WARNING
If you don’t like to talk about periods, then skip this blog. That is all this one is about.
What is it?
It is basically the burning of a woman’s uterus lining. It is to help those of us women who deal with periods, and not just any periods, very heavy periods by burning the tissue in the lining.
About me and getting the surgery
Growing up, I had heavy periods. I would hit day 31 and start my period with 8 days, 4 light and 4 heavy. That was what I was used to. And I didn’t get any cramps in the stomach area like normal, either. Nope, all of my cramps were in my legs, which made it hard to really want to do anything with walking, running, swimming, especially during P. E. in school. Then as an adult, I had 4 miscarriages, had to give myself hormones to try and get pregnant 3 times, and had 2 live vaginal births with my two girls.
Something happened and after I had Cara, who is now 3 and will be 4 in July, the cramps are way worse, my boobs are super sore before and during my periods, and my bleeding is so heavy I have to change my pad and tampon every hour if not more. And my cramps have moved into my stomach area as well as my legs so I would literally lay on the couch, not wanting to do anything because of the pain. But since I have two young girls, I would push myself to get up and do things. Oh, and also I can’t rely on it starting on day 31 anymore. I have had periods in the middle of the month, to periods that are at the end of the month and go into the next month, just for it to start later on in the month. Like I had my period say at the end of April, it would go a few days into the beginning of May and then BAM, I had it again later on in May. So now I can never track it.
I talked to a military OBGYN before my husband was retired and she didn’t do ANTYHING for me. It’s like she didn’t even care that I was suffering and had been suffering for a couple of years. Then we moved to Tennessee and my new OBGYN is so great! I got to see him once last year but I had to cancel my next appointment with him because sadly my husband had Covid and then colds kept hitting the girls, Ryan, and even myself.
This year I was able to get a referral to the same OBGYN, and I am so glad because he already knows what is going on and we ran the same blood tests, but this time we came up with a game plan on how to help me. We talked about the options last time and I thought I would have to have a hysterectomy. Truthfully, I would be okay with it if it meant period free, pain free days.
But this year we talked again, had the blood tests, finally got to do the ultrasound, and discussed my options in more depth after the ultrasound. The ultrasound did find more fibroids but none of them were causing my issues. I already had one before my pregnancies that sat on the outside of my uterus. Thankfully it didn’t cause any issues during and after the pregnancies either.
Then he said that my lining was a lot thicker than it should be so that could be the main cause to my severe menstrual days and pain. He told me that if the lining was more than 12 mm, he would say that is a cause to be worried. Mine is apparently 25mm and that is due to my weight that I have been struggling to lose for 3 years.
I need to get back on the horse so to speak with my exercising but again with menstrual bleeding the way it is, I don’t do it. And then when I am period free, I don’t have the motivation to jump back on the stationary bike we have and do more walking. But I need to push myself, especially after hearing that my weight is the main factor of my periods being heavier and my lining being ridiculously high. And plus I hate how I look with so much weight on. I don’t feel like myself being so big anymore. Yes, I understand that weight packs on after kids, but I don’t want it. But even with these thoughts, I am not motivated to lose it even though I know I need to. It is a constant battle of mine.
But back to the other story. So my amazing OBGYN and I have a plan. I hate to have to have another surgery but it is needed if I am to find any kind of relief from the hell I am in. So July 12th, I have my pre-op appointment to talk to him more about the surgery where I plan to voice my concerns about being put under because the last two surgeries I had, I woke up very sick and threw up and I don’t want to go through that again, and of course sign the paperwork. Then on July 15th, I have to go to the hospital which is thankfully right next to my OBGYN’s office, and do the Covid test. Nothing like getting the brain scrubbed early in the morning. And then Ryan will be taking me and the girls early in the morning to the hospital on July 20th, drop me off, and I have to go into the hospital for my surgery alone, again. (My last two surgeries I had to be alone because of my girls and because of this damn Covid.)
My OBGYN said that he will thin out my uterus lining, not sure how he will accomplish that but glad I’ll be asleep for it all, and then he will literally burn the inside of my uterus to burn the tissues. Now there are of course risks that I have to take into consideration, one of them being it will be hard to tell if I ever get cancer inside my uterus, but right now I am willing to take that risk because I need relief from this damn period.
So if you have heavy periods, maybe talk to your OBGYN about having Endometrial Ablation, especially when the pill doesn’t help. For me, the pill made my periods worse, so I stopped taking it. It was horrible. But if the Endometrial Ablation doesn’t work for me, then we will have to do a hysterectomy. I am hoping not because he told me it would be harder to do with the hernia mesh being in my stomach.
But we just have to do one thing at a time and see if this works for me until I hit menopause. I pray that this works and that I can be period free until my body puts me through the new hell called menopause. But I am willing to take on menopause over the hell I am in now.
Keep your fingers crossed for me, pray for me, whatever you believe in, that this will help me and I won’t suffer from heavy extremally painful periods any longer. I would truly appreciate it. And I will do an update after the surgery as well.
One of my daughters had that procedure and it helped her. I completely get having heavy periods. My schedule was off and on with heavy bleeding, which made it difficult to work, during my early forties But then I was blessed that the faucet stayed off when I was forty five. Relief. Prayers that all goes well for you. It’s great to have found an understanding doctor.