, you know, endometriosis awareness and all of that stuff. And I've shared enough of my journey. I figure I would take over today a little bit and talk to you guys about my surgery and the recovery and everything and how I'm doing and any insights that I might have for others. I don't know that I honestly have insights. We'll see if they come, but I don't have any that are on my mind necessarily. But it still matters to talk about the completion of the thing that was going on. So I think probably the most important thing to share is that I my surgeon did agree in the long run that it was the right call. Did I share that with you guys? Right. But yeah, we were a little on the fence about the surgery just because I was controlled enough with pain that it wasn't sending me to the emergency room. But I do need to also be aware that it was impacting my daily life. And that was something that I sometimes struggle with. What level of pain actually counts, you know? But if it's keeping me from going to Pilates or I'm missing out on something because I just don't feel good enough to go and I'm not willing to do, take the chance it's gonna make it worse, then that is pain that's interfering with my life, even if it's not call an ambulance level of pain. And I don't seem to recognize that quickly enough. And I'm guessing a lot of people are the same that we don't recognize that our pain matters if it's just not terrible, but bad enough that it's keeping us from life. So we weren't sure though, just because you know, it wasn't my pain wasn't so bad. There wasn't like clear, obvious new growth. But again, we talked about before, you can't really see endometriosis on imaging unless it's really, really, really bad. And the I did actually have some, some uh, I don't know, feeling going in that was better and more confident because the general surgeon and the colorectal surgeon, because we knew I had an implant on my rectum, they wanted to get imaging to just see how if it was really a deep infiltrating implant and to just get an idea of anything. So they got they did an MRI, and the MRI was highly suggestive that there was more endometriosis than my surgeon knew about. And so there was things, parts of my body that you can't see the endometriosis, but you can see where parts that shouldn't be next to each other are next to each other. So suggesting that there's adhesions where they're sticking together because of the endometriosis scarring and adhesions that can come. And so we had reason to suspect that I had more lesions than was known going in. So I was like, okay, I'm feeling better that this is the right call. Uh, there was a possibility that there was adenomiosis as well, which adenomiosis is essentially, it's like endometriosis in some ways, but it's the endometrial lining growing into the muscular wall of the uterus rather than outside of the uterus altogether. So it can be very painful, it can cause a lot of really swelling, it can cause a lot of similar symptoms to endometriosis, but it's not that invasive, widespread on places that it really shouldn't be like not out. It's outside of the organ that it belongs in. It shouldn't be in the muscular wall. So that's why it can also cause pain. Turns out I didn't have adenomiosis, which is, you know, doesn't neither here nor there. My uterus is gone. Ursula is gone. She is, she has but left the building. Goodbye, Ursula. But the really, really positive thing that made me feel, okay, this was the right thing to do is that I was on two medications, one that should have prevented additional growth from happening. And I'd been on that for it's an almost, it would have been almost two years by the time I had the surgery, because it was July of 24 that I started that. That should have prevented any additional growth. And then I was on another one that should have caused some recession, like receding of the lesions that were there. I think that it might have actually worked because one of the lesions that we knew that I had was actually gone. So I think that that one did work, that it just hadn't done enough of its job, and that the other one probably just wasn't working as well as I needed it to, because there was actually more lesions than she had left from the first surgery. So should not have been new lesions, should have been smaller lesions, but I had both one lesion that did get taken care of, hopefully. She did look very, very hard. So hopefully it's truly actually gone. Uh, and uh, but I also had new growth that I shouldn't have had. So it was the right thing to do to just get rid of it. The other thing that was really validating in the end was from the pathology report. Cause I was like, I kept saying, Do I really need to get rid of everything? Because I removed both ovaries too. So it was a total hysterectomy and an oophorectomy. And so I just everything is was gone. And I was validated with that decision, and so was she. And she said this was absolutely the right thing to do, even before we got the pathology report, because from what she saw, shouldn't have been there. And she said this was the right call. Then we got the pathology report, no adenomyiosis, but I had endometriosis in both ovaries, both of them. And where she couldn't see it, she was shocked to find that the pathology report had found that. They that the pathologist had seen the endometrosis on both ovaries. And I was just like, oh my gosh, I'm so grateful now that we actually took them because I am at substantially increased risk for ovarian cancer, which we definitely need to have an episode about at some point. But ovarian cancer, you know, you was one of those cancers that you don't really know that you got it until you're about to die from it. And it's it's relatively asymptomatic, but it turns out it's not asymptomatic. It's it's symptoms that really look like other things. And so I no longer have to worry about that. And so that's actually a really, really big relief because of the fact that I had a known endometrioma already substantially increased my risk for ovarian cancer. But then having endometriosis that wasn't even known about or even seen, having it just there in my ovaries made it a bigger risk. And so there was part of me that was wondering, should I just take the one that had the endometriosis on it? I'm glad we just took it all and got rid of it.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

