My Fight With Fibroids – What NOT To Do!

23 Oct 2012 10 Comments

by Nikki in Healthy Habits Tags: , ,

Sharing this today for “I must confess” with My Home Truths as this post missed out on comment love, but it is close to my heart and affects so many women these days!……

Fibroids are one of the wonderful (NOT) things that a women can have to deal with, and whilst many women will not show any symptoms, if you do, please take them seriously and take action to deal with them, or you could end up like I did……..

Uterine fibroids are one of the most common female health problems that afflict women in their 30’s and 40’s, and I honestly can’t remember when they became an issue, it was ‘one of those things’ that slowly crept up on me and I just kept trying to cope with the symptoms.

I first discovered that I had fibroid after my 2nd miscarriage, my OB found it lurking around whilst performing a D & C. He suggested a quick procedure to scrape the surface of it as they can get points on them, that are capapble of piercing the sack of a future pregnancy. I had no other symptoms to let me know it were residing within.

I was one of those lucky women, whose periods were light, easy to deal with and I never experienced period pain. After two successful pregnancies that blessed me with two beautiful girls, I never thought about fibroids again for many years.

BUT…..my fibroid was definately there and growing away merrily. I started bleeding more heavily, period time or not. Very inconvenient, but I lived with it and a constant supply of super pads.

I did go to my GP and was given a medication to help control the bleeding when it was excessive, and given the news that removal of fibroids via surgery is not an option, a hysterectomy is the only option………..I don’t think so………I don’t have time for that!

So just like many mother’s do, I put my health needs on the back burner, as I did not have TIME for an operation, I could NOT be stuck at home unable to drive – the girls had to get to school, and every other excuse I could think of raced through my brain. I would just cope with it, all is good!

The bleeding got worse, the cramping started, and some days was mind-blowingly bad, clot’s would pass that were so large they scared me, but it was December, Christmas was coming, I would deal with it in the New Year.

Christmas day arrived, and dressed to kill (in a WHITE skirt – stupid me) we were off to lunch at the Hilton and I spend the first hour of lunch unable to leave the bathroom as the flood hit hard. Tablets taken, just had to wait for them to kick in and calm things down. I tentatively joined my family and did my best to enjoy the day.

Later that night it started again, this time I just stood in the shower and watched masses of huge clots flow down the drain, this was NOT good and I was feeling weak and starting to panic. I calmed myself down enough to get dressed and drive myself to hospital. I made hubby stay home with the girls.

The joys of the Holy Spirit Emergency room (it costs a bomb) but the service is superb, no waiting, straight in, and within 30 minutes and few tests, I learn I am on the verge of Renal failure from such huge blood loss. NOT GOOD!!!!

Needless to say, I had to face reality, this fibroid was not going to go away and I could not keep pretending that all was well, so I took my tablets everyday and finally gave my OB the nod to book me in.

Because I had left it for so long, the fibroid was so large that I could not have keyhole surgery, but had to have the full ‘slash’. Made for a much slower and very painful recovery.

It is blissful not having a period anymore. My ovaries were kept in tact so menopause has not come to play yet. I have no regrets about having the operation and are grateful that I had no intentions of having more children. It was just my stubborness that stopped from going in much earlier. The family survived just fine whilst I recoved and I have no-one to blame but myself for putting my life at risk!

Fibroids are most prevelant for women in their 30’s and 40’s, and hormonal imbalance effects their growth pattens, and if kept under control most fibroids will disappear with the onset of menopause.

Fibroids are more common in women who experience high levels of stress over an extended period of time, are overweight or high consumers of red meat and ham.

There are many natural ways you can support your body to help it dissolve the fibroids, or at least keep them under control through your child bearing years. Lifestyle modification with regular aerobic exercise, Hatha yoga to reduce pelvic congestion and relax uterine mucles, meditation, deep breathing exercises, eating a diet hight in wholegrains and fresh produce and reducing your meat and dairy intake as much as possible will help to balance your hormone levels.

A visit to your naturopath would be a worthwhile exercise as there are plenty of supplements and herbs that can provide relief from the painful and uncomfortable symptoms associated with fibroids, and help you to avoid surgery.

If you are suffering with fibroids, take some action today and don’t end up like I did!