Frankie the Fibroid
From crispyneurons
the bouncing baby blob
WARNING! This page contains photos that may gross you out! Proceed at your own risk.
"It's uter-US, not uter-YOU!"
Homer Simpson
My wife Heather was diagnosed with uterine fibroids in summer of 2004. For the past several years she'd had worsening symptoms and had been trying without much success to get useful medical help. In June 2004 she got a pelvic ultrasound, which indicated multiple fibroids, the largest of which appeared to be 4cm in diameter, about the size of a small tomato.
Heather was referred to a surgical gynecologist, Dr. Jon Lischke of the IGO Medical Group. She expected to discuss non-surgical or minimally-invasive techniques for removing or shrinking the fibroids, such as uterine fibroid embolization (UFE). He explained that the size and number of fibroids contraindicated non-surgical solutions. Heather was shocked to learn that the fibroids were making her infertile! Many women get fibroids, but they often don't affect fertility. The gynecologist felt that conventional surgery was the best option. He recommended an abdominal myomectomy, requiring a bikini-line incision.
Heather chose to get a second opinion from another surgical gynecologist, Dr. Paul Buzad, who had helped her mother with a similar problem. Dr. Buzad also teaches at a medical school, and was very patient and thorough in answering our questions. He agreed with the first gynecologist's opinion, and explained why conventional surgery was the best option for restoring her fertility. The nature of the procedure requires a longer recovery, and Heather's first burn was fast approaching, so she scheduled surgery as soon as she could.
Heather knew that she faced a fairly long recovery, that she would be unable to belly dance for a few months, and that she would have to depend on her family, our burner and belly dance friends, and above all, me. She was also forced to face larger questions about her fertility. She dealt with this with her own bent sense of humor; we joked that we should name all the fibroids. She named the largest one "Frankie."
I drove Heather up to LA for her pre-op appointment. From my perspective, this appointment was an opportunity to establish whether Dr. Buzad was the right person to do the surgery. After peppering him with questions, I felt optimistic that it was going to go just fine, and the most important thing was to share my optimism with Heather and help her see that it was going to be ok.
On July 15, I drove Heather to Northridge Hospital for her surgery. After the bureaucracy of admitting her to the hospital and undergoing some last-minute lab tests, I kissed her goodbye and they wheeled her away to the operating room. And the long waiting began.
Several hours later, Dr. Buzad met with Heather's mother and myself in the surgical waiting room. He brought several Polaroids of Heather's uterus and the tumor that had been removed. As it turned out, the surgery was quite different from what any of us had expected. Instead of several smaller fibroids, there turned out to be a single very large fibroid. It was 13cm in diameter! As it turned out, Frankie was an only child. It was so absurdly large that I almost had to laugh.
Heather was still in the recovery room when he was telling us this, so it was a few hours later that I explained to Heather what had occurred and showed her the photos. Another photo showed her surgically repaired uterus just before it was put back inside of her.
With the surgery now complete, Heather had a stay in the hospital lasting two nights. Her first day after surgery was difficult for her, but by that evening she began to improve dramatically. I wrote this email to the local burner mail list:
From: jason@crispyneurons.com
To: fuegodiego@yahoogroups.com
Date: July 16, 2004 10:35:27 PM PDT
Subject: Say hello to Frankie the Fibroid!
A-hey-hey,
It's your friendly neighborhood Gecko, dropping you an Official Status Update on Caerthann... we're still up in LA but I've finally managed to access a network with my trusty Powerbook and am now pounding away on my keyboard like a mad pianist, shooting emails left and right! Amazing how much can happen in just a few hectic days.
Bottom line: The surgery is complete, Caerthann remains in the hospital healing, we're all very proud of her. Courtesy of a routine surgical procedure strikingly similar to a C/section, she has given birth to an absurdly large (13cm x 12.5cm x 9cm) uterine fibroid that we have lovingly named "Frankie the Fibroid." Picture a large pink softball made of Spam and you've got the idea. Gruesome pictures to come... stay tuned!
On a less jocular note... She's exhausted and has been through a fairly miserable experience, but is now on the other side of it and feeling better all the time. And this has been a great thing for me to be a part of... I've had more than my share of loved ones that faced serious medical attention, and this is the first time I've witnessed one with a happy ending. I need this. Seeing her color and energy come back makes me want to race to the top of a mountain tonight and howl with joy to the stars!
One last thing to share: We have received *so* much love from you all, in diverse forms... emails, phone calls, flowers, balloons and gifts. Caerthann and I really feel it -- it's powerful and embracing, and it comforts us like a warm ray of sunshine. I am seriously touched. You are beautiful, thoughtful people, of a caliber and quality I have never seen elsewhere... and it's an honor to share my time with you. I am grateful and it's just ridiculous how happy you all make me feel!
And now *yawn* time for bed...
Cheers,
Gecko
By the second morning she was doing even better. She had taken a shower, eaten solid food, and was very eager to go home. That afternoon she checked out and I took her to her parents' house to convalesce.
In this picture, the lime represents the normal size of a healthy uterus in a non-pregnant woman. To give you an idea of the situation, the grapefruit represents the size of just the fibroid that was inside the uterus, not including the uterus itself which was enlarged due to the fibroid. The flour weighs one pound, which is what the fibroid weighed. This gives you an idea of the dimensions and mass of the fibroid which was removed surgically. In short, it was very large. It was hard to imagine how something of that size could even be inside her body. It was so large the surgeon had had to make a larger incision than expected.
For several days after she left the hospital, Heather had staples holding the bikini-line incision together. She asked me to take photos of her stapled belly before the staples were removed.
The fibroid was removed successfully and she's healing well. Her uterus is returning to normal. If she ever gets pregnant she will need to have a C-section rather than a vaginal delivery, due to the weakened uterine wall.
We've been overwhelmed with the generosity and support of our community. Heather was showered with flowers and gifts in the hospital and upon her return home. The burners have taken to showing up at our home, cooking us dinner, cleaning the house, and keeping us company. I'm very happy with how my family has expressed their well wishes to us. Heather has reached a stage where she feels almost back to normal much of the time, and it is very difficult for her to refrain from trying to take care of everything herself. Hey, it's her nature.