So validating. Yeah. With such a vague and complicated picture that so many women have to navigate blindly and oftentimes with providers who are not supportive, like yours. I mean, it it's so complex, even though you you have as much knowledge as you have, and your provider is really collaborative. It was still difficult to navigate. Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Because you don't want to, you don't want to have a surgery for nothing because it's not without its risk of complications. And it's it's a tough thing to do. And I can't imagine. I mean, I knew I had lesions that were still there. I knew this. She knew this. It was documented. And I still was worried. What if she gets in there and that's nothing? And that's happened. That I've seen it on endometriosis forums that people are certain that they have endometriosis and it explains everything. And then they get in and there's nothing there. And then what? And then, and I'll also even worried like what are they gonna say about me? I've even there, I've even had the thoughts because I've had pain in the area that had the lesion that was on my diaphragm. The diaphragm lesion is the one that actually could not be found, so resolved. And and so I've had some discomfort there for years now that she has assumed is from that. My primary care has assumed from that. I have assumed from that. And now I'm like, are they all gonna say it's in my head? And thankfully, I'm aware that it is actually probably more related to my cholestyssectomy, so my gallbladder removal. So thankfully, they're not looking at me saying, it's all in your head. They're saying, Yeah, we need to figure out where this is coming from because we all thought it was this, and now it's not that at least uh at least right now it's not. Some of it probably was. Right now it is not. And so, but it's still in my head. Like, am I making this up? Are they do they think I'm making this up?

SPEAKER_01 9:16

It's just it's a lot. Yeah. And that's why it's so important and special that you can share your story, that you're willing to share your story, and that people who are navigating things like this can feel validated and supported by your experience.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

