Whitney Sinclair began experiencing symptoms she thought might be related to perimenopause.
“About a year ago, last year I started having very random night sweats. I wasn’t having them all the time, but when I was it was really debilitating, really affecting my sleep,” Sinclair recalled.
Initially attributing her symptoms to aging and lifestyle changes, Sinclair decided to seek medical advice due to her family history of cancer. A CT scan revealed a large mass in her uterus, leading to a referral to Aurora BayCare Medical Center and gynecologic oncologist Dr. Elizabeth Dickson Michelson.
“I knew that until this mass was removed, I was going to continue to have anxiety and wonder what it really was. I work in the medical field, and I know just enough about these things to worry myself, and so when they said, ‘Hey, we can take this out and maybe it’ll help some of these symptoms too,’ I said, ‘Great, let’s do it,’” Sinclair said.
Sinclair underwent a robotic hysterectomy, a less invasive procedure with a shorter recovery time. “With the robot, it’s actually a 3-D visual technology so instead of having a traditional 2-D screen that’s there, we actually in our viewer, can see 3-D,” Dr. Dickson Michelson explained.
Following the procedure, Sinclair experienced immense relief as the mass turned out to be non-cancerous fibroids. She went home the same day and even had an umbilical hernia repaired during the procedure.
“I had to do so little to get this taken care of once we found the mass. Dr. Dickson’s team took care of it for me. They answered questions I didn’t even know I had,” Sinclair said.
Reflecting on her experience, Sinclair emphasized the importance of listening to her body. “It’s really easy to say, ‘Is this really something I’m sensing in my body or am I just being anxious?’ It took me a really long time to not be embarrassed about going to my doctor and asking to be aggressive with figuring out what was going on,” she said.