Well. Today's been eventful.
I was referred to a gynaecologist after experiencing unusually heavy, long and painful periods which started this year after eight months of nothing (I'm 49 and assumed it was perimenopause being a bastard, but the periods were becoming so horrific that they were badly affecting my day to day life). I had a hysteroscopy and D&C on Monday and felt reasonably good afterwards, but unfortunately what the gynaecologist thought would be the least likely cause of the problem is what she found. She thinks we've caught it early enough to treat it, but I will need a hysterectomy either at the end of this year or early next year.
It's been a couple of hours since she told me - I was calm through most of the consultation and said, "well, even if it isn't treatable, I suppose something is going to kill me eventually" and she said "you're not going anywhere for a while yet" - but lost it towards the end. I have no idea how I'm going to tell my parents. I have to have an MRI in a couple of weeks (no longer covered by Medicare - thank you so much, Morrison Government) then we go from there.
I think I'm in a bit of shock.