Back and doing well
Posted April 8, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Thanks all for the well wishes! I’ve been home for about 24 hours and am surprised to be feeling remarkably well and mostly pain-free. They sent me home with serious pain meds and something for nausea, but I haven’t needed either; I’ve just been doing the monster Motrin (800mg) every six hours.
The procedure itself went very smoothly. The worst part of it, for me, was the Foley catheter. First, I hadn’t realized how large that catheter was going to be, nor did I anticipate the fun ride to the cardiac cath lab…5-10 minutes of having the sensation of peeing on yourself! It also made getting off the bed and onto the lab table a bit of a pain.
I was conscious throughout, and the only thing that really threw me was how much of a sedative IV Benadryl was. The nurse claimed it helped all the other IV meds “play nicely together” and warned me that it made some folks sleepy. But I wasn’t really prepared for feeling practically knocked out (it hit me in seconds and felt a little like what three or four glasses of wine feels like).
The rest of the procedure, at least from my vantage point, was unremarkable. They worked on me for an hour, but although I was mostly awake, it frankly never felt like they actually did anything. The only time they got even a little fussy was when I tried raising my head to see something, which I guess is not a good idea when they are trying to keep you from bleeding out the punctures on your legs.
Anyways, now my biggest fear is that I’m going to regret not having this done much earlier, when my first gyn suggested it. That said, I’m not unhappy that I’m 50 or so lbs lighter than I was when this was diagnosed. I think the mobility I had gained from the healthier diet and the weight loss will make the recovery easier. So far, so good!
Well, either my Motrin is wearing off (next dose is due in an hour) or sitting at my desk is not as comfortable as the couch, so this will do for today. Thanks again for all your comments!
April 9th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
Hi, Beth - so glad to hear you’re back and feeling so great! woo hoo! best wishes for continued good recovery, so you’re back in the blog saddle soon! ;)
April 10th, 2006 at 5:45 am
Glad you’re back and everything went well!
April 10th, 2006 at 8:18 am
Hi Beth,
Sounds like another great benefit of better health has been exposed in your surgery and recovery. Because you’ve done better, you’re feeling better. It’s a great equation and very inspirational.
Regards, Debra
April 10th, 2006 at 8:56 am
So happy to know that everything went well. Will be curious to read about the results after you’ve had your check-up, since I’m at some point going to have to do something about my fibroids again, and the procedure you had wasn’t available back when I was first diagnosed and had a myomectomy.
April 10th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Debra, you know, I’ve wondered about this too. According to the literature, there is a wide response to the procedure (1 in 5 have no pain, 1 in 5 have severe pain, and the rest are in-between). So I’m not a major outlier. But I do wonder whether the healthy (non-inflammatory) diet I’ve been on contributed to my easy recovery. Besides the lack of pain, I also haven’t had the flu-like symptoms they warn about post-procedure.
And little miss ess, I’ll be sure to share, but feel free to email me too (actboldly at gmail.com). The next appt is really more for the doc to tell me how the procedure went from his perspective (I get to look at the films he made on Thursday). The followup after that is in three months, at which point I’ll have another MRI to see how my fibroids have responded.
BTW, the UAE procedure is better for bleeding symptoms than for bulk symptoms (e.g. incontinence), and it isn’t for women who want to remain fertile, so that may or may not be relevant to you. I’m already kicking myself for not doing this much sooner though! What I know at this point is that I was fully expecting to have a heavy period this past weekend and so far, I’ve only spotted (which is something they advise you to expect post-procedure).
So I’m feeling very, very optimistic. Because one of my fibroids was submucosal, I am at risk for sloughing it over the next several months, and that can be painful and/or problematic if it can’t be passed (you wind up needing a D&C). But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it! For now, it looks like my days of carrying Depends around are done!