They Were NOT Supposed To TAKE Her Uterus

本站添加: 2026-05-25

[00:00:01]Hello ladies and gentlemen. Today we are going to talk about a young woman who went in to have surgery to have her tumor removed off of her uterus and ended up with an unconented hyerectomy.

[00:00:19]Before we even delve into this topic, I work in peroperative. Okay. Peroperative meaning everything surrounding an operation. Preop intraop which is in the O during the surgery and posttop also known as PACU or post anesthesia care.

[00:00:39]Okay.

[00:00:43]A surgeon is legally obligated to have a consent that indicates what they're going in for the patient and what could potentially happen when they are under anesthesia in the midst of a surgery.

[00:01:01]At no point at no point should an individual wake up devastated with a lack of knowledge that something that took place could have taken place.

[00:01:16]The conversation can be devastating beforehand. The surgeon can come in there and say to the patient, "Listen, the goal is to go in and get rid of the cancer. If we go in and the only solution is to remove the uterus, that is what we will do. We'll have to do it.

[00:01:33]If the patient begins to cry and becomes emotional and wants to speak to family, understood. But at least you understand what could happen under no circumstances.

[00:01:48]Under zero circumstances should you discover after the procedure. Hey, listen.

[00:01:57]I know we went in for a toe procedure, but I actually also saw something on your hip and I just took the liberty and went ahead and did it.

[00:02:11]You don't do that. That's not how it works.

[00:02:15]That is not how it works. It is the surgeon's responsibility after the procedure. I've seen these conversations so often, more times than I can count, where the surgeon comes and talks to the patient afterwards when they're a little bit more awake, the anesthesia is beginning to wear off and they say, "Hey, listen. This is what I saw as discussed prior to I sent it to pathology, which is really just the study of disease so that they can take a a deeper look and assess what this is that was found. Nothing else was done because we didn't talk about anything else. We don't even know what it is.

[00:02:50]there isn't enough information. You didn't receive enough education from me for me to just proceed. Do you understand what I'm saying?

[00:03:00]So when I was having this conversation with a number of other health care professional working in the peroperative realm, it infuriated me because the time that this took place, which was with Fanny Lou Hammer, I believe that's how you say her name, or Hammer.

[00:03:22]This was during the time where these types of procedures where sterilization would take place without the permission of the African-Amean woman was so prevalent that it was nicknamed the Mississippi appendecttomy.

[00:03:42]So no, the argument cannot under any circumstance be well maybe the surgeon thought that they were saving her life by removing the whole uterus.

[00:03:54]No, no, no.

[00:04:00]Africanameans were not seen as autonomous individuals who can individually make their own decisions.

[00:04:07]Decisions were made for them.

[00:04:11]They were not seen as full human beings with rights.

[00:04:16]We have to understand that.

[00:04:19]So that argument is not fair.

[00:04:23]We cannot say that the surgeon was doing their best.

[00:04:29]That's not how that works.

[00:04:31]And no, we cannot say that during this time there weren't as many policies and procedures in place. They were in place for our Caucasian counterparts. They were disregarded for African-Americans.

[00:04:47]Are we understanding?

[00:04:50]I'm saying all of this to say because, you know, there is a storytime component.

[00:04:57]I had a patient wake up devastated in tears, balling because she was so sure, so sure that some of her organs would be missing.

[00:05:07]And I just remembered some of my co-workers thinking that it was the most ridiculous thing in the world for her to think something like that, that it's the most ludicrous thing in the world and that it was the anesthesia token. Come to find out from her preop nurse that she was fearful of that beforehand. Now granted, before you go into surgery, it is completely normal to have like waves and bouts of anxiety. Normal. Normal.

[00:05:30]But that fear not unrealistic.

[00:05:33]It is not unrealistic for the black community. The amount of unfortunate circumstances that took place in history to the African-American community makes it very difficult to trust the health care system. There are still things taking place still.

[00:05:53]And so I want to take this opportunity.

[00:05:55]I want to take this video to take the opportunity to share that there are ways for us to advocate.

[00:06:03]This is not intended for us to fear the health care system. It is intended for us to advocate for ourselves. It is intended for self-empowerment.

[00:06:14]So, one thing to remember, especially when it comes to the African-American reproductive system, unfortunately, black women are disproportionately at a higher rate, a higher chance of getting fibroids. Fibroids are non-cancerous growths on the uterus.

[00:06:36]Then there's also endometrius.

[00:06:37]Endometrial cancer. Endometrius is scarring. That is as simple as I can get. I'm just trying to get to the point, but it can get bad. And so, there are certain tests that can be done to get a more detailed image of exactly what's going on. And I want to encourage African-American women to ask for those tests when it comes to certain symptoms.

[00:07:04]CT scans are more so for not necessarily for getting a better idea of what's going on with the reproductive system. Unless we're looking for an abnormal growth or a deformity, the CT scan will pick it up.

[00:07:21]I want to encourage things like an MRI, which are great for picking up fibroids, or even an ultrasound.

