When people hang out with a pregnant woman, for some reason, we all seem to want to tell pregnancy horror stories. I do it, too. I do try not to tell them to women I think might have a reason to be scared, but we do it.

But when you tell people you are going to get a hysterectomy, the stories are different. “Best thing I ever did.” Or, as one elderly woman I know said, “Every morning I get up and thank God for Jesus, for my family, and for my hysterectomy.” Every single woman who has said a word to me about it has said stuff like this. “I felt better afterwards than I ever had before.”

I’m hoping my hysterectomy on Monday goes as well as all theirs.