I couldn’t go running today after all. In my current state I actually can’t leave the house. I’d have an embarrassing accident within 15-30 minutes. Besides, my head feels light and spinning. Lord knows how much blood I am losing, but it is at least a pint since this morning. I have been losing blood at this rate since yesterday, and there are a few days to go until it’s over.

Apart from the practicalities - well let’s not go there - the whole thing is very depressing and upsetting. People reading this probably find it gross, but it is the foremost thing on my mind right now and I simply have to mention it. Basically, I am not able to function in any way normally for about four days a month. Today is one of them. Another four or five days are a challenge, but bearable.

This period should have been better - it’s been long enough since the fibroid surgery. Yet, it has actually got worse. Where is this going to end? Am I going to simply bleed to death? Of course, I know that won’t happen, but in my current state I feel as if it is a possibility.

What am I going to do if I don’t get better? I can’t take 6 weeks off and have a myomectomy! That’s not even a very good solution anyway.

Tomorrow I am going to have to go to work and pretend that everything is fine. It’s a REALLY difficult tricky to pull off, since I will be weak and will have to visit the powder room every 30 minutes.

I feel really wretched about the whole thing. I just feel like crying.

I don’t want to eat meat, but I’d better have a steak or something like that, together with spinach and more of the iron-fortified energy drink. Ugh.

I have downloaded an America drama called Jericho (cool!) and am watching it while feeling pretty sorry for myself.

Gosh, the tone of this blog is getting a bit depressing! Divorces, suicide and illness… I think I need to lighten up a bit!

As mentioned, I did actually set this blog up partly to be able to ramble on about things that I normally wouldn’t talk about. But that doesn’t mean I should be a depressing bore, I guess.

In that spirit, I suppose it is not the end of the world that I still have symptoms from the UFE surgery and am unable to do much today. I do however need to do some ironing and cleaning for the week ahead whether I feel up for it or not… But I won’t go shopping, go out for lunch with anybody, go to Duke Street church (which I keep meaning to do on Sunday…) or any of the other things I would normally be.

Since I’ll be around I’ll smarten up this blog a bit and perhaps create a few more entries. I just realised it doesn’t display well at on low resolution screens. Also, looking at the stats, people are still mainly using the nasty Internet Explorer 6. This site doesn’t display that well in IE 6. (I thought Microsoft were going to force the upgrade to IE7 onto all their less clued up users..!? So whey are more than half internet users still on IE6?)

Oh honestly I have had enough of being sick from UFE now though! When am I going to be back to normal? I feel my uterus all the time. Sometimes it’s cramping. Blood is trickling out. Enough already - heal up and go back to normal will you! I feel weak from this all the time and I want my energy back.

All and all, today should be a nice day of rest though. I’ve got plenty of things to do. Work will be busy this week as the project I am managing starts taking off.

Hope you’ll have a lovely day too!
Cordelia

Oh, I got sick AGAIN! I had to spend the better part of Sunday waiting to see a doctor who could give me a prescription for the super strong antibiotics that I need. I had to use all my cunning to figure out a way through the NHS maze of services. I needed to get hold of the strong antibiotics without getting hospitalised again (which would be the normal procedure). I succeded, but it took 6 hours altogether. I got enough tablets to last me a week. Really, the dying fibroid should stop giving me problems by then! I’ll find out if I can get the antibiotics online if I need them again.

Can’t decide whether to force myself to work tomorrow despite needing a fever-free day to recover. If I am home I risk getting a reputation as a weakling with bad health… Also I jeopardize my job, since I am not yet past my three month probation period (that’s Wednesday week.)
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UPDATE: Thanks for the comment Paul. I went to work anyway and felt pretty weak all day. I was able to do a large part of the budget of my project.
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UPDATE: A week later - still bleeding a bit… still hurting a bit. Enough antibiotics for one more day. Will I get sick again when I stop the antibiotics? I should be getting my period soon. I can’t wait for confirmation that my female parts are still working, but I am hoping that I have a ‘normal’ period that can be managed using normal protection. That’s why I did the surgery - my periods were like a horror movie.
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Today I have to be back at work. Yesterday I was still ill with fever (fell asleep as a wreck at 9pm!). But I really don’t dare being off any longer.

I am certainly much better since the surgery, but the girls on ‘Geek with Fibroids’ are right; It takes a long time to recover from this. Every night I get a fever despite taking some strong painkillers. I suppose I’ll just have to put up with feeling a bit weak.

During my time off I kind of got this blog up and running which was one of my objectives. My sister was here visiting too, which was very nice, if unplanned.

Now, on to some whingeing!

God, I need to get out of London. The commute on overcrowded trains, the lack of real nature, the consumer madness, the cheesiness of professional life; It’s all slowly driving me crazy. Today I’ll experience it again.