[00:07:31]Unfortunately, some of the smaller fibroids, depending on where it is on the uterus, can cause larger problems or blockages, and you would like to be able to see that sooner rather than later. Another thing, fibroids are heavily tied to vitamin D deficiencies, which is another issue that the African-American community deals with. Keep up with your vitamin D. take your supplements and when it's time for you to get your physical, which you should be doing yearly, and they draw your labs, ask for a vitamin D level, a vitamin D serum, a serum, vitamin D.

[00:08:11]See what it's looking like.

[00:08:14]Now, I'm saying all of this because the intake of vitamin D helps with shrinking fibroids and slowing the growth of fibroids.

[00:08:26]I don't know what's going to happen in 10 years or five years or seven years.

[00:08:29]Something's going to come out and they're going to be like actually vitamin D.

[00:08:34]But based on the research and the studies that have been done up until now, there is a correlation between a sufficient amount of vitamin D intake and the shrinkage or slowing of the growth of fibroids. Okay?

[00:08:50]I want to strongly encourage that. I want to strongly encourage everyone to get to know their body so when you go to the doctor, you know what you're talking about. Unfortunately, there are still way too many instances where doctors don't take what we're saying seriously. Granted, the reason why I'm stressing for everybody to get to know their bodies is because when you go and the information that you present is with confidence and with knowledge, you are less likely to be taken less seriously.

[00:09:26]There are still a lot of people everywhere that are taking advantage of the system and those people are making it harder for us.

[00:09:38]I can't stand here and and or sit here because I'm sitting and advocate for us to fight for ourselves and disregard the fact that there are actively people making it difficult for us to do so.

[00:09:50]I've seen them. I've taken care of them.

[00:09:53]They are on both ends of the spectrum.

[00:09:54]The people that are simply trying to be heard and be seen and the people that don't have anything to share. They just they just want to take advantage of the system. And that's that's the best I can do. And I don't want to be offensive.

[00:10:08]I'm just saying my experience has shown me that there are two different people out here fighting for the same thing, but very different motives. Very different motives.

[00:10:21]So fight, fight, fight, fight for yourself. Educate yourself. And now and this is another thing I wanted to address as well. There are a lot social media will completely deteriorate the way You're supposed to view certain things taking place within your body. You cannot compare your body's happenings with another body's happenings. People get on social media and it'll be they'll say things like, "That's wild that you have to do that. I've never had to do that." You and I are different people.

[00:10:52]This individual coming on social media sharing this can help someone going through something similar or encourage them to go see someone. You coming on here saying that doesn't happen. That's weird. That's strange. You're wild.

[00:11:08]What is the point of that?

[00:11:12]So, keep in mind, and you know, I don't mean to get too graphic, but another woman's discharge is not supposed to sound, smell, or look like your discharge. Get familiar with your body.

[00:11:26]So when you go to the doctor, you can say, "Listen, up until I turned 30, at this point during the month, this is what would happen. It's no longer happening. This is what's happening. I would like to have XYZ done. Please, I'm concerned that it'll turn into A, B, and C.

[00:11:49]That's way better and stronger than something's happening and I don't know what it is. I'm very uncomfortable." And so then the doctor's probably just going to draw a bunch of generic labs and those generic labs are not going to touch at all on what the actual issue is. Pay attention to you.

[00:12:06]You have to advocate for yourself.

[00:12:08]There was a time that my mom had went to the ER story time. And she did she does not do well with narcotics at all. She does not respond well to them. She doesn't like how she feels on them. She was having pain and she wanted to get to the source of the pain. please help me figure out why I'm having this pain so that we can address it. We can get to the root cause. The doctor comes in there and immediately says, "Well, I'm not giving you pain meds. I'm not giving you narcotics." So, I just want to get that out the way.

[00:12:39]This is what I mean.

[00:12:42]This is what I'm talking about. Now, my mom lit him a fire.

[00:12:48]She dug into that ass because she knows how to advocate for herself.

[00:12:55]At what point, sir, did I tell you I was looking for narcotics?

[00:13:01]I said, "I have a problem, and I'd like to figure out why I have that problem.

[00:13:06]So far, all you've been able to prove is that you may not be up for the task.

[00:13:12]Nothing that you've said has shown me that you're interested in helping me get to the root cause."

[00:13:19]Come on.

[00:13:21]Anyways, the matter at hand here is self-empowerment, self- advocacy, self-educating.

[00:13:30]Okay? Don't just Google, get some books, pay attention, take notes, journal, write things down. It makes a difference. Drink water and eat fruits.

[00:13:44]It's very important. I really hope this has been able to help some people. I'm coming out with some nurse comics. I've written several graph or two graphic novels, several other literary masterpieces.

[00:13:58]I'm excited. You guys should check out my school community. I just uploaded two new lessons, three actually, three new lessons. I teach about estranged diseases and I teach a short storytelling lab.

[00:14:13]Thank you guys so much.