My Open Myomectomy

01 Sep My Open Myomectomy

On June 9, 2020, I checked into the hospital to have an Open Myomectomy. After several years of inexplicable pain, which has recently been growing in intensity, my gynecologist located 2 large Fibroids on my uterus that we decided had to be surgically removed. If I can be honest, I was shook. Not about having surgery (unfortunately I’m no stranger to surgical procedures) but I was scared because of everything that was riding on this particular procedure.

Let me explain:

I’m 33 years old and I want to have children, but giving birth was something that I just figured would naturally happen. I assumed that, after I got married, my husband and I would have a discussion around getting pregnant and growing our family. It was never something I thought about regularly or really even planned for at this stage in my life. Then, all of a sudden, after a series of doctor appointments, ultrasounds, and pelvic exams, I’m being told that my ability to conceive/carry children was being threatened by the benign tumors that were growing in my uterus. My world flipped upside down immediately. I went from rarely thinking about becoming a mother, to it absolutely being the only thing on my mind.

Surgery was the last thing I wanted to do. The doctor was throwing all of this information at me about the potential risks. Risks like: scar tissue building in my uterus, difficulty conceiving, possibly needing a hysterectomy, not being able to carry to term if/when I did conceive…it was enough to make my head spin. However, she also gave me the risks of not having the surgery, and those seemed worse, not to mention if I didn’t have the surgery I would still have to deal with the original pain symptoms that drove me to the doctor in the first place.

So after a lot of internal deliberation and discussions with my support system, I reluctantly (yet hopefully) went the surgery route. My procedure was over 3 hours long and I spent 3 days in the hospital, but glory to God, my procedure went great (my doctor was pretty pleased with her own work). Turns out rather than 2, I had 10 Fibroids removed from my uterus and a cyst removed from my ovary. I’m three months into my recovery, and although I’m not quite at 100%, I’m grateful that I’m this far into the process.

Approximately 80% of back women develop Fibroids, and we are 3 times more likely to experience severe symptoms and either be hospitalized or have our Fibroids surgically removed. I’ve spent years in pain with regard to my cycle, thinking that this was something that I just had to deal with. However, I’m learning that it’s up to me to be an advocate for my own health. Unfortunately, the likelihood of my Fibroids returning is fairly high, so I plan to explore natural ways of healing, change my diet, as well as follow the doctor’s recommendations. What I won’t do is simply accept the idea that this is something that I have to live with.