Uterine Fibroids and Hysterectomy

I've been living with ovarian cysts and uterine fibroids for most of my life.  It started with a little pang in my right side that turned out to be an ovarian cyst back in high school.  Medication dissolved it, but ovulation from that side remained painful throughout the years.  For the most part, I didn't have any issues during my 20's except for the heavy periods that I thought were normal.  

By the time I got married in my 30's and wanted to have kids, my fibroids made their presence known in the form of even heavier and painful periods and increased comments from my OBGYN.  "You're going to have to hurry up and get pregnant," he told me.  "your fibroids are getting larger and you're not getting any younger.  Time to decide what to do with the baby shop."   Until that conversation, my position on motherhood remained at the intersection of, 'I don't want kids yet' and 'it's probably time to settle down'" and so I decided after that visit to try and get pregnant.  However, it wasn't in the cards for my then husband and me, and while we tried to figure out our lives the clock kept on ticking.

Fast forward to me approaching 40.  My fibroids had grown so large that pregnancy wasn't possible so I opted for a myomectomy to buy time.  After surgery, my doctor warned that fibroids were like weeds and that even though he was able to remove all the tumors, the uterus acts as a root and can sprout new growths.  Full recovery took a year, and in that time my marriage ended.   After relocating, I slowly began life again and unbeknownst to me for a while, the fibroids began to grow back.

Now in my early 40's, fertility was becoming an issue and it was at that time that I began to let go the hope of being able to  have children of my own naturally.   The menorrhagia returned, sometimes twice a month and I was instructed to double up on iron supplements.  Then one day, I felt what seemed like a little rock in my belly and it actually rolled around sometimes!   During my ashtanga practice paschimottanasana and marichyasana c/d were difficult because of the bulk and associated bloating.  I take 'ladies holidays' off and they seemed to never end.  Practice dwindled and the symptoms would quickly get worse.  Exhaustion from anemia set in and it was all I could do to get home and in bed most evenings after work.  Waking at 5:30 am became impossible.

The last straw was the hard bulge in my belly that became visibly noticeable and the increasing questioning glances I got when I wore form fitting clothes.   My doctor confirmed that the fibroids had doubled in size in 6 months, resulting in what looked like a 16 week pregnancy.  My bladder, bowel and spine were being compressed which brought on a whole slew of new symptoms not to  mention that I could no longer fit into most skirts and pants comfortably.  An MRI would confirm that one of the fibroids had outgrown its blood supply and developed a large cyst.  My treatment options quickly boiled down to Uterine Fibroid Embolization (UFE) and Supracervical Hysterectomy.

While in the process of making a decision, I scoured the internet for information through sites like Hystersisters, YouTube and yoga blogs.   The many posts I read helped me to understand what to expect and enlightened me to a health issue that ranks as one of the most common for women as my surgeon would confirm.  I would personally speak to 7 women in a two week period (4 of them close family members) who'd undergone hysterectomy surgery.

I chose the hysterectomy after seriously considering UFE, which would have allowed me to keep my uterus and offer some relief, but might have landed me back in the same predicament in a few years.  Menopause is still a ways off, and after 10 years of dealing with fibroids I had my quality of life to consider.  I'd gone from being very active to almost sedentary in recent months save for teaching and the few yoga practices I could manage. My boyfriend who'd been very supportive while I weighed my options confessed, "I just want you to be healthy."

My hysterectomy surgery was on August 29 and at 3 weeks post op, I'm feeling like a new creature.  Aside from the need to nap throughout the day, I no longer feel like life is being sucked out of me.   Still in bed mostly, I'm able to get around without much of a production.   Mona Lisa has been my ever constant nursing companion, supervising my boyfriend while he took care of me the first two weeks and handled household tasks on my behalf.    My doctor says I can return to moderate exercise in a few months. 

I'm writing this blog to share my story and offer support to women who are dealing with uterine fibroids.  It's common to take years to decide what to do about them for many reasons, which is understandable.  For me, I feel that even though I could have made this decision on a physical level many years ago, the emotional realizations took far longer to reconcile and I'm glad I waited in that regard.  Once I made the decision to schedule my surgery, I never once looked back.

There are a few quality of life decisions of note that I have suffered through before making.  There are many more, but these stand out:

having lasik surgery
getting a smart phone (yes, I'm serious about this one)
having a hysterectomy

The figurine pictured was a gift from long ago that has come to symbolize peace with regard to this point in my life.  At one time I thought of throwing it in the trash.  Now I'm so glad I didn't.