# Degenerating Fibroid - Can anyone relate?



## animalcracker

Hello everyone

On the Saturday before last, I experienced excrutiating pain and long story short, I have been hospitalized twice within 10 days due to a degenerating fibroid.

At the hospital, they put me on morphine to try and dull the pain...eventually they took me off morphine and I ended up being given Demerol, which sent me into a panic because I was so worried about baby. However, my Dr said that if they didn't control the pain, I could go into pre-term labor. She also said Demerol was fine to use.

It's been 10 days and today I am having a good day with no pain, but I am so scared it will come back. Today is the first pain free day I've had for a week. It seems the degeneration can take weeks. The only thing keeping me sane is my incredible, loving husband and just dreaming of holding our baby. I honestly don't know what I would have done without my husband who has been just amazing and so supportive and caring throughout this ordeal.

Has anyone else experienced this? It's the most painful thing I have ever gone through and I have a very high pain tolerance level. The pain is very similar to a kidney stone (I had a kidney stone when I was younger).

I've lost 10lbs, the meds make me throw up and I have had no appetite. Has anyone else experienced this before? I would love some company.


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## Gracy 004

Hi animal cracker, i havent been here for a while as my baby is 8 months old and we are just starting ttc #2 (IVF), but your thread caught my eye because i know only too well about degenerating fibroids :growlmad: When i was first preg at my 6 weeks scan there was 1 teeny tiny fibroid seen which i was told was less than 1cm. Anyhow come 18 weeks i experienced pain in the middle of the night (these things always happen at 3 am!) and slight spotting and contractions! The pain was soooo bad! Anyway went straight to hospital and my doc scanned my next morning, baby was fine and i wasnt in labour but the tiny fiboid had grown to 7.5 cms! he explained that it had grown so rapidly that it outgrows its blood supply and begins to degenerate. I can totally sympathize with your pain, i too think i am pretty good with pain this was intolerable. I too took a lot of pain killers because it was so bad but tried hard to stay off the really strong ones because i was worried about baby too, its really hard. The process as i recall went on for about 10 days or so but it was never as intense as that first time so hopefully it is the same for you. Throughout the preg it did cause me to have an 'ïrritable uterus' apparently which meant i had lots of braxton hicks contractions from 18 weeks on and a moderate amount of discomfort. But my baby girl is here now and so worth it :cloud9:
How many weeks are you? I do feel like i should warn you though about after the delivery (although i sincerely hope its not the case for you) when the womb contracts back down after birth, especially if you are breastfeeding it happens more quickly, the pain caused by the fibroid was the worst i had ever had. I went for the mega stong painkillers then, had a fentynal (?) patch put on which worked for the pain but was so strong i could barely stand and passed into the breast milk too and made my newborn extremely drowsy :sleep: What a sorry saga it all was. I swore i would never have another baby and here i am shes only 8 months and i am desperate for number 2, i was ready again at about 4 months! So you will forget about it all and when you are holding your baby you wont give it a second thought. My doc even said to me are you sure you want to go through this again, what about the pain? I said absolutely i can handle it ! hang in there :flower:
btw the fibroid at 4 months post partum had become very calcified and shrunk back down to about 4.5 cms


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## animalcracker

Gracy, it is such a blessing to read your response. Thank you!!

As you mentioned, the pain I felt during the approx. 10 days of suffering was beyond anything I had felt before - except for a kidney stone. I was crying I was in so much pain!!

If you don't mind me asking - did you have a c section or a natural delivery with your daughter? Did you carry to term?

Right now I am just shy of 32 weeks. When I was going through the pain, I said that I would never do this again either!! But we are contemplating having another child (about a year after my daughter will be born) but I am terrified of going through this again! 

Thankfully, I have had 3 days so far, pain free. My husband bought me a wrap around heating pad for my back (the one with the little beads inside that you microwave to get hot) and when I feel a twinge, I zap that sucker in the microwave and put it on! Believe it or not, the heat does help to control the pain.

Thank you ever so much for your response and congrats to you on your little girl! I can't wait to meet our daughter - my Dr. says that if I continue to have pain, I need to make it to 36 weeks! Four weeks to go! However, if I don't have any pain, I'll keep her cooking as long as possible :) 

I have my fingers crossed that you are successful with IVF and you will soon be carrying #2! I know a few women going through IVF right now and I know how much 'work' it is. Best of luck to you!
:flower:


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## Gracy 004

32weeks! you are almost there :flower:Do you know how big your fibroid is? I had an elective c-section delivery at 37+1 weeks. Sometimes im slightly embarrased to admit that i never even contemplated a natural delivery :blush:
The fibroid was one of only a few problems during the pregnancy (certainly the most painful) , but it really was a difficult pregnancy. ivf followed by an initial Ivf miscarriage @ 7 weeks. High risk for down syndrome at 12 weeks and amniocentesis performed @16 weeks. massive bleed at 12 weeks also prob caused by low lying placenta. The fibroid incident beginning at 18 weeks. Then the baby was diaganosed with velamentous cord insertion at 30 weeks, by the time it was time to discuss the delivery plan with the doctor i was a nervous wreck. So much had happened during the pregnancy towards the end i was sitting up all night waiting for the baby to kick and freaking out if she went longer than 10 minutes without moving:blush: So i opted for the section at 38.5 weeks but then as it got closer i think the doc could see i was on the verge of losing it and my blood pressure got slightly elevated (nothing major) but he said he would deliver me at 37 weeks after a couple of injections of steroids to mature the lungs. So in the end the delivery was incident free, and my baby girl came into my world and i have never known such happiness :happydance: Sometimes i feel a little ashamed that i chickened out and cant trade beautiful birthing stories etc... but at the end of the day i just wanted that baby out and healthy! What are you planning for birth? Sounds like it might be a section if you go to 36 weeks? Ive got a good feeling you'll make it past that though, really sounds like the worst of it is over if comparing with my experience is anything to go by. Hey i see you are in NY? Lucky you!! we visited the US is 2009 - BEST holiday we have ever been on, what a fantastic place u live in :thumbup: anyway Merry Xmas, hope you have a lovely day that is pain free and you can enjoy a little bit of the pregnancy. This time next year it will be your little ones first xmas - so cute ! xx


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## animalcracker

Hey Gracy!

Well unfortunately, I had another 'episode' last night :nope: the pain wasn't too bad though (on a scale of 1 - 10, it was a 4) so I took some over the counter Tylenol for it (twice) throughout the night and it started to dull. I have a heating pad on it right now and the pain is very dull - I can live with it!

You shouldn't feel bad about not considering a natural birth. Are you kidding? After the pain I have experienced and if it continues I'll go with a c section too. No one can blame us unless they've walked in our shoes. This fibroid pain is terrible. I don't really have a birth plan right now - I'm just waiting to see how it goes.

I'm so sorry you had so much to worry about during your pregnancy :( You must have been a wreck for 9 months! I really hope that when you are pregnant with your second, the fibroids behave and you have an easy pregnancy. 

It's so great to be able to talk to someone about this. I've felt as if I was losing my mind for the longest time with this pain. I don't have too long to go now and I'm so excited to meet our daughter!!

Are you from the U.K? I am originally from London, England but moved to New York almost 16 years ago through an inter-company transfer. I absolutely LOVE New York and can't ever see myself moving. I do miss my friends and family in the UK though. I haven't been back in a while but with any luck, will be making a visit late next year with our daughter :flower:

So you mentioned you are currently working on another round of IVF to conceive again. Where are you in the process? I have everything crossed for you!! :flower::hugs:


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## Gracy 004

oh no! more pain , thats crap! but.... as i said with my exprience i did continue to have pain on and off for the rest of the preg and the discomfort of the continual braxton hicks but it never got as bad as that initial time when the degen fibroid was diagnosed and i was hospitalised with the pain for a couple of nights at that time. So I have a good feeling for you that if you can control the pain with a couple of tylenol and arent screaming for morphine then you are over the worst i think :thumbup: the fibroid can only degnerate once i think is that right? :shrug: the heat packs do help as well .

I must admit its not really how i invisioned pregnancy, everyone else seemed to float around with this lovely big tummy and i was a nervous, pain killer munching mad woman! But when you hold your girl its just so fantastic and actually i havent found the transition into motherhood very hard because i think when you have had such a hard time to concieve and during pregnancy all the stuff that upsets others doesnt really matter i.e lack of sleep or baby screaming constantly cos of teething. I am just so happy to have a baby that it really doesnt bother if i dont sleep for the next 5 years!

Well we are trying to get going with the next ivf but with ivf things are never simple and there is always countless setbacks. I should know better by now but i do still get huge disappointment with each new situation that arises, i have already had my december cycle cancelled by the clinic because i got unwell with a crappy virus i picked up at a 3 year old birthday party! Now it looks like my jan cycle is going to be cancelled as well because of the clinic being closed over the holidays.... so i guess it will be feb :coffee: I hate IVF, i mean i am eternally grateful that it exists otherwise we would never get over this male factor infertility, but it really is a hard and expensive road that you wouldnt wish on anyone. Not sure whether the fibroid will play a part in trying for #2 because it wasnt really there (very small) the 1st time around, hopefully it doesnt cause any problems with conception.

