When we last left my story, I was a couple of days out from my surgery to remove my uterine fibroid. The fibroid was partially intramuscular and subserosal and was pressing on my bladder. The pressure was so bad that I had to sleep sitting up. This helped, but I still had to get up several times a night to go to the bathroom. So, I decided to have a myomectomy. I was told that a laproscopic procedure would put me at higher risk for complications (due to potential bleeding) and the other option I was considering, MRI-guided ultrasound, was not covered by my insurance.
The procedure I decided to have done is very similar to a c-section. Since I had a c-section, I sort-of knew what to expect already (although it’s amazing how much one forgets in three years about this sort of thing!). My doctor told me she would go through the same c-section incision line, and I should expect that my recovery would be similar to that of my c-section.
One thing I had to do with this surgery that I did not have to do with my c-section was my colon cleanse. Honestly, the cleanse has almost been the worst part of the whole thing. I wound up doing a 2-day milk of magnesia cleanse (I was going to do the one-day Fleet’s Phospo-Soda cleanse, but that product has been pulled off the market due to kidney-related health concerns). The first day wasn’t too bad, but I had extreme nausea and a massive headache the second day. It got about 70% better by the morning of my surgery, though.
The morning of the surgery, I was thirsty (I couldn’t eat or drink after midnight) and nervous. In retrospect, though, I really freaked myself out when I didn’t have to. There was very little pain involved before the surgery.
The worst part was the needle they gave me before they put in my IV line. The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me after they put in my line. I told him that I was still a little nauseous from the colon cleanse & he told me he would administer some anti-nausea meds during the surgery. I was so happy – I didn’t even think about that!
Then my doctor came in to talk to me. I was so glad my husband was there (for many reasons, obviously). He thought to mention to my doctor that after I had my c-section I had an immediate burning pain on my right-hand side. My previous doc said it was from “the knot” – where they tie the suture off at the end. She said that I must be sensitive to that and she would be very careful as to how she sowed me up. Minutes later, they started wheeling me down to surgery…..and that’s all I remember! The next thing I knew I was in post-op and trying really hard to keep my eyes open.
I was pretty out of it for the hours after the surgery, but nice and drugged so everything seemed pretty ok to me.:) My doctor came in and told me everything went really well. The fibroid did not go all the way through the uterine wall, so there was less repair needed to the uterine wall than there could have been. The fibroid turned out to be a little bit smaller than a tennis ball in size. There were also some additional smaller fibroids that she removed. I also found out a couple of days later that my biopsy results were negative.
I was in some pain after the surgery, but all I had to do was let the nurse know and they gave me more morphine in my IV. I slept a lot in the next 24hrs. Eventually, I didn’t need morphine anymore and started on pain pills instead. I was in pain and achy, but doing ok. I started to become more mobile and took my first small walk on the second day (I think, I can’t remember for sure). It was painful, but not as painful as I remember after my c-section. I also needed help going to and from the bathroom. I wasn’t in the mood for that much in terms of food, but I managed to eat a little more at every meal.
I had my surgery on a Thursday, and I decided to leave Saturday night. My almost 3-year-old daughter was having a hard time without me at home – especially at night. So, while it may have been a little better for me to stay until Sunday (when I expected to leave), I felt as though I needed to come home Sat. night. She was really happy to have me home and the only way we could get her to sleep was to have her sleep in the bed with me. She slept so soundly that night & I knew then that I had made the right choice.
Since then, I have been slowly recovering. Each day is a little better than the next. It has been hard to do things like bend over and I haven’t been able to do things like drive or pick my daughter up until recently, but overall the whole surgical experience was not that bad. I still have to watch what I do for about another month, but I just try to not push myself.
If anyone out there is reading this and wants to know more about what I went through or has any questions at all, please feel free to contact me. I would be happy to help you. I was able to talk to someone who had already had the procedure before I made my surgical decision, and I know having this kind of resource at your disposal is invaluable. I would really like to be able to help someone else out who may be considering this procedure so I can pay it forward.