Hysterectomy
At the age of 34, I started hemorraging during my period as I was walking through a shopping mall. I had never experienced anything like it before. Up until then, my periods had always been normal. I was scared to death but I thought it was a fluke and would never happen again. Wrong. From then on, it happened every month. I endured at least 2 days of hemorraging and had to change my pad every 15 - 30 minutes. I never knew when it would hit or how long it would last so I could never plan anything. Needless to say I couldn't leave the house and I had to miss work. My periods started lasting at least 10 - 14 days with spotting in between periods. Also between periods, I had extreme pain that felt like my insides were being twisted into a knot. I was scared to tell my doctor because I was afraid of the diagnosis. After 4 years, I couldn't take it anymore so I finally told my doctor. He sent me for an ultrasound and the diagnosis was a fibroid tumor. My doctor prescribed Provera as a way to lessen the bleeding. I tried that for 3 years with no improvement. By that time, my periods were lasting 3 weeks. My doctor sent me for another ultrasound which showed that the fibroid had grown considerably. At that time I was 41 years old, single (no children) and plan to stay that way. I decided to put a stop to this bleeding/pain nonsense. I asked my doctor if he would perform a hysterectomy and he said yes. I had never had any kind of surgery before or even been a patient in the hospital. I was nervous but it was the best decision I ever made. It is the greatest surgery in the world. I had the hysterectomy in August 2002 at the age of 41 and it went just fine. When my doctor opened me up, he found several fibroid tumors that didn't show up the ultrasounds because they were hidden by the large fibroid. The doctor also found the start of endometriosis which explained the pain. The only complication was I lost a lot of blood during the surgery but my body made up the blood during the next couple of days. I was in the hospital for 3 days after the surgery and then went home to recuperate for 6 weeks before I could return to work. I was driving less than 3 weeks after the surgery. Looking back, the whole experience was amazingly easy. I only needed minimal pain medication immediately after the surgery and no pain medication after the second day. I was just very sore inside and needed to heal from the inside out. I felt a little bit better each day. Best of all, I knew it was the end of all that horrendous bleeding every month. I realize it might not be that easy for everybody but if anybody is having this type of problem and is on the fence about having a hysterectomy, I urge you to go ahead and do it if your doctor agrees and you are finished having children or don't want to have children. You will never regret it.
