How I Prepared & Recovered From My Hysterectomy (FULL STORY)

I was so fired up for my 60th birthday. I was in the best shape of my life and planning big things for the next decade. It is going to be my decade of expansion. So needless to say, I was not expecting the results from a simple vaginal ultrasound to lead to needing a DNC and then a diagnosis of endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia, EIN, which is a precancerous lesion of the endometrium associated with a 40% risk concurrent endometrial cancer at the time of a hysterectomy. Oh man, this was like one doctor appointment after the next doctor appointment. We're like, everything's gonna be okay. Well, maybe it's gonna be okay. Well, and I'm like, holy smokes. So they're like, you gotta get a full hysterectomy. So I went and saw a couple doctors and then I settled into the reality of the surgery and the potential health challenges. Now, if you're facing a surgery, especially this one, I'm doing this so so that hopefully it can help you. Now I've got to say, you got to talk to your doctor, of course. I can't give medical advice, but what I'm going to share with you is how I prepared and recovered from this hysterectomy. Because now looking back, honestly, it was a breeze, and you usually don't hear that about hysterectomies. So first thing that started to happen and why I had to have it was I noticed a little spotting, and I went to the doctor, and then they did an ultrasound, then they did another ultrasound, then they did a DNC. So it kept going on until I got that diagnosis. And when we started to unpack Why would this happen? Why would I get this thickening? Honestly, no clue. I am adopted, and the one thing I do know about my birth mom is that she'd had a similar diagnosis, but that's all I'd known. And all I knew from that was that she got the diagnosis that she had uterine cancer, then she went off and meditated at Esalen, and then she was fine. So that's all I know. So who knows? But here's what I did to prepare, and what was actually amazing about all of this was I discovered the EIN diagnosis this literally days before I was walking into a Dr. Joe Dispenza retreat with a bunch of my friends who were active meditators and also physicians. So I go to that Dr. Joe Dispenza retreat, and it was bizarre. It was a 4-day advanced follow-up, and it seemed like everything he talked about was the results that they were getting with uterine cancer. And so I'm thinking, well, one of them must have told him. And I was sitting with him at dinner the last night, and he goes, no, I didn't know. I go, you kept talking about all the research and how much the research of meditation was supporting getting a clear diagnosis of being fine with uterine cancer. And he goes, yeah, you're going to be fine. So then I did some healing circles through his group. So that was the first thing that I did, was I started to actively see myself healed, fine, and do some active meditation. And we'll put into the notes how you can get more involved with Dr. Joe Dispenza's work. But basically, I'm a big believer that thoughts create. So I just saw myself healed, I saw myself strong, I saw myself being able to do all the things I want to do for decades on. So that was the first thing, that mental preparation, and I cannot underscore how important that was. And I also set this up as a challenge. Now I've had— I blew my knee out when I was 17, so I've had to have a couple, like 5 major knee surgeries complete with a knee replacement and a hip replacement because of all of that. So I've had my share of surgeries and I always approach them as a physical challenge and I get in the best shape possible for them. So that's what I did here too. I knew that what they told me is after you have a hysterectomy, you're not supposed to lift anything over 10 pounds for 6 weeks. I'll tell you how I handled that. So what I decided to do was get as strong as physically possible before so that I wouldn't lose much. So I literally went into the gym and massively cranked up my resistance. I started to go even harder, and I really started to work my core as well. Along with that, I started using something called a Kooch ball, which is a pelvic floor trainer, because I thought, you know what, I need to get everything in me as strong as possible. So I started sitting on this Kooch ball every day as well. So that was the next thing. And I also, of course, was doing my high-intensity interval training. Then I worked on my nutrition. These are all things that I've been doing anyway. I just made sure I was super duper consistent. I've always been consistent with the way that I eat and making sure that I get the optimal amount of protein. I also been taking creatine. I started that probably last year. It's one of the most important things that I've added into my supplement stack. So I made sure I stayed on the creatine. I made sure that I was on anato tocotrienols. But the big one was to make sure that I was actively using DIM to help detoxify the bad estrogens, along with doing saunas, because saunas help you detoxify as well. So those were the things that I was doing, and then I went in and did surgery. Okay, so the first 3 days after surgery, I will admit, I came home from surgery, I got home at about noon, and I actually had to be on a conference call. I told them I don't know if I'm going to be on it, but I was fine. I was on the conference call at 1:30. And the first 3 days I took it pretty easy, but I made sure that I was getting up and moving because that was super important. I will tell you, those first 3 days I was really tired, but the thing I didn't realize was going to happen, and I didn't hear about this until afterwards— maybe they don't want to tell you until afterwards because this was the hardest part— was that they pump you full of gas, and that gas takes a couple of months to really go away. And the first week or two are the worst. Now, he told me it was going to be problematic, but I didn't know it was going to be problematic