This afternoon I got back from hospital, after having had Uterine Fibroid Embolization. (UFE) I have waited a long time for this surgery, so I cannot tell you how pleased I am that it is finally done.

Arriving at the Hospital

I left for the hospital (Kingston NHS Trust - a public hospital) Sunday afternoon, and found myself in a hospital room designed for five women. Only one woman was there though. I picked the bed opposite her, by the window. What the room looked like

The other woman was called Fiona and she was suffering badly from fibroids as well, although her symptoms and problems had been different to mine. She was my age (early thirties) and her husband was by her bedside for while, looking very caring and very concerned. He seemed great.

After Fiona’s husband left, we had a really nice time getting to know each other and talking about the procedure we were about to have. Fiona had brought some really nice herbal tea with her to the hospital - it was a lovely treat! Later her tea turned out to be the only food I could tolerate.

During the evening, nurses were coming in and out taking, our blood pressure, various samples, weighing and measuring us, etc. Although very nice, many of the nurses seemed very scatter-brained. Many times I got the impression that they didn’t know much about the equipment they were using, or gynecology, the specialty of that ward.

One nurse was supposed to measure us for a special type of stockings to wear during the procedure. The stockings had to be very tight-fitting. But the nurse measured Fiona’s leg over her jeans, and my calves without even asking me to take off my boots! Erm… you don’t need medical training to work out that stockings can not be accurately fitted over jeans! NHS Nurses

Fiona (who is a nurse herself) got very upset at the sloppiness.(I think she is quite a senior nurse.)

Also, at this point I discovered that the hospital food was really awful; Here is a sample menu: Canned peas and budget Shepherd’s pie, served with sour orange juice… Some of my fellow patients seemed to prefer the food from the vending machine (crisps and chocolate - bad choice if you are unwell!) I was too nauseous to want any food at all most of the time.

A Night at the Hospital

The hospital beds were very impressive! They can be adjusted to any laying or sitting position; very comfortable! I had brought my iPod and several books; I ended up laying in the hospital bed, listening to my iPod and reading a technical book about web design. The room had a shared loo/shower.
Comfy hospital bed, comes with remote..!
Just as we were about to fall asleep, at around eleven o’clock, all hell broke loose as a very sick girl was rolled into the room. There was a bed shortage in the ward where she should have been, so she was put up in Gynecology instead. She had caught some bug in Morocco and was severely dehydrated and looked awful. She was hooked up to some very noisy machines which ended up keeping Fiona and I awake for most of the night! A sign of what was to come!

Next morning we were woken up at six and told to eat some light breakfast. This turned out to be the last thing I would eat during my two day stay at the hospital!

Between six and nine that morning, more women arrived in the room until it was filled up. They all seemed nice and were suffering from various period-related problems. One poor woman was having a hysterectomy. The other was having scrapings of polyps, a less serious procedure. Fiona was taken away for surgery at nine, and I was left waiting for my turn.

UFE - The Procedure

When it became my turn, I was hooked up to a morphine pump that would allow me to give myself morphine during and after the surgery. As I was beginning to get more and more nervous, I remembered that a few people had said that they would pray for me and that made me feel a lot better! The ’surgery’ happens through the blood vessels!

I also felt very secure at the hands of Dr Colin Todd, a physician and gentleman. He really impressed me! He was very knowledgeable yet kept it basic when talking to me. He was re-assuring, considering and had a good sense of humour. All good qualities for a doctor. Best of all, he was very experienced at this procedure.

Here is a link to Dr Todd’s bio at Kingston hospital. Another entry about him indicates that he does private practice too. I can’t recommend him enough if you are a British woman thinking of doing this privately. What a star!
How the blood supply to the fibroid is blocked by particles
The surgery itself was quite fascinating. It was done through a tiny hole at the side of my tummy. On and off I could see the doctor looking at a “map” of my blood vessels in the area of my uterus. This was compiled on the fly, using a strong X-ray machine and also using the MRI scans that I had done a month earlier.

The objective was to block off the main artery to the uterus. This is the sole blood supply to the fibroid. If it is blocked, the fibroid immediately starts dying. The uterus however, can get blood from other blood vessels and is not affected.

The doctor told me that my fibroid was now the size of a grapefruit! The surgery itself took about an hour or so.
Grapefruit-sized…
Just as the procedure was completed I started feeling the most excruciating pain. I hadn’t given myself enough morphine apparently! A ‘pain nurse’ was called (a lovely woman named Margaret). She gave me some extra strong concoction of painkillers which took the edge off the pain after about half an hour of having the most awful period-style pain you can imagine…

I lost control of my legs; they were shaking and moving by themselves! I remember moaning like a sick puppy… The nurse told me to keep my legs still but I couldn’t! From that point onwards I was more or less out of it…! I didn’t have strength to do anything than just lie on my back and stare at the ceiling. Before / After UFE

After the Embolization

By night-time I started becoming a bit more aware of what was going on around me, as the morphine fog was lifting. I was back at the ward. Some rather sick women were in the room and the miscellaneous machines that they were hooked up to were beeping on and off all night. Fiona’s surgery had gone well too, but she too was in pain.

