SAH: Concern about my 9cm fibroid

Hi. I thought I would go on this forum and get some suggestions for my surgery. I would much prefer the Robotic surgery and that's what my doctor had planned on....before reviewing how much my fibroid had grown (from 5cm January 2013 to 9cm now). She is a bit concerned of the possibility that if she begins cutting the fibroid to remove thru the small incisions, that if there happens to be malignant cells, they would spill out into the tissues. The biopsy shows benign cells, but she is concerned at the rate of growth of the fibroid. Therefore, she is preferring to go the abdominal hysterectomy route. She is giving me the option....any suggestions??

I had the robotic surgery on Dec 3. I had a huge 10 cm fibroid. Never heard any concern about malignant cells from my surgeon so I can' t speak to that. (i suppose that could be everyone's concern!.. they really don't know if the fibroids are cancerous until they go in.. but 98% of the time they are not). I will say that even though I had the robotic, I still had to heal.. and that healing time took 7 weeks! I was out of work for 7 wks! (Dr originally said 4 wks but surgery was complex and took 5 hrs - since I had so much to repair, I had that much more to heal!) I thought maybe I should've had the Abdominal so he could've "gently' removed things vs. aggressively with the Robot (this may be TMI for you, but with the robotic, your fibroids are ground up and sucked out! Yes... that's what happens! (how else do you think it passes through a small incision? Some of it can be removed vaginally, but some is removed from your incision in the tummy area. I did not have the lower abdominal pain that one has with the "open" surgery (bikini cut) . (I can speak to this because I have experienced both.. i had an abdominal myomectomy -removal of fibroids while retaining the uterus - 8 yrs ago and remember the pain to be MORE intense, it was so painful.. I couldn't move for weeks and felt like my tummy had a constant fever. However.. overall it was the same recovery TIME.. i was out of work for 7 weeks then too! I'm still not back to normal but feeling pretty good.. (when i had the abdominal cut.. i didn't feel "good" for MONTHS). So, I would say the the Divinci Robot is a less painful recovery, you still need to put in the time up front; the initial 6-8 weeks, but then you're really on the mend! (it's still major surgery inside, no mater how you slice it). Robotic surgery is a special skill...just be sure your Dr is very skilled at it. If she's not comfortable, get a 2nd opinion, or do the abdominal (that's an easier surgery for some Dr.s if that's what they're used to!) good luck

i had a 6cm fibroid which was a ca tumor. biopsy did pick up cancer cells, so my surgeon warned me that he was going to try the robotically assisted procedure (remove everything in one piece through the vagina), but possibly could've had to convert it to abdominal. he was able to remove it in one piece, but said it was mostly because i had 3 kids.the cancer stage/grade turned out to be much worse than expected from what the biopsy showed.

I do not think my doctor had any concerns for malignancy, but I had a fibroid that measured 9 cm two months ago. I had a DVH Monday that was supposed to take 3 hours but lasted almost 7 because it had grown so much. There were some doctors in the room who thought I needed an abdominal incision, but my doctor was experienced and confident and was able to continue with the DVH. Good luck!

Hi! I had LSH to removed a seven month pregnancy fibroid/uterus combo. Apparently normal uterus weighs about 60-80 grams and mine was 2500 grams. I had people asking when I was due, giving up their seats, totally impressed by my workout ability in my condition..oh yeah..FUN times! Anyway…she sucked all that out of four tiny holes. NOW..I also agree on healing. Please don't get any ideas in your head of what your recovery SHOULD be because you will probably be disappointed and frustrated. I had the least invasive surgery possible and after two weeks have a good three/four hours of energy and up time and then I have to rest again. Your body is NOT quiet about needing to rest either and you have no choice! I would keep talking to your doc until you are comfortable with everything including how to do the procedure.,,malignant cells can definitely spread with morcellation used in laproscopy...so that is no joke - my doc said though most of the time we just have benign fibroids. Good luck!!!!

If you do end up going for an abdominal, please be aware that it's not the Big Bad Surgery that many people fear. :-) The recovery's longer, for sure, but it's not necessarily a more difficult recovery. I had an abdominal with a pleasant 3-day hospital stay and an easy recovery, minimal pain and no complications. I went back to work at a part-time desk job at four weeks with some restrictions. Life was pretty much back to normal at eight weeks.

Thank you for your encouraging words, SurprisedInNB. I'm going in tomorrow for
an abdominal hysterectomy, and I'm kind of freaked out. It's great to hear that yours was a pretty smooth recovery!

Thank you so much for your input!!

My Doc is using the DaVinci and cutting the tissue into pieces before extracting, but she is not using a morcellator, which scatters the cells.

So, there are different techniques to ask about.

thank you for your story and your input!