I think it's really important also for other women to also know that if you have surgery and it didn't kind of validate everything that you thought, that that's still okay too. We get in this place with treatments and intervention where it's they make the right choice or the wrong choice. And I think it's really important for women to know like there isn't a wrong choice. Like the choice you made is the right choice. Things might have to follow up from that, right? There might be things that come after, but I think we tend to put a bit of like blame on ourselves. And I think that that's something that's really important that all women are are realizing we we don't need to put that blame there. Like, even if I had this surgery and didn't see everything that I thought we were going to see, and maybe it wasn't on both ovaries, but I took them out, that's still okay. Yeah, you made the right decision with the information that you had at the time. There's no I shouldn't have done it.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Well, and every human, no matter what, whether it's surgery, whether it's we always are making the best decision we can with the information we have at the time. You know, we've we've talked about that before. So it's just it's a good reminder. And it's still so hard to get out of that space mentally that we can just accept that this was the right decision, whether it led to the outcome we wanted or not, it was the best decision we could have made at the time. And we made it, you know, especially in my case, we didn't make it lightly. Yeah. So we talked last time uh that I was here, we talked a little bit about some of the stuff that you know I was feeling going into the surgery. And I'm really grateful for the awareness that I had going in because I dealt with it before the surgery. And so I was able to handle just the, okay, now it's time to heal. This this phase is done. Ursula has left the building. Ursula is gone. That yes, I can, I no longer have a uterus and ovaries, and there's like no chance that I am biologically having another child. We I wasn't planning on it anyway, but still something, you know, it gets into your head about who you are, what you are, like all of those things can sort of get in your in your mind. But I've thankfully worked through it beforehand. So I haven't had any fallout from that after the fact. We talked before, you know, a couple several episodes ago. We've been talking a lot about, you know, the doctory side of things and the hormones and everything. And it's, I gotta say, ladies, it was so, it's so useful because of this shifting that I'm having with a lot of different things. And I'm trying to figure out, okay, now what? And what where does my focus on my health, where where does it where I really need the attention and and what's what means what, you know? And so it was really beneficial to have that background going into conversations. We did decide, you know, I had a conversation with my surgeon about hormone replacement and what those options might be. And I talked to her about, you know, the traditional hormone replacement versus the bioidentical that we should not call bioidential, the different support that includes the two different forms of estrogen in it. So we decided we were just gonna wait and see how I did after the surgery before we started anything for a couple of reasons. The one for first and foremost was we're doing this surgery because estrogen makes my endometriosis substantially worse. So we don't want to do the surgery and then immediately start something that could make any little bit that's left. Because she acknowledges, she's like, hopefully we're done and we should be done. She she spent a long time. Aliza, you if if you want to share anything about the surgery waiting time at all, because Aliza picked me up and she drove me there and picked me up from the surgery too. And I I had some scares for people because it took me a while to get out of surgery. And it was a very it was a longer than expected surgery and a longer than expected recovery, like coming out of anesthesia. But she took a she took her time to look everywhere to make sure she got as much as she possibly could. That said, endometriosis is sneak, sneaky. And so it's very possible that there could be something left, or maybe that spot that she couldn't see, maybe it was microscopic and it's still there, you know, because she didn't see the stuff on my ovaries, but it was there. So she didn't want to take any chance that we did the surgery and then immediately start me on something that could make it much worse. Yeah. And so there was that. And then the other thing is I was on medication that was essentially putting me in menopause anyway. So it was there was a chance that I was gonna feel just fine and not notice anything from the surgery. So that was actually my experience. I didn't, I have not noticed anything from the surgery. So I did not immediately start having really insane hot flashes. I didn't immediately get terrible headaches and get really and crazy depressed and anxious. I uh once the medication for the surgery was actually out of my system and I was no longer on the opioids, I was good. I was like calm and I was as long as I was not stuck in my room, you know, in the my recovery room all day. If I could move around my house a little bit and not needing to take opioid painkillers, I was not agitated or mentally not feeling my best. So that was a really good thing. And I'm pretty confident that it's at this point, I'm almost four weeks post-surgery. I'm fairly confident that I'm not gonna need to take hormone replacement at all. And so I'm feeling good about that because there's was risk, and I was nervous about the possibility of taking it and what it could contribute to, you know, with breast cancer risk, with the risk that I have with my family, and just the endometriosis risk, both of those things. Grateful that it was an easy, smooth transition for me with that. So not having to take any of the like the medications for it too is nice. So fewer things I have to take in the morning has been really lovely. Um, but then there's there's the other things that you guys talked about with all the impacts that the hormones have and estrogen in particular, on all the ways that it, you know, thermoregulation and the impacts on cholesterol and all of that. And so a few weeks after surgery, I got labs drawn, and they were, they were the worst that I've ever seen them be. And thankfully, again, very lucky that I have the doctor that I have because she shared them with me, even though she wasn't the one who ordered them. It was my primary care. And she just says, I see that you want to panic. Let's not panic. We just had surgery 13 days ago. Labs are gonna, like, I'm I'm not surprised that labs would be chaotic. We need to draw them again in about four weeks, see what they look like then, and then decide if we need to do anything. And so my inflammation markers were actually higher than they were before, like what before surgery, but that is understandable. It turns out I probably had some infections going on that needed to be treated, which could also contribute. And then the biggest thing though is my my lipids and my liver, one of my liver enzymes were a lot higher. And so now, because of the information that you guys have shared with me and my greater understanding of these things, especially in that transitional place, not in the ideal functioning place or in the menstruating place, I am hopeful that it's the medication because they're all of the things that were elevated were things that the medication can make elevated. However, the medication was trying to mimic the surgery. And so I don't know yet if it's the medication made them go higher or if the medication eliminating my estrogen made them go higher. And if now off the medication, but no longer having a uterus and ovaries, if I'm going to have that be something that I have to tend to. So I'm practicing being mindful to not make big swinging changes that might not be necessary so I can have an accurate reflection of what was medication and surgery issues versus what is something that might actually need to be tended to on its own as a new thing or an ongoing thing. And as much as I will sometimes say, this was a surgery, did I do this to myself with a surgery? I need to remind myself that this is coming anyway. I have surgical menopause, but menopause was coming anyway. And so if this is a problem now because of the surgery, if it if it persists, then I need to remember this was likely coming anyway and was going to need attention anyway. And so 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