I stopped worrying about performance at work and what collegues think of me quite a while back. It’s very hard to affect these things; too much effort on it can actually backfire. The ideal is a bland medium, really. I am finding that hard to live up to; I ne

If you are too good you attract backstabbers. Too ‘girly’ is just plain dangerous. Too tough will lead to revolt in the team.. I just go there without any expectations, give it my best effort for about nine hours and then get home and try to forget about it! Too bad I am completely exhausted and spent by then! Also. if one of the senior people wants to be rid of me for any reason, I am well aware that this could happen at any time.

Being a tall, blonde, busty woman I am aware by now that guys at work have their eyes on me from time to time. I am ‘highly visible’ as an ex manager put it. This feels dangerous; I am worried that any mistake I make will turn into a big laugh. I am not good at being “one of the lads” and feel like an outsider.

I try not to worry about the bigger picture (which is unclear to me), or my complete lack of motivation. I am truly grateful for the success I have had on the career side, despite not actually being particularly talented at either IT or management… Thank you God, I have to admit it was what I was praying about. Too bad I didn’t realise what I should have prayed for!

Growing up, I thought that having a career was the best and most fulfilling thing that could happen to me. Now I know that it is fairly hollow and certainly not fulfilling. Once you’ve experienced a shopping spree at Selfridges paid for with money you earned yourself, you realise that there is so much more to being a woman.

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Update: Despite my negative ramblings above, the day actually went well. The people who have desks around me bought flowers for me! That really made me happy!

I discovered that I had hardly been missed in terms of my workload. This is very odd, making me have to ask “why exactly was I hired? I haven’t been doing any proper project management yet!” I had some pain and fever starting late in the afternoon. Hence I left at 5.15!
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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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Technorati Tags: fibroids, ufe, uterine+fibroids, embolization,
hospital, href=”http://www.technorati.com/tags/womens+health” rel=”tag”>womens+health

Men, read no further… Ok, if you are a man, stop reading right now. I promise you, you will find this post really off-putting. (But make no mistake; for approx. 10% of women, this reflects the harsh reality of life!)

However if you are a woman suffering from menorrhagia or uterine fibroids, you may find some comfort in this article which shows that you are not alone! I am just one of millions of professional, health-conscious women who suffer from this despite my best efforts to stay healthy. The greyish objects are the ‘foreign’ objects, the fibroids. Fibroids are basically muscle-like growths in the uterus. Many women have them (over 30% of all women). However mine are unusually large. The fibroids colled toxins passing through the body, and stores those toxins inside it.

Anaemia

I get anemia (iron-deficiency) from all the bleeding. The doctor told me that my iron levels were really low, almost so low that I need a blood-transfusion. However, since finding out about this I have been trying to get as much iron into me as I can. I take iron-pills and drink a daily concoction of Floradix (Blutsaft) and Vitamin C. Blutsaft Iron Drink… Excessive bleeding during the period is called “Menorrhagia”.

Menorrhagia

The fibroids make the uterus expand, just like it would if you are pregnant. This somehow leads to much more bleeding during your period. For some women it makes the period much more painful.

The fibroids cause me to bleed something incredible for up 7-10 days a month. I simply can’t believe how much I bleed! It’s well over a litre every period, I am sure. Probably it’s more like 1.5 - 2 litre, but I am under-estimating on purpose. (Apparently most women over-estimate how much they bleed, and I wanted to counter-act that tendency.)

If I am home during the worst days (which, ideally, I need to be), I tend to spend my time laying down, using a folded tea-towel that I change every half hour. I guess that illustrates how bad things are. I am too weak and it’s too messy for me to want to do anything else. (If there is any guy still reading - I warned you! )

Anaemia

I get anemia (iron-deficiency) from all the bleeding. The doctor told me that my iron levels were really low, almost so low that I need a blood-transfusion. However, since finding out about this I have been trying to get as much iron into me as I can. I take iron-pills and drink a daily concoction of Floradix (Blutsaft) and Vitamin C.
A few days ago I was really dizzy and fainted for a few seconds on the train to work. The train was packed like a sardine-jar. I swayed, feeling dizzy and weak, about to lose consciousness. I would have fallen to the ground if there hadn’t been so many people around me on the packed train. A woman got up and offered me her seat. I hyperventilated but came around once I was able to sit down and relax. Anaemia causes the sufferer to be constantly fatigued, prone to headaches and just generally weak.

The heavy bleeding makes it almost impossible to function normally at work. No amount of sanitary protection (double, super-extra-maxi-size everything at the same time) seems to last for longer than 20 minutes or so. There is a long walk to the Ladies’ Room through an open plan office, and I am embarrased about having to go so often… I can’t even last through a normal-length business meeting. I am constantly worried about bleeding through the protection. 80-90% of my co-workers are male, so even hinting at the problem is out of the question.

