Well, today’s the big day. In just a few hours, I’ll be on the table for abdominal myomectomy surgery. While I’m really not thrilled about:
- having a big cut in my up-until-now surgery-free, nature-given body (I don’t even have my ears pierced!)
- possible scarring and internal adhesions from having my uterus messed with
- being exposed to the risks of general anesthesia
…there are still a number of reasons why I’m looking forward to it:
10. Closing out this whole episode and moving on with my life
9. Getting closure from the pathology report
8. No more throbbing heartbeats in my belly
7. Not feeling this fibroid slosh around my insides when I change positions while lying in bed
6. No more occasional burning sensations in my upper right thigh when the fibroid moves, which is frankly a little scary (I think, or hope, it’s just from a sudden rush of blood through the vessels in that area)
5. Reclaiming my once super-strong bladder control
4. Being able to fasten that top button on my regular pants and no longer having to push the front waistband down below the fibroid
3. No longer seeing and feeling this half-cantaloupe protruding strangely from my abdomen
2. Finding out its latest dimensions
1. Seeing what this thing that’s been growing inside me actually looks like!!!
Filed under: fibroid, fibroids | Tagged: abdomen, anesthesia, laparotomy, myomectomy, size, surgery, symptoms
I had the same exact surgery in the early part of 2007, I checked in at 11:00 a.m. and I was out the next day by 1:00 p.m., I stayed out of work for 6 weeks, although I really didn’t need to because I was out and about on my feet within 2 weeks, I can’t tell you how much better my life is.
I’m in my thirties close to five feet and my doctor removed 3 fibroid tumors from my uterus, the first one was the size of a large grapefruit, my dr. said it was bigger than me!, the other two were small. After the surgery my doctor came in and showed me the fibroids from hell they removed, although I was still a little woozy from the anesthesia I remember seeing them all I can say is GROSS!
My cycles have always lasted for 3 days and the second day I suffer from cramps and my regular gyn recommended going on the pill to relieve the pain, I chose not to take them after reading large amounts of estrogen are a cause of fibroids.
Although you can get fibroids removed, there is a strong possibility they may come back. The bottom line is exercise, control your weight, stress levels and change your eating habits, I was ready to become a vegetarian until I found out you can have meat and dairy products as long as they haven’t been treated with hormones in other words GO ORGANIC, it’s a little bit expensive but you can’t put a price on your health, and as far as the abdominal scar I was cut right on the bikini line and you barely notice it, actually I was thankful for it because my life was downright miserable living with fibroids.
I hope everything went well with your surgery and I hope you make a full recovery and I would love to hear from you.
Thanks for the well wishes Erin! That’s so nice of you. My surgery went smoothly and I’m making good progress in the recovery period.
I’m impressed by your 26-hour hospital stay! Mine was more like 72 hours, though I felt like I was ready to go home about half a day earlier.
Glad to hear your life has improved so much now that the fibroids are gone. I saw a picture of mine too and I completely agree with you, UGH! I’ve been eating very well post-op to help support the recovery process, so the challenge will mainly be keeping it up once life returns to its normal pace.
I’ve also been drafting additional posts about the surgery and post-op period, so hopefully those will be ready soon.
Here’s to staying fibroid-free!