And don't focus on labs two weeks after surgery. Like you also, besides any type of medication for the endometriosis, you had general anesthesia. So everything is gonna be wonky after that, too. You had a major surgery, everything is gonna be wonky. Like you would be unreal if you didn't have a high inflammatory marker.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

That's a healing process. So I'm and this is something you haven't touched much on major abdominal surgery. We're talking about all of the specifics of endometriosis and the complexities around what your surgeon had to maneuver and what you had to maneuver, but this was a major abdominal surgery, and there is a tremendous amount of healing that has to come from everything reorganizing and clearing out the debris, and all of that is inflammation. So yeah, two weeks. It's like it's a little surprising. Maybe they were looking for things that would be concerning, like major infection or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

My surgery got moved, so this was planned to actually be four weeks. So it was my primary care who had ordered it. And the thing is, we'd had I had labs drawn after my surgery, my prior surgery. We'd had labs drawn actually within a week, but I didn't think through. I was still taking painkillers, I was still on anti-inflammatories. So of course my inflammatory markers were down because you know, and like the because those were surprisingly good. And those were these were surprisingly bad. So it's it's a question of where where are we at with the healing process? What medications are we taking that's influencing that? Because I did think about it this time and I stopped anything that would be an anti-inflammatory, but only like four days before, you know, and I and it wasn't even just like major abdominal surgery, I had a lot of extra stuff too, right? Eliza with the the um anesthesia, because I have had this is my third abdominal surgery. So I I know when I need extra stuff now, and I can tell the anesthesiologist, like, give me the extra thing uh to make sure that I'm okay. Uh, plus apparently a rough time waking up and then needing some extra painkillers that I haven't needed to be given to me immediately post-surgery before. Yeah, just trying to keep my head calm about all of that. But for anybody else who might be going through uh hysterectomy and an oophorectomy, and even just on hysterectomy, it's like these are things to just keep in mind as you are healing and that things might change and that being, I do think I'm it's important to be diligent with checking these things ahead of time because of the fact that we have so much that changes when we no longer have the same ability to produce estrogen and progesterone. And so I do think that it's wise that even if it's something that could give me panic, we can all learn from it, right? And I can give updates later as I learn more, especially if people are curious about what's happening in my body that they could potentially learn from for themselves and get examples from. So yeah. The other main things that came from the surgery are more like life stuff. And I think those are probably important in the messy midlife stuff to talk about, the things that we touch on. So letting myself rest more. I did do a little bit of work ahead of time to let myself get ready so that the things that I knew that I needed to do, that only I could do, were like taken care of, scheduled, handled for up to three weeks just because I knew there was possibility of complication from the surgery. But I also just didn't try to do more than was only me that I was able to do. And I relied on my husband in ways that I haven't before, where I tried to be to do all of the things so it was as easy on him as possible and trying to take care of him before I'm taking care of me. And I didn't do that this time, including like I would normally go grocery shopping right before something like this. I didn't even do that because I'm like, I don't know what you want to. Make. And it's up to you to figure that out. I will happily go and do the grocery trip because that's one of my responsibilities in our family. I will happily go and do that, but I'm not going to decide for you what to do. And he didn't give it to me. And so I was like, all right, I'm taking care of me. Like you go on your trips to do the volunteer work that's so important to you in the days before you're leaving. You're focused on making sure you're ready for the thing you're going to do. You're not running around doing all the groceries for me and preparing meals and all that stuff. So if it's okay for you, it's okay for me, and vice versa. And so I really leaned into that and I just rested the day before my surgery so that I could be as ready and like as like calm as possible going into it. And I think that that really helped because instead of feeling like I like he was being seen as somebody who was incapable, probably. He was being treated as a partner and an equal that can take care of the stuff and he can figure it out. And that I'm not saying, oh, you you can't do this, so I have to do this for you. And so it was the probably the best thing I could have done because he stepped up, because I gave him the space to do it. And how many times could we learn from that? And just in general, if we give somebody the space to step up, they're going to, instead of us just feeling like we have to take care of everything. So that was really good. And that allowed me to just be like, nope, I'm just, I'm gonna read books, I'm gonna knit and crochet, I'm gonna watch trash TV. I'm gonna try to watch some TV that's not trash. I'm gonna relax, you know, walk when I can and not walk anymore.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

