Doctors 'shrunk' my fibroids

GMTV weather girl Clare Nasir, 32, discovered a lump in her own stomach in The month of january 2001.

Within six several weeks, her abdomen am inflamed she looked pregnant.

In May 2002, she'd a uterine artery embolisation to contract her fibroids.

Here, Clare, who resides in manchester, discusses the operation and, her surgeon describes the process.

The Individual

Initially when i first discovered a lump within my stomach and started to feel constipated, I believed I'd a stomach problem. It didn't even enter my thoughts the problem might be gynaecological.

Once the lump did not disappear, I started to feel increasingly more concerned.

The physician thought I had been 18 days pregnant - however i stated which was impossible. Whenever a pregnancy test was negative, he looked really worried. 'You might have everything from fibroids to ovarian cancer,' he explained.

After two agonising days, I'd a scan at St Bart's and it was identified with fibroids - abnormal growths within my uterus. These were abnormally large and needed a surgical procedure.

At that time, I did not know what fibroids were - I had been just glad it had not been cancer. However when I told my gran, she switched whitened with shock. She assumed I'd need to have a hysterectomy, because which was the only real treatment in her own day.

A gynaecologist assured me there have been now other available choices. I had been initially advised to possess a myomectomy, where they make you susceptible and surgically take away the fibroids. However I preferred the seem of the more recent operation, a uterine artery embolisation, which shrank the fibroids. This process was less invasive and meant I'd need only a few days off work.

As I anxiously waited for that operation, my weight expanded. I am ordinarily a size 8-10 and around 8st - but when of my operation, I considered 9st 3lb and needed to put on size 14-16 clothes.

It was partially since i was losing a lot bloodstream every month that I'd become seriously anaemic, and that i ate constantly just to try and keep my levels of energy up.

Doing my job grew to become progressively difficult. I did not possess a proper night's sleep for nine several weeks. The fibroids pressed on my small bladder and that i was at constant discomfort - like getting permanent period cramps.

MY FIBROIDS increased so large they distended my abdomen and that i looked pregnant. Co-workers congratulated me, and audiences would send me letters asking once the baby was due. I had been very conscious of the bitter irony: getting fibroids might stop me ever transporting an infant to full term.

My boyfriend, Ross, was very encouraging. He stored saying I had been gorgeous and sexy, as well as required me on the cruise to unwind me right before the operation.

When of my operation, I had been desperate to have it over and done with. I understood they would place a catheter into my uterine artery and include the circulation to my fibroids. I pictured them shrivelling up before my eyes.

Right before the operation, I had been given morphine and felt discomfort-free the very first time in nearly annually. I had been wheeled in to the operating theatre inside a enjoyable haze.

Three doctors done me, speaking in my experience with the whole procedure - though I could not see the things they used to do. Just forty-five minutes later, it had been throughout.

I had been stored in hospital for four days. For that first 24 hrs I felt really calm, but because the morphine used off I began to feel agonising pains.

I'm cautioned the process had painful after-effects, but nothing had prepared me for the way bad it might be, with intense cramps within my womb and surges of discomfort through my lower stomach. I had been climbing the walls.

The discomfort ongoing for the following three several weeks, progressively becoming more gentle. I returned to operate after two days.

I had been distressed the fibroids did not disappear immediately, but by August I observed that my pants were becoming looser and my periods just a little lighter. My three-month scan revealed the fibroids were splitting up.

Two days ago, I had been laying lower and that i realized that, the very first time in 18 several weeks, I'd a set tummy. Ten several weeks following the operation, I am finally in size 10.

I am in practicing the Cancer Of The Breast Awareness Moon Walk, a 26-mile charitable organisation energy-walk. My surgeon has observed that physical exercise seems to become making my fibroids split up even faster.

I am likely to have my oneyear scan in May and can then discover how effective the operation continues to be. It's beginning but I am feeling very positive. On top of that, I ought to still have the ability to possess a baby eventually.