A very embarrasing moment

The other day as I got up from my seat at the train on my way home from work, the unthinkable happened… I felt it the second I rose from the seat…. This has never happened to me before. I am not talking about a tiny stain in my jeans. I am talking about complete flooding, i.e. haemorrhage.

I was wearing a business suit (blue jacket and matching knee-legth skirt), pumps and a short raincoat. Unfortunately I was wearing skin-coloured tights.

Realising what the situation was, I started making my way towards the Ladies at the station, as fast as I could.

But when I got there, it turned out that the Ladies was closed for one of the ‘normal’ reasons… (repairs, vandalism or something like that - who cares… ). I panicked and couldn’t think what to do! Largest size available…
I felt like crying. Another woman was there. I lift up my legs and looked at my tights. The instant I did, the other woman looked too…

There were stripy vertical stains on my tights, all the way down the leg. A few stains had already formed on the stone floor. The woman asked if I was ok? What could I say…? She must have thought I was just some idiot who couldn’t be bothered to wear proper sanitary protection. Whereas in reality I had as much as one person can fit on her without it showing through the clothes.

A man came by for the Gents (which was also closed). He stopped briefly to complain about the closed loos. Then he noticed what was going on and looked shocked.

My humiliation was total. Lord knows what he made of it. I even couldn’t think clearly…) I had done everything I possibly could to prevent exactly this. But there I was with blood dripping down my legs, feeling really weak and really humiliated.

(I could have worn trousers, I guess, or black stockings. I normally wear skirts for work though. Rest assured I am getting some work-trousers though, black ones!) *Blush”

It was dark outside. I decided to run home, despite feeling very weak. A stupid idea perhaps, but the thought of somebody seeing my stripy legs was just too much… It would take a 8 minutes or so. I ran with my coat wrapped around my waist so the stains wouldn’t show. When I got home I had a good cry about it while cleaning up the mess.

Long Wait for Treatment

In May 2006 I went to my GP (Doctor) about this. Typical! I had to see a male doctor! I tried not to be pre-judiced about it. It should not be embarrassing… He is a professional… And just because some American women online had troubles with male doctors doesn’t mean that I will.

I had already researched the problem and was fairly certain it was fibroids that was causing my bleeding problem. I explained this to the GP.

But the doctor thought I was misguided. Exaggerating, maybe. He said ‘No, you don’t have that, I am pretty sure.’ And I almost trusted him for a second!

The only reason he ended up sending me for a ultrasound uterine scan was because I insisted that he did. He said ‘Well, if it will make you feel better, I don’t mind.’

I had tried to be nice about it, not coming there as a know-it-all patient.. But really, I was desperate to get checked, and I was not prepared to accept a ‘no’.. It was very clear to me that there was something wrong with me. I knew that I had all the symptoms of fibroids.

It is a bit worrying to realise that if I had I listened to this doctor I might still not be diagnosed! He wanted to send me home with a strong pain killer; (Mefenamic Acid). But really, the pain is the least of the problems with my periods!

Photo of Multiple Small-ish Fibroids.
I have only one.

1-2 months later I finally got an appointment for a scan. The technician spotted the fibroids immediately and commented that they were quite large. One was 8 cm in diameter. (But I think it’s grown a lot since then… the bleeding has certainly doubled since then… )

I had no private health insurance at this point. (Most people in England don’t have that, unless it’s a job benefit for a fairly good job. I had just started a new job, so the insurance had not yet kicked in.) As a result of this, I was at the mercy of public health care for the first time ever.

NHS (National Health Service)is a perfectly good and a completely free service. (Well, our taxes pay for it!) But waiting-times can be long for appointments. Also, the patient does not have the extra leverage of also being a customer. She cannot take her business elsewhere if she is not happy… (And even if she could, it would not worry the NHS in the least, quite the opposite!)

Most NHS hospitals are old and quite run-down, having been patched up as and when the funds were available. The staff is competent, dedicated and generally nice. The equipment needed is generally available. However the staff is over-worked and under-paid and there are certainly no luxuries or extras offered…

During the autumn I got called to see a doctor at Kingston-upon-Thames hospital. Although my appointment was at ‘Mr Davies’ Surgery’, the doctor I actually ended up seeing (to my surprise), was an Indian lady. She had a very strong Indian accent which I was struggling to understand. Soon it became obvious that she knew even less about fibroids than I did, despite being a doctor. (I had read up about fibroids by then).

Seriously irritating! She treated me as if I had an IQ of about 50 or so, asking me questions from a script. She did not give me a opportunity to ask my own questions and seemed uninterested in anything other than following her script. What was her problem!? Most of what she was asking was completely irrelevant, or questions which I had already answered previously and which should therefore already be noted in my patient records.

The interview finished with her insisting that I take something called “Tranexamic Acid” (supposed to reduce bleeding) for 3 months before anything could be done. Then I should come back for an evaluation.