No, im not in the UK - although i did live there for a while. We are in adelaide, south Australia where at the moment it is very lovely and warm and i think we are off to the beach :winkwink: Is it snowing in NY? 

PM me if u wanna keep chatting? It does help to have someone to chat to who knows 1st hand what you are going thru, caz xx


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## PoodleMommy

So sorry you've been going through this... do you know how large your fibroid had become?

I suspect I had a degenerating fibroid, but mine had only measured at 2cm at my 12-week ultrasound... several weeks later, I had a couple of weeks of severe pain in the area where I knew it was... by my 21-week ultrasound on Friday, they couldn't find the fibroid. Hoping yours has disappeared by now and won't give you any more trouble!!


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## animalcracker

Hey Gracy! Check your PM box :thumbup:

Poodlemommy - I have a scan next week which will tell me how big the fibroid has gotten. If I am not mistaken, it started off at 7cm. 

I've had some twinges of pain here and there but I have been able to control it with over the counter pain medication and a heating pad, thank goodness! I am hoping that when we go for our scan we get good news and that it's dying off!!

xo


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## Toomuchpain

Ladies, this thread is a life saver. My wife is 12 weeks pregnant today, however last Thursday was a nightmare come true. My wife called me at 12 noon saying that she felt a sharp continuous pain in her stomach and was experiencing some brownish discharge. I immediately directed her to the local private hospital and I rushed there to meet her. So here is what happended

DAY1: (day 1 being Thursday), She experienced sharp pains in the stomach (10/10 on the pain scale), we were seen by the doctor within the hour, using a doppler he heard a healthy heart beat however whilst pressing around the stomach area he felt a Fibroid which he estimated at a size of 5-6cm. He prescribed rest and paracetamol (2 tablets 4 times a day). She had a very unconfortable night sleep with continuous pain and lack of ability to walk due to the pain, the paracetamol was bringining the pain down to 6/10.

DAY2: Being worried that we had not seen a scan of the baby, we booked an appointment for a internal scan, this showed the Fibroid at 6 cm the GC suggested she take 1 paracetamol and 1 Co-Codamol 4 times a day. This is now bringing the pain down to 2/10.

What seems to be working at present is bed rest and taking the prescribed pain killers. The pain is being managed at a 3/10. Friends have told us to avoid fatty foods, drink lots of water and also eat vegetables and fruits... 

There are still times during the day where she suffers from acute pain....

Can u advise of any remedies that can be used? Also does it get worse as it has been 6 days of pain so far.

Thanks


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## animalcracker

Toomuchpain said:


> Ladies, this thread is a life saver. My wife is 12 weeks pregnant today, however last Thursday was a nightmare come true. My wife called me at 12 noon saying that she felt a sharp continuous pain in her stomach and was experiencing some brownish discharge. I immediately directed her to the local private hospital and I rushed there to meet her. So here is what happended
> 
> DAY1: (day 1 being Thursday), She experienced sharp pains in the stomach (10/10 on the pain scale), we were seen by the doctor within the hour, using a doppler he heard a healthy heart beat however whilst pressing around the stomach area he felt a Fibroid which he estimated at a size of 5-6cm. He prescribed rest and paracetamol (2 tablets 4 times a day). She had a very unconfortable night sleep with continuous pain and lack of ability to walk due to the pain, the paracetamol was bringining the pain down to 6/10.
> 
> DAY2: Being worried that we had not seen a scan of the baby, we booked an appointment for a internal scan, this showed the Fibroid at 6 cm the GC suggested she take 1 paracetamol and 1 Co-Codamol 4 times a day. This is now bringing the pain down to 2/10.
> 
> What seems to be working at present is bed rest and taking the prescribed pain killers. The pain is being managed at a 3/10. Friends have told us to avoid fatty foods, drink lots of water and also eat vegetables and fruits...
> 
> There are still times during the day where she suffers from acute pain....
> 
> Can u advise of any remedies that can be used? Also does it get worse as it has been 6 days of pain so far.
> 
> Thanks


I am so sorry your wife is going through this. About 3 weeks ago, I experienced fibroid degeneration and I wouldn't wish that pain on anyone. I was hospitalized twice and on narcotics to kill the pain. It was just awful.

I've experienced a few episodes - like your wife - at a lower pain scale, but one thing that really helped was a heating pad. When I feel the pain coming on, I take some over the counter pain medication and microwave my heating pad and strap that bad boy on! It really does help.

I hope your wife feels better soon.:thumbup: Honestly, no matter what I ate - nothing helped, BUT I will say that staying off my feet also helps. This is frustrating, but the more your wife rests, the better. Best of luck!


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