Fibroids - headed toward surgery. Maybe. I think.

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. It is helpful to hear how others have dealt with similar issues.

After my original post, I realized I needed to try to put the whole subject to the side until I had my second opinion appointment. My worry was that the second doctor would have a completely different set of recommendations and then I would have to start all over with evaluating the options.

I’ve now had my second opinion appointment. The doctor took a lot more time and care with me than the others I’ve seen and … she actually looked at my imaging instead of relying on the reports! Crazy, isn’t it? The imaging, which is 9 months old at this point, shows that my bladder is pushed all the way to the left side of my pelvis and that my bowels are pushed upward. The doctor pointed to some structures that she thinks are additional fibroids. (I knew about four, but apparently there could be more.) In addition, the largest fibroid is either pedunculated or only minimally attached to the uterus. The bottom line is that I’m going to need to do something about these suckers, if not now, then in the future. I feel pretty comfortable that the time is now.

The doctor talked through all of the various treatment options, including some of the less common ones that you read about on here. I’ll spare you the details, but based on the conversation, I’ve eliminated non-surgical options. My surgical options are abdominal myomectomy, laparoscopic myomectomy, and laparoscopic hysterectomy. There are good reasons for proceeding with any of these options, and all of them carry risks. My current decision is laparoscopic myomectomy. There are definite drawbacks, but that is where my comfort lies. If that changes, hopefully my subconscious will tell me sometime in the next few weeks! It’s been torture getting to this point.

I'm glad you got a second opinion that you seem to feel more comfortable with.

I'm personally glad I never had a myomectomy as the recovery from that sounds way more painful than some of the other procedures. Of course we're all different so if that's the way you go I hope it is not painful and works.

I'm one of the few people who had a fantastic experience with a partial hysterectomy who has stuck around here. If you have a good surgeon who knows what they are doing, you can keep everything but your uterus. Sometimes they don't know until they go in, of course. I was on the Pill so I didn't have the pain but I had the super heavy bleeding and anemia and felt pregnant. I had the DaVinci procedure and my doctor said he was shocked I wasn't in severe pain all the time as my fibroid-filled uterus was sitting up against my rectum. My recovery was only about six days and most of that was just to make sure all of the anesthesia was out of me before I resumed most normal activities.

Best of luck to you!