Fibroids: A readers personal account

Today I take a back seat role - let me put aside my writing and be a reader. Great contributions have come on POKEYOURMIND as will be affirmed in the story you are about to read from one lady whose mind was poked and she decided to share her personal story on fibroids. Do we share the same experiences? Here is her story...unedited.

FIBROIDS : A PERSONAL ACCOUNT

To wake up in a foreign country in a hospital is the last thing that anyone would like but that is exactly what happened to me once.

I woke up one morning and felt like the bed was spinning, I thought I was groggy from my sleep. I got out of bed and tried to stand up but fell to the floor. Lucky for me, my house mate then heard the thud, called for me and as there was no answer, she opened the door to my room and found me on the floor. When I opened my eyes, I was in the hospital.

I was found with low blood pressure, my blood levels where very low and thus the weakness. The good news is that I was given medication and treated but it didn’t end there.

After a year of staying in a foreign country, I finally came back home. A few months later, I went for a check- up and the doctor asked me about how my bleeding was during my menses, I told the doctor that they were very heavy. After a thorough examination I was finally given the bad news that I had the dreaded fibroids and that they were still quite small. I was asked all sorts of questions and we came to a conclusion.

The heavy bleeding continued but these came with excruciating violent period pains. I would have diarrhea and vomit and just fail to get out of bed for hours on end.

After two years of ignoring them and hoping a miracle would happen, my stomach started growing such that people would ask me whether I was pregnant. Sleeping became a problem because the fibroids grew so big that even my stomach felt hard to the touch. Eating became a problem too. I would eat small portions of food and feel so full, even drinking water would make me full as if I ate a full meal.

At the end of 2011, I traveled to work outside the country. On the first night I started experiencing this pain that I had never felt before. I went to the toilet and bled like never before. This happened twice and stopped, I prayed that I would just get home and get treated from there.

As soon as I arrived home, I made an appointment to see the doctor, we did the tests all over again, and I was told I needed to undergo surgery almost immediately as the fibroids had grown to sizes larger than my fist and there were three large ones and some small ones.

At this point, it was becoming impossible to do almost anything. I would tired easily, even lifting my hand for less than a minute was like I had done a very heavy job. I almost hated eating and drinking anything but at the same time when I got hungry I had pain in my tummy, basically everything was uncomfortable.

MY D-DAY

My surgery was scheduled for a Thursday so I checked into the hospital on a Wednesday evening as requested so that the nurses could prepare me. Very early in the morning, we (me and other ladies scheduled for various operations) were told to go to the theatre room. My turn came and I lay on the operating bed (or table). The anesthetist then gave me an injection that was shot through my leg and in a few seconds I was numb from my stomach down. Funny thing is I was actually chatting with my doctors. I could hear them pluck out chunks of the fibroids, one team member actually showed me what they were taking out of me.

The surgery was completed in about two hours. I was then wheeled back to the ward to start recuperating. But instead of that happening I started having this excruciating pain and I must have cried for what looked like hours for help from the nurses until one lady doctor (my angel) who personally knows me happened to be doing her rounds and found me. Am assuming because of my screaming, she had a look at me and found that I had started to bleed once again.

The doctor quickly made arrangements to take me back to theatre and made a few calls to some specialists. Apparently I bled so much I turned purple. I was opened and sewn three times in the same place where I was sewn the previous day. My chances, I am told were 50/50. I could have died but the almighty God decided to spare my life.

Oblivious to me and after being opened three times, as I had lost a great deal of blood and was literally on my death bed, I was wheeled to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) again to recuperate but this time with extra care.

UNCONSCIOUS BUT ON THE MEND

As I lay in my unconscious state in the ICU with blood drips all over my body, my very loving family called everyone in my phone contacts and notified them about my situation, the doctors had said it was 50/50 so you can only imagine how frightened my family members were. People streamed in from everywhere to see me in my unconscious state not knowing whether I would make it or not. As everyone came to see me, I could see and hear all of them but all I could do at the time was shed tears, lots of tears. Now I know not from the movies but from my own experience that when people are unconscious, they can hear everything.

CONCLUSION

Statistics say that eighty percent (80%) of women on the streets have fibroids. They may seem simple because they do not hurt but when they grow very big, in my view, they can be very dangerous. I encourage all ladies to get examined especially if ones menses are heavy.

If I do not thank my God for preserving my life and giving me a second chance at life, then I do not deserve to be walking the earth today. God gave me a second chance. I thank him and only him.