March 14, 2007
I cried the day I was told that I had fibroid tumors. I didn’t have a clue about what they were—just knew that the doctor told me that I needed to have them removed immediately and that I would also have to have a hysterectomy.
I also recall that he said that one of the tumors was the size of a grapefruit and since that time I have heard that description often.
The doctor said I wouldn’t be able to have children unless I went out and got pregnant immediately. I can admit it today but I wouldn’t have told anyone back then, but I did think –for a moment—about getting back with my ex-fiancé.
The thought of not being able to have children caused a pain in my heart.
Then too there were also the many stories I had heard about hysterectomies that scared me.
I started reading information about fibroids and I was looking for someone to tell me something other than the fibroid tumors are more prevalent in African American and Latinas. Some folks acted like I should have expected to have them, like fibroid tumors were a birthright.
According to Aetna Intelihealth, a fibroid is a lump or growth in the uterus that is not cancerous. Fibroids can be as small as a pea to as large as a basketball. They are usually round and pinkish in color, and they can grow anywhere inside or on the uterus. About 30 percent of women older than 30 years have fibroids, and they usually appear between the ages of 35 and 45. Some women are more likely to get fibroids, including Black women, women who have never been pregnant and women who have a mother or sister with fibroids. The female hormone estrogen seems to play a role in stimulating the growth of some fibroids.
I have since learned that you can determine a lot of things about your health based on your diet.
When my new doctor, Bill Glaze, talked to me about the tumors, he discussed two options to consider that would reduce the size of the tumors, hopefully enabling me to bear children.
One option consisted of me coming into his office once a month to have a shot administered. I chose, instead, to participate in a study at UT Southwestern where I would take a pill and administer my own shot daily, either in my thigh or lower stomach.
While the thought was not appealing at all, thinking that so many others would benefit from my efforts, I decided to administer my own shot. More so than remembering the shots is my vivid recollection of the hot flashes that I endured. Believe me when I tell you it was downright hysterical at times; that is, after each episode had passed. My moods would change so quickly and I often would burst out in tears for apparently no reason at all.
Most importantly, and telling for future reference, was the diet that I was told I must adhere to—namely, no red meat, dairy products and caffeine.
For the six month period, I followed the routine and the end result was that the tumors did shrink, some. Then I had a myoectomy, which was a surgical operation where the tumors were removed from my uterus—enabling me to carry a child.
The worse thing about the surgery had to be the gas I experienced in the hospital as the air made its way out of my body. I still remember my first few days home from the hospital. At one point I moaned loudly and my nephew, Andre, ran to the door of my bedroom and peeked in with a worried look on his face. I had to ease his fears so I said one word that I knew was bound to bring about a chuckle— “gas.”
Seven-year-old Andre began laughing loudly and he left me to my gas attack. Now I will say that the stitches were pretty painful too when it came time for Dr. Glaze to remove them. But that was a breeze in comparison to the “gas.”
If there is one thing I learned from my fibroid experience, I guess it would be that it could have been prevented.
As I lay in another hospital bed, approximately a decade after the myoectomy, I thought about how I didn’t want any young female to go through what I did. I wanted my little nieces who stood looking at me to benefit from my experience because I never wanted them to find themselves in my predicament.
It begins with your diet. Dairy products, red meat, any meat injected with hormones, and, caffeine, are hazardous to your health. There are other things you can do but I’m back at that study that specified certain items that I should stay away from as we worked to reduce the tumors.
Could avoiding those items early on in life have helped reduce my chances of ever having fibroid tumors?
To you, my sisters, I say that even though there are a number of other surgical options available should you get fibroid tumors, if I could do it over, I would have to give up my love for cheese and many of the chocolates that have caffeine in them.
Don’t wait until you get fibroids to change your lifestyle. Change today!
Cheryl can be reached at csmith@dallasweekly.com
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