It also causes a lot of other health issues. Such as anemia. So I finally went to my doctor in August and started the process of finding a way to stop this non-stop bleeding. I really wanted a female doctor, but there are not enough female gynecologist out there. The waiting list to see one is months. I couldn't keep going for months. I did find a good doctor though and we decided to do a uterine ablation.
This procedure causes the uterine lining to stop growing each month, which stops you from having periods. This was decided in October. Before you can have this surgery you have to have all kinds of test. I had to have a uterine biopsy to make sure my bleeding wasn't caused by cancer. I had to have ultra sounds done to make sure there were no growths in my uterus. Once all of these test were done it was December and the busy time for my work. We decided to schedule my surgery in February. What is few more months of non-stop bleeding anyways right.
I went in on February 7th to have my surgery. It can be done right in the doctors office, they put me under and I was on my way to no more long, heavy periods. When I woke up I expected to feel sore, but I felt fine. When I commented on this the doctor said, we couldn't do the procedure. I was a bit out of it from being under anesthesia . I couldn't understand why this was not done. My poor husband. I think I cried all the way home.
A week later I met with my doctor he told me that my Uterine lining was so "Fluffy" that they could not see my Fallopian tubes to do the sterilization that needs to be done if you have an ablation. He gave me progesterone pills to take for 10 days. He told me that this would stop the bleeding that I was having, and then I would have a period that would clear out my uterus.
I took the pills and the nice thing was they stopped the bleeding I was having, well for a little bit. But they made me feel so lethargic. I went out and bought lots of pad and tampons. My favorite are the Always infinity brand. I could be a spokes person for these. What I love is that they are super thin, and yet they have for the most part kept me accident free even during my worst periods. Which I refer to as "murder scenes."
There was a point where I had felt like I had been bleeding for forever and looked online to see if I had made a world record, and that was when I realized that I hadn't made a world record, and that was something I could be thankful for. There are some real horror stories on the Internet about non-stop periods. Anyways I bought all of these boxes of pads and tampons because I expected to have a really heavy period once I stopped taking the pills.
What happened was a nightmare. I started bleeding three days before ending the pills, and then a few days after ending the pills I was sitting on my couch and my head started ringing, and I felt off. When I stood up I think half my uterine lining fell out of me. The infinity pad was not able to withstand the issue at hand. It scared me so bad, that I had a neighbor take me to the emergency room and my husband met me there. I have to say this is when I would hope to have a female doctor. Someone who can at least understand what it is like to be a woman. But I got a male doctor and he said "a woman's uterus is like a dump truck, when you are sitting it's tilted and so it keeps everything in, and when you stand up it dumps it all out." and then he proceeded to say " women can bleed a lot. Men if they had as much blood as women have come out of them would die, but women they can bleed a lot." Ugh!
In all situations I try hard to find something to be thankful for. I was thankful that this issue happened while I was at home, and that I had good neighbors who came over and helped me out. I was thankful that someone could cover my shift at work the next day, because I was pretty exhausted. And I was thankful my husband was able to leave work and be with me at the hospital. I think what I was really scared about was, could that happen again?
The next day I called my doctors office and finally was able to schedule my Uterine Ablation part two. At my pre-operation appointment my doctor and I talked about this horrible bleeding incident and he said that most likely all the periods I thought I was having, probably weren't even real periods because my uterine lining was so thick, it was just a small part that was shedding because it couldn't get any bigger. I told him that I call my uterus a hoarder. It just seems it wants to hoard tissue.
Finally on March 22nd I had my uterine ablation in the hospital. They had to cut into my stomach to do a tubal ligation first and then did the ablation after. I got to the hospital at 11 am and did not have surgery until almost 4 pm. I guess some of the surgeries before me took longer than expected.
The first four hours after surgery I was in a lot of pain, and then after that either the drugs they gave me kicked in, or things just stopped hurting I'm not sure. I spent 3 days pretty much sleeping and doing very little. After 4 days I went back to work, but was still very exhausted.
It has now been a month since my surgery. My doctor has given me they OK to do whatever I want, except house work. I'm not supposed to do house work for a year Lol.. I will not know for 4 months whether or not I will have a period. But the period I should have would only be very light spotting for one to two days. I'm hoping for no period at all. Because I'm done with it all. Over the last six months I have had more days bleeding and using feminine hygiene products than I have had days without. So no periods would be so wonderful. I look forward to being able to exercises and not feel exhausted. I look forward to living without worrying that at any moment I could have a bloody accident occur. So if you are living with something similar talk to your doctor about the Esure Ablation. I'll let you know in 4 months what life is like. I'm hoping it will be wonderful and period free!
G.G.
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