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stj23- GOOD LUCK tomorrow . I will say a prayer for you, please post as soon as you can. Will be thinking about you. It will be over sooner then you think. Once again, let's God guied your surgeon hands. Love. Katarina

Alright ladies I made it:) I just got home yesterday. Wow that is quite the ordeal. I am up and walking as much as I can. I get dizzy from the pain meds and thats when I go back to bed. I freaked out when they wheeled me into the operating room so they just put me under with no warning. They removed 10 fibroids! They originally said there was 5 or 6 so...It seems that is par for the course with this surgery. I had one the size of an orange and two tennis b___s and the rest were golf b___s. The doctor said that because I have so many it is likely that there are more in there even the size of a grain of sand just waiting. I can't believe I was living with all of that in my body. Even with the swelling I feel less full already(I cant describe it). I got the ok to start trying in three months. Although I cant believe I will be able to carry a baby after all this. It makes me nervous knowing that there are still some fibroids in there but what can I do? I think once I feel better my att_tude will change. My surgeons are excellent and did the best they could so now I just need to be positive. -SJ

Hey everyone, Thanks to those who gave me advice on how to calm my nerves as my surgery approaches. I am feeling very calm right now, on the eve of my surgery. I have left it all in God's hands and trust that it will be okay. sjt23 - I'm happy to hear that your surgery went well and that you're up and walking around. How long did it take after your surgery to be totally coherent? How bad should I expect the pain to be? Please pray for me everyone - my surgery is at 2 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. I'll update you as soon as I am able. AJ

AJ-I am not sure If I should tell you the truth :) You seem better than I was. I had a really hard time letting go and was terrified up to the last minute. They wake you up right after and it took 21/2 hours in the recovery room to get coherent enough (my husband tells me). It felt 10 minutes to me. That time was probably the worst of it. I felt sick to my stomach but they take care of your complaints very quickly. They keep you well medicated so the pain isn't all that bad. I am still on pain killers even though I have read where some women just do the ibuprofen. My doctor said to keep using it for the first few days at least. I have to say the worse part is I haven't had a bowel movement yet!! It is starting to drive me batty :) You will do fine. Thats what everyone told me. My doctor said that in 20 years of doing these once a week he has only had to do 2 blood transfusions and has never had to do a hysterectomy. I think a lot of the info out there is just plain scary and not what normally happens. Anyway you may not even be able to read this before you go in, but if you can (unlike me) just let go and let god. It does no good to be too nervous. Good Luck and Happy Healing-SJ

sjt23 I didn't see your post until this evening - thanks for sharing your experience. I was actually very calm going into surgery (I even refused an anti-anxiety drug). Waking up in the recovery room was hardest for me also. I just remember being so out of if - feeling as if something was wrong -not being able to get control of myself, but thankfully everything was fine. The surgery went exceptionally well - the large fibroid ended up being entirely outside of the uterus attached by a small stalk. There were also two tiny ones that were also removed. So, I feel really blessed - I shouldn't even have to have c-sections with future pregnancies! And I have the 'go-head' and thry in three months. Anyway, two days later and I'm now at home. The pain meds have really helped. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences and for your prayers! Hope you continue to heal well sjt23! AJ

AJ You are blessed! Mine were stuck in close to my endometrial lining (Intramural). At least one was and I think a few more. They told me probably 10 times that I would HAVE to have a c-section. I think they really cut my uterus up pretty good getting all those things out of there. I am glad I did it because I really think that is why I lost my daughter (not IC). KB-how are things with the pregnancy? -SJ

Hi ladies Today is the fourth day since I had my myomectomy. Although I think I'm doing quite well, much like you sjt23, I am frustrated because I haven't had a bowel movement. Can others share how long it took for your first bowel movement? Also, how long did it take for your bleeding to stop (although my fibroids were outside the uterus, I also had some polyps removed). Thanks in advance. AJ

Congratulations SJT & AJ on your surgeries going well! I'm so glad to hear that it's over with and everything turned out good! To answer your question about the bowel movement I'm surprised because they (the nurses and dr) made me have one before they would release me from the hospital. It was a very, very, very small amount but I had to have one before they would let me go. I don't remember how long it took after that for me to get back to normal and have a regular one. Probably a few days. The bleeding for me only lasted the amount of time that a regular cycle lasts which for me is about 6 days. Hope that helps! PS: KM how are you doing? Haven't heard from you in a while? KB

They told me that I didn't have to have one before I left. AJ-They did not prescribe me stool softeners. My husband looked online and found what you should do after abdominal surgery. I took some softeners (dr. okayed) AND laxative. Only one dose of laxitive but the max amount. The next morning...LORDY LORDY. It was not fun but gotta do what ya gotta do. Ever since I have been normal and not taking anything. I think the softeners are key. Things can get impacted otherwise. I had to go to a job site today because the crew was messing things up in a horrible way. I still get pretty worn out after a couple hours of being on my feet. I am however starting to feel pretty good. No more pain killers just ibuprofen when I feel sore. Oh, I bled about 6 days but the last couple days were just a little spotting. The doctor told me not to worry unless I was hemorrhaging and that bleeding for a while was normal. KB you didn't say how things were so I am a__suming then that its all good. KM-same with you? SJ

