On Monday, December 5, 2022, I had a hysterectomy.
Periods through the years:
Now for a little back story...Early in my teen years, I would get some very painful periods and they were pretty irregular (coming maybe every 3ish months) until after I had my first child. After having Alex, they were totally normal and regular. This was the case until after I gave birth to Micah (2013). My first period after giving birth to Micah was horrible (2014)! At first I thought it was just my body kicking back in to having menstrual cycles again, but they didn't improve. In fact, they just kept getting worse. Eventually, I could just plan on being near a toilet and not doing much for days 2 and 3 of my cycle every month and sometimes other days too. The pain became intolerable at times and the bleeding was a lot. Sometimes I almost felt like I was hemorrhaging. Then, I started having bleeding between periods too. Finally, I decided it was time for me to try to figure out what was going on and find a solution.
Fibroid:
When we moved to SC, I decided it was time to figure out some things with my health that I had been putting off. My crazy periods was one of them. So in the summer of 2020, I went to the gynecologist and discovered I had a fibroid in my endometrium. My doctor fully thought that by removing the fibroid, I would see a big difference in both the bleeding and the pain of my periods. She recommended a myomectomy.
Myomectomy:
A myomectomy is an outpatient surgical procedure that removes the fibroid. It is all done through the vagina. They do use anesthesia and the surgery takes about 20-30 minutes. I had that done in October 2020. It was an easy procedure and a very quick recovery. I was feeling great after only a couple of days and back to normal soon after. I did bleed for a few weeks afterwards, but other than that, it was pretty easy and not much pain. When I had my first normal period after the surgery, the pain was MUCH improved. In fact, I couldn't believe how minimal the pain was compared to before. However, the bleeding was still a lot! I would still bleed really heavy and it was causing my iron to be low. I also couldn't safely leave the house if I was on day 2 or 3 EVEN with using the menstrual cup and a large backup pad. My sister, Melanie, had previously had similar problems to me. She had a myomectomy and ablation at the same time the year before and it had been very successful. It had almost completely stopped her periods and most of the pain. That's what I wanted, but my doctor did not want to do them together. She said, "Let's start with the myomectomy and see how that goes, then if you still want the ablation we can do that".
Ablation:
About one year after getting the myomectomy, I could see that I wasn't going to get the desired result. While the pain was much better, the bleeding was still so much. So I went back into my doctor to talk about the ablation. An ablation burns the lining of your uterus (which normally sheds every month during your period). After it's burned, it scars over and women usually only bleed minimally, if at all, after this procedure. Success rate for endometrial ablation is 70-80%, so I decided to do it. According to my doctor, I was a good candidate. The doctor suggested just doing it in the office with minimal pain killers. She said that she felt I was "stoic and had a high pain tolerance". I too felt that I could do it, so I went for it. I went alone. I didn't even think to ask someone to come with me. This was November 2021.
The ablation was very intense and painful, but it didn't last long. It was about 90 seconds once she started burning and she counted down. There were a couple of nurses that came in and held my hand. It hurt a lot but the countdown really helped me tolerate it. After the procedure, it still hurt but was tolerable and I drove myself home. When I got home, I laid down on the bed to rest thinking that I would just keep feeling better.
I had planned to go to Micah's championship game for soccer where Eric and Jarem were coaching. They left early and I was going to come right before the game. The pain seemed to start getting worse, but I took ibuprofen and thought I would be fine. But it kept getting worse. I tried to drive myself (it wasn't far), but the pain got so intense while I was driving that I wasn't sure if I would pass out or throw up. After stopping a couple of times and taking deep breaths to try to get more oxygen to my head so I wouldn't pass out, I finally made it back home and to my bed! It took 800 mg of ibuprofen and an oxycodone to manage the pain. But I was finally able to sleep.
I felt bad that I missed the game, but they lost anyway. I felt pretty good that next day and had minimal pain. I bled for about a month afterwards. I was so hopeful for my periods to be gone or almost gone, but once again I was still having heavy bleeding. It may have been a little lighter than before, but not much. My doctor said to give it some time, so I did.
The Last Straw:
Over time, it seemed like my periods were getting a little lighter, but the pain seemed to be getting more. Since the myomectomy, I no longer had to take pain medicine during my periods. But now, I was starting to need ibuprofen again. It wasn't as bad as before (when I had the fibroid) though. I figured if the bleeding was a little less, but the pain was more, I could power through until menopause.
This went on until the dreaded night on our anniversary (August 12, 2022). This was about 9 months after the ablation. I was having my period and had been cramping all day but taking some ibuprofen to control the pain. We were going to go out for dinner, but I wasn't feeling like it so Eric picked up takeout and a cake and we watched a movie. As we were watching the movie, the pain kept getting worse.
Finally, I just couldn't stand it anymore, so I went in our bedroom to lay down. From there, it kept getting worse and worse until it was completely intolerable. I had taken 800 mg of ibuprofen and it didn't seem to be touching the pain. My uterus was contracting over and over again and it felt like labor. It was so intense. Eric finally found a leftover oxycodone from my myomectomy and gave it to me. He was kind and tried to comfort me as I endured the most incredibly intense pain ever. Finally the oxy kicked in and I was able to sleep. The pain lasted on and off for about a week but eventually turned to my back and caused intense shots of pain anytime I moved. Eric said that when the uterus is angry, it can irritate your back and cause spasms and that's what happened. The other weird thing was, I was barely bleeding at all.
My doctor was out of town so I went to a different doctor. She was helpful and said that she thought it was a failed ablation. They did an ultrasound to confirm and there WAS trapped blood in the uterus. What can happen is some of the uteral lining starts to grow back and then the blood gets trapped under the new growth of lining. The uterus contracts to get the blood out, but it's trapped and it can't get out, so the uterus continues to contract over and over again, like labor. When this happens, there are only two options: hormones to stop periods or hysterectomy.
I went back to my regular doctor the next week and we talked about the two options. I decided on a hysterectomy and she gave me birth control pills to hopefully stop my periods until the surgery. In September, I still had a bad period, but the estrogen helped. Then in October and November I didn't have a period, just intermittent spotting. We scheduled the hysterectomy for December 5, which was the first available date.
Watch for Hysterectomy Story part 2 for the rest of the story.
