Robotic Hysterectomy Video: Linda's Story

For More Information: Find a Sharp-affiliated OBGYN or learn more about robotic surgery for hysterectomy.

Transcript

Linda Bachoua: Well, I always knew I would need to get the hysterectomy down the line because of my family history. Because of my mother’s ovarian cancer it was in the back of my mind for the past few years.

Dr. Dana Huskey, OBGYN: Minimally invasive surgery is performing surgery without large incisions. It would be taking a hysterectomy or an open procedure in the gynecology world and doing it with smaller incisions using specialized tools that go through those incisions.

Dr. David Harari, OBGYN: The numbers of patients who these types of techniques apply to has grown incredibly. So that now there is really no person that is not a candidate for having these minimally invasive techniques. And that is even true for patients with female cancers.

Linda: I did hear a doctor speak about robotic surgery, about how it is less invasive and there is less scarring and a quicker recovery time, which is what I wanted to have because I wanted to get back to work and back to my regular routine quicker. And so I decided that was the way to go for me and luckily, with my condition, I was a candidate for robotic surgery.

Dr. Craig Saffer, OBGYN: The surgeries we are doing now are a lot more sophisticated surgeries and larger surgeries and we do hysterectomies and we do surgeries for prolapse, a lot of cancer surgeries, infertility surgeries — there’s a whole gamut of things we can now do with the excellent equipment that we have.

Dr. Steven Lindheim, Reproductive Endocrinologist: Many women when they think of infertility, they think, “Oh, I have to do in vitro fertilization.” But actually utilizing some of these minimally invasive techniques are all that is required for women to go ahead and attempt conception.

Dr. Saffer: So, the surgeries that we are doing now are a lot more sophisticated and a lot more complex than we could have done 10, 15 years ago, even 3 or 4 years ago with the advent of the da Vinci.

Linda: I just thought this is the time to do it and this procedure is available. It’s the procedure that I want. It will help me get back to work quicker and I will recover sooner. I am 100 percent behind this type of surgery for women. I had my surgery 25 days ago. The day after surgery I was out of the hospital and able to go home and I was walking around — I did have to kind of hold my tummy a little bit the first two days when I was walking around my house trying to get situated and move around a bit. And, really, there was minimal discomfort.

Dr. Harari: She felt great and there was no reason to keep her from resuming her normal activity. And it’s really that type of exciting change in what I do that has caused me to be so enthusiastic. And want to sort of spread the word that minimally invasive procedures are here to stay.

Linda: Within a week I was seeing my girlfriends and going out to lunch and no one could tell anything had happened to me. I would say they were just the best that I could have hoped for; they were very caring and supportive, they were all not just doing their job they really seemed to want to take care of me and help me in whatever I needed at any time I needed it.

Dr. Saffer: And that is what we do at Sharp Mary Birch; we train surgeons to because excellent surgeons and strive for the highest prize.

Dr. Huskey: Come in, let’s talk about it. Let’s see what the options are. Maybe you have some misconceptions about the types of things that you can get done open or through minimally invasive surgery and let’s go over them, maybe you would be a great candidate.