And yeah. I am so proud of us that I am tearful right now hearing you talk about this. Like I'm feeling all of all the feels in my nose and my eyes because this is this has been so central to what we have, the reason that we want to do this for each other, for for the three of us and and all of the women that this will touch, because it is making a difference. I know that it's making a difference. It's making a difference in my life. I hearing your story right now is is a big shift. And I'm just I feel really proud of us and really happy for you that that played out the way that it did, that you committed to it, and it was a good outcome, a really fantastic outcome.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

It was hard too. Like I wouldn't want to acknowledge, it was hard. Yes, and I had to talk myself through it multiple times. Yes. I had to talk myself through it. I also had to talk myself through letting myself get taken care of and allowing people to show up. And so in our last couple of episodes, we talked about, you know, the birthday party and the women showing up and taking care and like the connected knowing and and all of that. And the surgery was a further affirmation that I have more community than I acknowledge in the past, and that people care about me. And if I let them, they'll show up for me. And even to the point that, you know, a friend drove down from Orange County to just bring some snacks, order some lunch, hang out on the couch, and then and then bail on the couch, even and go and lay in the bed, my you know, guest in recovery room, and watch a movie. We watched wine country and just laid in bed together and talked about how we need to do a girls' trip soon after I get better, you know, and hopefully not have any of the issues that come up in wine country, but you know, they're gonna happen because it's a messy midlife, right? So that was really good to see that and to have the care that both of you showed. You know, Karen, you weren't able to be here in person. And I know that if you could have, you would have. And you sent some wonderful things to help me feel cozy and comfortable in my recovery. And Aliza, you drove me to my surgery. You picked me up. I was coming too in my surgery where I was out much longer than I was expected. I was hearing the nurses talk about how they kept getting calls and that people were worried and like, I don't, and this person wasn't waking up and that somebody was in the waiting room waiting and like what's going on. And it was me they were talking about because Elisa and my husband were calling because I was in, it took like three and a half hours for me to wake up and it should have taken like 45 minutes. Kyle, not only did he step up with stuff, but he was so thoughtful. And apparently, like there was some amount of him being a little bit worried about my surgery too, because uh he shared about it with friends and told me about it and had backup plans for like how his how his friends could help step up and not just my friends. We almost always are relying on my friends for things, but he got to see that his friends cared too, and that his friends were like, here's how we can help if something goes wrong with Jen. And but he showed up, even though he was not the my driver. He came to the hospital and sat in the waiting room for three hours because he wanted me to not feel like weird and alone coming out of recovery. But he had to leave before I was able to see him because it took me that long to come out of recovery. So the whole time they're like talking about me and talking about Aliza and the number of times she called to say, what is going on? Is there a problem? Why is she not awake?