that long, where you looked kind of like you swallowed a bowling ball. So that was not very fun the first couple days. So as I was going through the first couple days, what I did was make sure that I was getting what I needed nutritionally, but I was eating smaller meals. So I ate 4 meals instead of 3, and smaller, because it was just tough because of the gas. What I made sure that I did was take essential essential amino acids, and I did that twice a day. So what I really want to make sure of is when you are on bed rest, you become more insulin resistant and you start losing muscle. So what I wanted to make sure is I was doing everything I could to aid healing and not lose muscle. So I took essential amino acids, I kept my creatine going, and I upped my protein. Normally I do 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. I took it to 1.5 grams of protein, and I also made sure that I was doing my Bone Broth protein shake every day because I'm going to get the collagen in there from that as Bone broth protein is about 80% collagen. Twice a day essential amino acids, 1.5 grams of protein per pound of target body weight. This is what I was doing with one of those servings, at least was a bone broth collagen blend. I also was getting in my creatine, 5 grams. I was using curcumin. Now I did this, I waited a couple days to start in on some of these things because these things can increase bleeding. So I gave myself a little bit of time first, and then I went into curcumin to help reduce inflammation and fish oil. But again, I didn't do those right away. I also used magnesium and vitamin C because you can get a little constipated from all this stuff, and some gas pills because it was really hurting. So that was what I did nutritionally. Now physically, here's some of the other things I did. I started doing red light, and I'm fortunate to have a Joov, J-O-O-V, red light therapy unit at home. You can also use a little red light therapy unit because you can just put it straight over your abdomen, but I used red light every day to help reduce the inflammation and support healing. I was getting into the sauna so that I could detox out the anesthesia. Couldn't do a cold plunge because you can't get into a bath for 6 weeks, but I could do the sauna. So that was another thing I was doing. And then I went back after a couple days and started doing the Kooch ball again. The big thing they tell you is that you can't lift over 10 pounds because they don't want you to tear the stitches. When I talked to the doctor about why I couldn't lift, what you couldn't do, he goes, I really don't want you to trigger what's called the Valsalva. So they don't want you using your deep abs, they don't want you straining so that you would tear these stitches that they put inside you. So what you can do instead is you can use something called blood flow restriction bands which allow you to work out with much lighter weights, like 10 pounds, and still work your muscles and fatigue your muscles. Another thing you can do is electrical muscle stim. What I did was I used the TRX machine, and I just moved my body weight through movements to get started. And I made sure that I wasn't doing anything— I didn't use pain pills so I could feel it, and I wasn't doing anything that was making me like clench my abs and really work through here. But I just did simple bodyweight movement, and then I did walking and my different cardio at home. I have a Peloton bike and I have a StairMaster because he said any of the cardio stuff was fine. So I made sure I kept moving because one of the things that can happen with bed rest is that in just a week you can become insulin resistant, right? That is where your insulin is higher than it should be, and that basically is going to make it very hard for your body to burn fat. And you start to lose muscle. So I want to make sure none of that happened to me. And so again, a lot of bodyweight exercise. And I will tell you that I was out riding bikes and walking within 3 weeks outside, doing a lot of cardio. I didn't find any issues with that, and doing a lot of work with bodyweight and gradually increasing the weights, making sure I wasn't using my abs. At the end of 6 weeks, I went straight back up to full strength. So really didn't lose anything from any of this stuff. Now that I am 3 months out, I'm going to do a follow-up on all hormone labs. So I'm going to do blood labs and a Dutch test, and I will also do another DEXA scan just to make sure that I've held on to my muscle. Since I do DEXA scans every 6 months, I correlate them at home with my Tanita scale, my full-body Tanita scale at home, and a tape measure. And I can tell my weight's the same, everything says at home in terms of body fat's the same. So it looks like everything managed to stay the same, which is what I was really looking for. The big thing that we have to pay attention to as we age is not losing muscle. Now, the big thing I have to say is, of course, this is what I did. And so you always have to talk to your doctor. You want to be super careful with any of these things, with any type of lifting, again, because of the stitches. But that's where I went into bodyweight movement and a lot of cardio movement. So deal is, whether or not you have surgery coming up, you're going to want to develop a solid strength training routine to help you better prepare and recover from life's challenges. Because you never know when something's going to happen, whether you're going to have to have an operation or an illness or an injury. You want to go in as strong as possible, right? So if you start making fitness a regular part of your routine right now, that future self is going to be so thankful. And to make it simple for you, I walk you through my resistance training routine in this next video, and you're going to want to make sure you— that you download the free cheat sheet that has all my home gym essentials plus Pass, an 8-week workout plan designed for women over 40, and that's at jjvirgin.com/power.