This was a complete waste of time and I knew it. But I had no energy to argue. Also, I was hoping that some pills I had bought on the internet (Vitalzym) might help. I really wanted to believe in them… More on this later.

The Uterine Embolization…. I can’t wait!

Finally the three months had passed. There had (as expected) been no improvement. I got another call to attend Mr Davies’ surgery.

A scary MRI Scan is required..
The doctor I saw this time the doctor was a really nice woman named Nicola. She treated me like I actually had a brain and asked my feedback before making recommenations. I felt as if she sympathised with my situation and was thinking about what the most appropriate treatment would be based on my circumstances.

It was clear that this doctor had not had time to read my records either, and wasn’t necessarily a guru on fibroids. But she seemed knowledgeable enough, was very friendly and genuinely keen to help.

Half-way through the interview she mentioned Uterine Embolization which I had read about in a book that I bought about fibroids. She said it was probably a better alternative than myomectomy and that she would discuss it with Mr Davies and somebody called Dr Todd, a radiologist I believe. I left feeling hopeful.

Another couple of months passed which brings us to present time.

So about two weeks ago I saw Dr Todd. He was really nice and friendly. He said he could help me!

The procedure (fibroid embolization) does not require open surgery - It is all done via a blood vessel! They cut off the blood supply to the fibroids. This makes them die and wither away. They then come out as grey-black liquid. Gross! Kingston NHS Hospital
I’ll have to stay for two nights at the hospital.

(An NHS hospital - ugh! Kingston hospital is an old run-down Victorian pile of bricks, mainly… It looks very raggamuffin. Not a very uplifting place)

But anything is worth it to be rid of the fibroids… NHS dump, here I come! In fact, I can’t wait!

(Actually, at the time of writing, I do have private health insurance through my new job. But I doubt whether it is valid for problems that were discovered before you signed up. Sigh)

My appointment to do the surgery is for the 4th of March. It takes a week to recover. I’ll have a fab time laying in bed, reading, watching TV and messing around online. This is the plan anyway…
Then no more scary bleeding EVER! I’ll just have normal periods that can be managed using normal-sized tampons.

Vitalzym

This remedy against fibroids is heavily advertised online. Perhaps you have come across ads for it?

One woman who sells it online has set up a ‘testimonial site’, where she talks about how Vitalzym cured her fibroid problems. Incidentally she is now selling it, for the benefit of other sufferers.. I was quite taken in by her story.

I can’t say whether Lorraine (the Vitalzym seller) is honest or not, but I CAN tell you that Vitalzym did nothing for me!

It is really quite expensive, so for that reason I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are able to spare a few hundred pounds without worrying too much about it. However, it definitely does no harm, so if money isn’t a problem, then go for it! You’d have nothing to loose but your cash.
What’s with the ‘ä’?
Surely they mean ‘a’!
Personally I used it for the 3-4 months within which you should be able to notice an improvement according to the Vitalzyam doctor. I took between 8 and 30 pills per day, as recommended by the same physician. The bleeding was unaffected. But despite the fact that it didn’t work for me personally, I really thought that it seemed like a good product. I was very disappointed when it proved inefficient.

I still think it may be helpful in stopping you getting fibroids in the first place, alternatively in stopping some very small fibroids from growing large. But if you’ve already got fibroids badly, I really don’t think it can make much difference. I think I spent £300-£500 or so before I called it quits. I really hope that this was not one of those products that take advantage of the vulnerability of people who are driven to desperation by their symptoms and are unwilling to have surgery.

If somebody who reads this has been helped by Vitalzym, please let me know. I’d love for it to work, but based on my own experience I have to conclude that it doesn’t.

I also looked into ‘estrogen dominance’ as a reason for triggering fibroids. I became fairly convinced that I was suffering from this hormonal imbalance and bought some anti-estrogen (progesterone) tablets. As you may have guessed, there was no noticeable improvement from these tablets either. Again, these progesterone may be helpful for preventing you from getting fibroids in the first time. However when you got them badly, only surgery or UFE will help.

Conclusion

I am a bit scared about the surgery and the pain afterwards. It is not exactly guaranteed that it won’t make me infertile (although supposedly it doesn’t - Dr Todd mentioned patients of his who had become pregnant within as little as six months after the embolization).

I don’t know any Christians who would pray for me as I go through this, so if you are a Christian, please would you pray for me; that the surgery goes well? I’d really appreciate it!

If fibroids are affecting you, please tell me by making a comment below! Or, if you want to make any other sort of comment, please do. Just don’t say it’s disgusting, as 1) I warned you, and 2) I can’t help it!

I will update this post after the surgery.

Cordelia

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UPDATE: In this article you can read about my hospital stay and the Uterine Fibroid Embolization. Thanks for your prayers!
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