I was MIA on the blog this week because I was recovering from a minimally invasive embolization procedure to treat fibroids. For those who don’t know, fibroids are benign tumors of the uterus. Most people with a uterus have fibroids at some point in their lives, but not everyone experiences symptoms like pain and excessive bleeding that interfere with day-to-day life and require treatment. Women who do seek treatment are often told their only option is a hysterectomy, an open surgery in which the entire uterus is removed. According to an article from the University of Michigan:
“Hysterectomy is the second most common surgery performed on reproductive-age women in the U.S., after cesarean section. More than 400,000 hysterectomies are performed in the U.S. each year with nearly 68 percent done for benign conditions that involve abnormal uterine bleeding, uterine fibroids and endometriosis.”
There are a variety of ways to deal with fibroids before you need to part with a body part. That said, there are so many different ways that fibroids can affect different individuals, that a hysterectomy is still the best option for some. But I think people deserve more information than is often available in order to make the right choice for them. If you follow my personal Instagram, you might have seen me post about this in Instagram Stories last weekend, and I got a lot of insight into other people’s experiences in return. I’ll be sharing more of that soon, and getting really specific about my own story. I had a tough time making a treatment decision beyond “watchful waiting” for, oh, 20 years, because I didn’t encounter a lot of people with exactly my symptoms to compare myself to, so I want to put it all out there in case it helps someone else.
I’m still feeling a tad sluggish now, so I’ll have to do that in a follow-up post. For now, you know how doctors love to compare any growth in the body to fruit? My three main fibroids were the equivalent of two grapefruits and an orange. Here are two grapefruits and an orange, in the large bowl normally occupied by FitzRoy the cat.
Not actual fibroids, just fruit in a bowl.
Here they are against me and the oversize Madonna concert t-shirt that I haven’t changed out of in an embarrassingly long time.
These aren’t Florida fruits, just regular size.
Nope, I don’t know how those fit inside me either!
I hope you are feeling better very soon! ♥️ I had the embolization procedure for fibroids too so I completely understand all that you’ve been going through.
Ooh, how long did it take for you to feel like you got results? The doctors gave me all the possibilities, of course, but I guess I zeroed in on a few things that I wished for the most, so I’m currently feeling like “?????????? What is going on ????????”
Any info on your personal experience would be so helpful!
Dis last picture makes me LOL, my furrend 😂. I’m glad you had this procedure and things went smoothly and you’re feeling better 😘😘
Thank you for your excellent fruit shopping!
Ah, invisible illness…So happy to hear that you have found the right procedure for your specific circumstance. And I’m confident you researched the shit out of it! Just think of how you will be able to function, going forward, with so many fewer tampons!! Good plan, all around. PS: Don’t rush recovery because you simply can’t (even if your brain doesn’t agree). That’s my 2 cents of wisdom.
Those “ultra” size tampons weren’t easy to find either!
Thanks a million for sharing a little of your journey, take on hysterectomy, and decision to be treated via UFE, Wendy! And, I’m wishing you a super speedy recovery considering the sizes of fibroid masses you HAD. Surely, yr blog will help scores of fibroid sufferers who may not know what steps to take in order to restore their quality of lives! Can’t wait to read you next post, saving your blog as a favorite, and staying tuned!!!
I’m glad you found me! Always good to hear from people with similar experiences xoxo