SPEAKER_01 27:07

What did you say, Lisa? Where is my friend? Where is my friend? Yeah, because all my friends are asking me about our friend, Jen, because Eliza did a fantastic job of keeping us posted and sending updates. It was it was a community effort for sure.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Well, and then Elisa came and dropped me off, and an immediate was like, You do not have the right pillow. I'm ordering you this pillow right now. And she sent me that. And then another friend who also is lives farther away and couldn't be there in person, and I know would have done a 10,000 things to take care of me if she was my next door neighbor. She sent me this lovely little highland cow with like lavender in it that you can heat up and warm and like it's weighted, and it was so soothing and so wonderful. And she bought me a hysterectomy pillow that I didn't think I needed, but man, that thing was really useful. So get the hysterectomy pillows. There was somebody on TikTok who had suggested it, and I talked to somebody, one of my providers about it, and they're like, I don't think you really need it. It's just another thing in your house. Oh no, it was so useful because it's basically just this pillow that you wear that has a pocket in it in the back and the front. The back you can stick heating pads or ice packs in to help with pain and all that. And the front you can carry around stuff, but for nothing else, it was a buffer between a six-year-old and my surgical site and dogs and my surgical site. And she said, she said that when she had used one for another surgery that she had, that she said that it was, if nothing else, it was a reminder to slow down because you're wearing this thing that's like, hey, things aren't normal right now. And that was also really useful. So a really positive thing that came from this was seeing all the ways that people care and letting myself be cared for and that being okay, and just a reinforcement of the community that I have and all the the moms that showed up to take Zephyr to go to do stuff. Because as much as Kyle really stepped up and was so good and such a great partner and a good dad through all of this, he's not mom. And so this was hard on her. And it's so me being out of commission is harder on him than him being away is hard on me because she's a mama's girl. And so it was really, really lovely that people even just showed up to give him a break so that he could be present with me and take care of his own needs too. So that, and I know that they did it for me because it was my friends that showed up to take care of her, not his friends. Just his friends don't have other kids that are his age or like Zephyr's age. So not a not to point a finger at them. I know that they would have stepped up in other ways for him. So yeah, I think that that's like a really good thing that came. And then the other final thought that I have for anybody who goes through this is I'm seeing this as an opportunity for a personal reset in a lot of ways and resetting my mindset about my worth and my value and what I need to be doing and where I can allow others to do things with me or for me, and what really ultimately matters. You know, through all of this health stuff that I've had in the last couple of years, I have made it very clear to myself that my values are my health, my family, and my business in that order. Um, and that if I'm not taking care of my health, then I'm not there to take care of my family or to run a business. So I have to take care of myself and my health first. And that there's ways that I have not really fully made that transition that have become much more clear for me. And so using the opportunity to really shift into the ways that I have been neglecting stuff that I need to do to feel my best physically and mentally, so that I can show up in those other areas more effectively. And that it really is just shaking up a whole lot of patterns and habits that I've gotten into that I'm working on really just taking a big shift in and recognizing I don't just because I've always been doing it this way, doesn't mean I need to continue. Cause you know, I I can't go to Pilates for eight weeks. I can't swim for eight weeks. I can, I can't do really, really strenuous exercise. I can do gentle exercise and build up over time. But yeah, it's just yeah, an opportunity to reset, put things in the place that actually is aligned with my values. And hopefully, even though I'm heading into 47, which we share, you know, Lisa shared us supposedly the uh unhappiest time of your life. Hopefully, as Karen, you also said, we're overachievers. Hopefully we overachieved and we're ready to have a transition. But either way, regardless of what's coming in the future, all I can do is the next right thing and the next best step forward with the information I have right now. And whether the outcome is what I want it to be, I still am taking this opportunity to try my best and recognize what wasn't serving me and try to fit it in more effectively. So hold on for me again today, but that's the summary of my surgery. Any lessons for you guys from my surgery? Do you guys want to go have surgery now too, so you can have this chance? No. Thank you. Thanks for taking one for the team.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Yeah, I I I think in hearing your story, and I mean, I am, I I feel so moved by what this is inspiring for you, Jen, and and what you've already put into place from what we've talked about in in terms of self-care and showing up for ourselves in a different way. It it comes up in lots of different ways. You know, like I'm I'm reflecting on a situation that I have in my own family where I had to make a decision that was so different than what I would have ever done in the past. And it was really difficult. And it was a lot of self-reflection and a lot of talking my myself through very different circumstances from your surgery, but similar outcomes and similar processes as well. That I just feel really proud of us. And Lisa, I know that you're doing the same. You know, this is this is what Messy Midlife Podcast is all about. And we're seeing the benefits of our intention.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

All right, ladies. Well, thanks for listening to my story and having this circle close, hopefully. And I'm hopeful that we won't need to revisit the surgical part, the pain part, but I'm sure we will revisit the shifts and how they've come along the way and the things that we continue to learn from myself and that can apply to other people too. So I'm sure that the conversation is not completely over, but I think we're done for today. What do you guys think? Yeah. All right. Take care, everybody. Love you guys.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

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SPEAKER_00 33:55

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