My Uterine Fibroid and Hysterectomy Experience

The day I knew I had to have a hysterectomy was bitter sweet. I was happy because the pain would go away but I was sad because this meant I will never give birth to a child. I always knew I had uterine fibroids and had 2 myomectomies to try and correct the problem but they came back! Let me give a little bit of background before I continue. I have lived with this pain for a long time….about 6 years up to date. I started noticing signs back in 2013. One sign was when I was in my closet looking for some clothes to wash and it seemed as though something started coming out of me as if I started my period. I ran to the bathroom and there was light bleeding but there was no way I should have been starting my cycle because it just finished. The light blood went away after a couple of hours and so I chopped it up to being that I was spotting. Another sign I had was when I got home I kicked up my feet to relax after a long day at work and I noticed my feet and ankles were so swollen. I ignored it even though it was happening everyday. Now fast forward 3 years later and I still had edema. That’s what the swelling was, I found out later. I lived with edema for 3 years, took medication for it…then I started noticing my periods were getting longer. I will be on my period for 2 weeks and then it will stop for 2 weeks, and then start again for 2 weeks. I dealt with it and lived like that for another year. Now here comes another sign.. It was the middle of the day at work and while I was working, I coughed. I coughed so hard, that my bladder leaked…leaked to where I better not get up, I did not urinate all the way, I was able to go to the restroom and then grabbed my little jacket and wrapped it around my waste the remainder of the day. I wanted to go home, but I decided to finish my shift and deal with it when I got home. The whole day, and night, I noticed my bladder kept leaking and I could not control it. My stomach got a little bigger over time yet I ignored it but this bladder issue I could not ignore. I had to buy pads and put a pad on. Every day for the next 3 years, I wore a pad! During this time, my cycles worsened. I have been dealing with this now for 4 years. It is now January 2018 I have been dealing with this pain for a long time and it has only gotten worse. I did not look forward to my cycles because that meant I was about to be in pain for 2 days straight. The pain where you have to call out from work and stay at home and just curl up in the fetal position to fight through the pain. I gave up. It got to the point where I was actually okay if I could just die right now. This is not an exaggeration! I felt that death would have been better than this pain. I’ve had enough so I made a doctor appointment and I told my ob/gyn that I can’t deal with it anymore and can she prescribe me something for this pain. She gave me 800 mg of ibuprofen and it actually helped me get through the day at work but I know I did not want to take Pills every time this pain would come but it definitely helped. Not all the time, but most of the time….. and now I am tired of it. No more trying for children, no more sex, no more nothing. I wanted this pain to go away and fast.

RECOVERY

During my recover of about 8 weeks my boyfriend took such good care of me. He changed my bandages and helped me to the restroom, helped me with my showers and made sure I was ok before he had to go to work. He took a couple of days off and then my mother took a couple of days off when he had to return to work. I was on 5 medications everyday for about a month. I forgot to explain when the incision is up and down, the lower part of the incision seems to want to stay open! That scared the crap out of me but eventually it closed up after a couple of weeks. I was leaking from the wound for about a week which also scared me and there was nothing I could do. I was also wearing an abdominal binder which became my security ‘blanket”. It gave me a sense of security because I didn’t want anything touching my stomach while it was healing. Another scary thing was the amount of glue that was used. I had glue up and down my scar and in my naval and I thought it was my skin pealing and melting but it was the glue lol. I panicked. Yes you read it correctly, melting. I was having hot flashes it seems every 30 minutes and when I would have the hot flashes the glue would melt onto my bandages. I took the whole 8 weeks to recover and I do not miss my periods! I felt great!! My physician was awesome and I met with the nurses who helped during my stay in the hospital.

It has been 8 months since I had my surgery and I do not regret it. I do not miss the cycles, and I feel great!! I lost a little bit of weight at the time, although now I feel as if I’m gaining it back! I’m currently working on this so don’t judge me lol. I wanted to share my story in case someone can relate and if someone is contemplating having this procedure done. Thanks so much if you read this blog in it’s entirety. Hopefully I helped someone feel comfortable and relaxed about the procedure. I do not regret it at all. No more pain!