SJT, Everything is going well as far as I know. I'm still on bed rest but I go back to the dr on Monday for another evaluation so I may or may not get released back to work at that time. I'm 29 weeks pregnant today and I'm still cramping every now and then. Yesterday I was cramping pretty consistently for several hours so I called my dr to see if I should come in or go to the hospital and the dr told me not to come in unless I'm having 6 or more contractions an hour. That really didn't sound right to me. Maybe with a regular pregnancy with no history of preterm labor but with my history I did not trust the response. If I wait til I'm having contractions every 10 minutes before I even leave my house to go to the hospital then who's to say how quickly they can progress or if I would make it to the hospital in time for the steroid shot to mature my baby and for them to stop the contractions? If I were 36 weeks out or something like that then I could maybe see that response but at only 29 weeks? So, I waited a little bit longer and fortunately the contractions went away on their own but had they continued then I would have gone to the hospital regardless of what the dr said. I could feel about 3 strong ones per hour but they had been consistent for about 7 straight hours. One thing that I've learned through all of this is that drs don't know everything and don't always have the correct answers and sometimes it's worth listening to your gut. Other than that I'm feeling ok. I'm a little bit depressed just because my experience with bed rest has been very lonely and I have to depend so much on DH who is tired from working a ton of overtime. By the time he gets home he is not in the mood to take care of me but I can't get out and drive to the grocery store and walk around or walk up and down stairs to do laundry and let the dog in and out all day so I have to ask him to do a little bit more. It's difficult to be soley dependent on a person. Then of course I'm still concerned for the safety of my baby. I want to carry him to term but it seems so far away. My boss is really nagging me too about when I'll be able to come back to work. He keeps calling my house not to ask how I'm doing but to ask when I'm going to the drs again and telling me that he needs to know when I'll be back. I'm protected for up to 12 weeks by FMLA but I haven't begun that yet because I was using my sick/vacation days first and my boss did agree to let me telecommute for a handful of days but that's it. So, there's a lot going on but I'm hoping to just make it through all of this ok and have a healthy, happy baby in the end! KB

KB- It is good to hear that you are hanging in there. I guess they can't tell you why you are having contractions? It is crazy how the drs really don't know everything. They can't even tell me definitively why I lost my daughter in the first place (maybe fibroids/IC). I know it is hard right now with your husband working so hard and everything. This is just a short period in you lives and you are almost there and I am sure he is happy to do it. As for your boss....its amazing how callous people can be. No one knows what it is like to loose a child unless you have. You must be out of your mind with worry. There is nothing you can do until your doctor says its okay. You don't want to take any chances. It is so hard in the moment. If this is what you have to do to make sure this little baby is o.k. then so be it and screw everyone else. They aren't the ones who have to live with the pain. I don't mean to sound patronizing, its everything that you already know sometimes its good to hear it though. -SJT

SJT, You have no idea how much that meant! I've been waiting for the past 2 weeks for someone... anyone to acknowledge that they understand what I'm going through. You are correct.... sometimes it's just good to hear it! :-) Oh and the drs just keep saying that at this stage of the pregnancy it's expected to have some "uterine activity" so they say that it's normal? The problem comes in when they don't stop and they start becoming consistent that's when they go from being braxton hicks to preterm labor. It's confusing to me! Anyway, thanks for the reply! KB

Hello everyone. I hope all is well. I am doing so so today. 31 weeks thank God, but I am having terrible back pains again. I took tylenol last night but it's constant. God willing it goes away soon. Had my baby shower June 20th it was fantastic got alot of things... crib, chaning table, dresser, clothes, swing, boppy, bumbo, etc. just feeling blessed. All those pregnant how is the pregnancy going? All those who had surgery how are you feeling? KB, I learned to ignore the dr's. matter fact 2 day before the shower baby wasn't move like before had to go in the day of the shower to make sure all was well.. which it was she returned back to normal 2 days later. Guess she wasn't used to the noise. The dr's are used to dealing with "normal" pregnancies. We have issues and experiences that they are not able to understand. Demand what you want. God Bless to all.

Hi guys, where is everyone ? I am 34 weeks and 2 days today. Scheduled for c-section August 27th. Everything is going very smoothly, no complication or anything unecpeted so far. I will have the amnio on August 24th to make sure his/her lungs are developed. The baby is moving SO MUCH !!! So much about us. How is everyone else doing ? Where are you ? What is new ?

Hi Katarinak1! I am 35 weeks and 4 days today. My c-section is scheduled one day after yours on the 28th. I'm secretly hoping that I go into labor a bit sooner though. No major problems. As far as I know the one fibroid thats left after the myo never grew at all throughout this pregnancy and hasn't caused a single problem. I'm experiencing a lot of swelling of my feet and hands though (no gestational diabetes or preeclampsia or anything) and i've had some pretty scary shortness of breath due to the large baby pushing on all of my organs! The swollen feet and hands and inability to breath laying down, standing up, sitting and or walking is causing a lot of anxiety so I'm just ready for the little one to get here already so that mommy can have her body back to normal! Good to hear from you! Where is everyone else?! KB

Hi Katarinak1, Congrats, you are almost there! I had the c section at 37 weeks, and I really didn´t feel any pain at all. It is completely different from myomectomy believe me. Are you having the epidural anestesy?. I had it and recommend it. You recover easily from it and you see everything. Also you recover gradually, you start feeling gradually so you feel almost any pain. The best for you and your baby who will soon be here!.