Everybody was nice and trying to be considerate. But the truth was that the room was far too light and noisy for a normally wired person to get even a half-decent night’s sleep.I was awake most of the night. So was Fiona. I could hear her buzzing away with the morphine. I had a fair amount of morphine myself too, although not quite as much as her! Did you know that morphine makes your skin itch and your mouth dry? We were both scratching ourselves constantly! But better that than bad pain!

Getting out of Hospital

Tuesday morning I decided to try for the ‘early-leaving’ option. I couldn’t stand the thought of another night in the hospital. Also I wanted to get home and be in my own bed, enjoying my time off work in the way that I myself choose to. Another night in hospital would mean another eternity watching the minutes pass one by one, listening to hospital machines beeping and people moaning and snoring…. Also, the smell and sight of the hospital food was making me sick. I knew I would be able to eat, not just any of the food they were serving at the hospital!

The fact that I wanted to leave early seemed to be very confusing for the nursing staff. Every step along the way to getting discharged took several hours.

Finally at 3 pm they were ready to let me go. I had been given antibiotics and some very strong pain-killers. At this point I was getting really irritated with the inefficiency of the nurses on the administration side. I had been fully intent on being a compliant patient, but I am afraid I got a bit pushy eventually. Everything took forever, and nobody seemed to know how to do the basic procedures, constantly having to wait for others to clarify.
Private Room, £5000 (incl. surgery!)
Perhaps I should keep this in mind though: I actually had my surgery, was fed and well looked after, all for exactly £0 ! How can you complain about something that is free? (I know that I have paid for it through taxes, but I tend to simply write off what I pay in taxes….) I read that an MRI scan alone costs $2500 in the US! Guess how much I paid…? You’ve got it.. Even if I had done the whole thing privately through insurance, I would have hated to have to deal with insurance people when it comes to an illness! It’s hard to imagine what that must be like for Americans.

Private Option?

Fiona said that the price for doing UFE privately a private hospital is £5000 if you are not covered by private health-insurance. Right now I actually have private health care through work! But because the fibroid was discovered before I signed up, the private plan doesn’t cover this surgery.

I am sure the quality of the procedure was just as good on the NHS though. And if I had stayed in a private room in a private hospital I would not have had the chance to know Fiona and other women on the ward. Nor would I have met Margaret, the cool pain nurse!

Did you know that the doctors are usually the very same individuals in the private and public systems here in the UK? It works out that way becsause many surgeons do private practice alongside their regular work in the NHS. This means that one patient could pay £5k for a procedure by a certain surgeon. Another patient pays nothing for the same surgery by the same surgeon…. The second person probably has to put up with a longer wait for the procedure though, and also accept the standards of the NHS hospital. (shared room, bad food)

Another point for the record: Nurses are not better in private hospitals, they just treat you more like a customer than public hospital nurses do… That’s the only difference, and it is not necessarily a good thing. The private nurses are not more knowledgeable or competent, possibly the opposite! (Last time I was at a private hospital, the nurse who was looking after me happily mentioned that she had just left her previous job as a beauty therapist to become a nurse! Good for her, possibly, but not re-assuring for me as a patient!

Home and Feeling Fine!

Since I had taken a London black-cab to the hospital, I decided that my current budget-drive required that I take public transport home. I was weak and in a bit of pain, but no more than that I could make it to the hospital train station (Norbiton). I was able to walk without any problems. Half an hour later I arrived in Richmond. Not having eaten for two days, and being out of groceries (I know, rubbish planning on my part!), I had to stop by a supermarket on the high street to get some smoothies and other healthy and easily digestible food. The minute I got home I collapsed in my comfortable bed!
A bit weak and in bed…
Several friends, as well as my sister, have called to wish me speedy recovery. I had a long chat with my grandmother and a friend called Anna.

Right now I am in bed, experiencing what feels like pretty bad period pain. Hopefully it is the feeling of the fibroid dying! My period started today, but it is too early to see any improvement as a result of the UFE.

Another thing that’s not 100% is my appetite. I don’t feel like having anything other than juices and smoothies. That’s a good thing though! I need to loose the kilos that I put on as a result of trying to compensate for the anemia. Smoothies are yummy amyway!

Doctor Todd told me in no uncertain terms that “Technically, the surgery was 100% successful.”
HURRAH! Now we just have to wait and see if my body and the fibroid react as planned.

Thanks for the encouraging messages!

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UPDATE Friday night: 9 March. Actually, I am not feeling so good right now. Fever and quite bad pain. I said to my boss I’ll be back at work on Monday… Hopefully it wil get better by then… It’s only bearable right now because I took some strong pain killers. Hope I’ve not got stuck with an infection…
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UPDATE Saturday night: Still feeling rubbish. Am I having real problems (ie infection?) or is it just “Post Embolization Syndrome”? I am still a complete wreck without the painkillers (strong!) Still having fever.
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UPDATE Wednesday: I came back from the hospital yesterday evening… I had to spend two nights because of an infection that I caught as a result of the embolization. Gosh, that was awful!! It turned out I needed the strongest antibiotics available…
I got more painkillers as well, and the pain is much better now. I still feel quite weak though.
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