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My first post-surgery entry back online has to be a thank
you. Yes, I had major surgery six weeks ago (the main reason
for my long silence). Since I owe my improved health to a
single outstanding man who himself was aided by another
exceptional man, I need to thank them. And, to do this
properly, I need to give you a little background.
I was scheduled to have a hysterectomy. My own trepidation
at having agreed to go through with it, and the urgings of a
smart friend (“second opinion?”) caused me to search the
internet and find
Dr. Michael Toaff. I’m not exactly sure what caused him
to pop up in my Google browser list, but you can find him
eventually if you search on “alternatives to hysterectomy.”
On his site he has, for example, a section that offers
explanations as to
why a woman might need her uterus for more than just
holding a baby. (He argues, for example, that if you’re at
higher risk of dying at a younger than normal age from heart
failure, maybe you simply need it to prevent that. And that
some women have uterine contractions during orgasm, so maybe
you’ll need it for that! We’re all grownups here, so I have
no qualms about saying: “Hey, he’s right. We need those
orgasms!” Smart man, eh?
Dr. Toaff is a decent, funny, caring, supremely intelligent
man. He invented 17 years ago the adenomyomectomy, the
surgery required to fix painful tumors in the uterine muscle
that most MDs/GYNs solve by cutting out the uterus and
throwing it away. (Dr. Toaff reserves hysterectomies for
cancer cases only.) He carves out the tumors no matter how
many – and in some cases they can number in the hundreds –
then he reconstructs the uterus, leaving you as whole as
possible. In my case, he called in
Dr. M. Gaafar El-Mallah to aid him, and together, they
performed my surgery *with heparin* (a blood thinner)
coursing through my veins in order to prevent a recurrence
of the pulmonary embolism I once suffered, while they
painstakingly removed over 30 of the tormenting tumors.
Why am I writing about this here, in this blog? Well,
Toaff’s Israeli, El-Mallah’s Egyptian, and I’m African
American. These two men traveled the planet from their home
countries, devoted their professional lives to the study and
practice of improving the condition of women, and ended up
in Bryn Mawr, PA where they added me to the list of women
they offer a quality of life we could never have otherwise.
And they act like this work is the most natural thing on
earth – in fact, they’re KIND and GRACIOUS when they speak
to patients.
Do you know how many times I hear from scholars and students
that it’s “only natural” that people from different
cultures/nations/races/sexes/whatevers have difficulty
connecting? That difference is what keeps us apart? I’d much
rather put my faith in the idea that men like Dr. Toaff
represent the way the world really is, for they make the
world a better place in more ways than can easily be
counted.
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