This is my first real update since June-July 2015. Things have been good for the most part. I have been focused on other things and haven’t been worrying too much about my fibroids. They are still present and they do still cause me some discomfort from time to time; but I experience longer stretches of time where they don’t bother me.

I just had a doctor’s appointment last Wednesday. It was my first since last January. I’ve had appointments scheduled, but I cancelled them because I haven’t wanted to deal with all the stress that follows a doctors visit. But I finally went last week and they ran some of the same tests as on my last visit. They ran that CA-125 test that they use to scan for early signs of ovarian cancer in women who are high risk. When they ran it last time my numbers were outside the normal range so they had scheduled me to be screened for cancer, but the screening never took place. This time around my numbers are inside the normal range. They have said that doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t have ovarian cancer. Apparently the test isn’t reliable. But I’m choosing to believe that it is in fact reliable in my case.

The reason they are concerned is that they haven’t been able to clearly identify the bigger mass in my stomach as a fibroid. When they did a CT-Scan last year it was hard to tell because things were so crushed together in my stomach. One of the doctors, after examining me, thought the mass in question could be something other than a fibroid; but with the CT-Scan being unclear, the only way for them to know would have been to cut me open.

On the 20th of this month they will do another CT-Scan.  I am hoping that things will be clearer this time around. In the hope of helping to make it more possible for them to see what is going on inside my stomach, I am planning to eat as little as I possibly can over the next 8 days. I considered doing a fast but I’m not sure it’s such a good idea. I think I need to be more careful about what I do to my body. The fasts which I completed in the past did help; but I think that it gets to a point where it’s dangerous to keep doing them. It impacts on other organs in your body. In my case, I have had to deal with issues resulting from too much protein as well as a deficiency in carbohydrates and other nutrients. It’s a little hard to balance things when you’re fasting, and so I think that I need to stop the lengthy fasts at least. I don’t think I need to do any more 14, 21 or 30 day fasts any time soon. I’m not even sure if a 7-day fast is a good idea. But I might attempt a 3-day leading up to the appointment, just in the hope that it might make things clearer to view in my stomach.

The diet

Diet-wise I’ve kept on track. I haven’t had any major setbacks. Admittedly I haven’t kept to my goal to eliminate bread and flour based product such as crackers; but I have been able to manage my consumption of these things so that it is never too much. I continue to avoid dairy, only occasionally sneaking a spoonful of ice-cream, whipped cream or goat cheese (never enough to really matter). I am no longer focusing on avoiding gluten because I’m not finding that it really has any profound benefit.

I am not taking anything special such as DIM supplements, blackstrap molasses, apple cider vinegar ( I use it in the process of making meals but I’m not drinking it like medicine daily).

I think just restricting my consumption of food to what is necessary to keep me sustained and give me enough energy to take care of the physical activities that I undertake daily does enough right now to keep things under control.

The monthly cycle

As for the contribution of the monthly cycle, that has been pretty erratic. For the most part I am not going through what I was going through a year ago with two cycles per month. I’ve had at most two bad episodes in the last 7 months where the cycle was heavy and lasted over 11 days. In September I did not have a cycle at all. It took a 45 day break between the end of August’s cycle and the beginning of October’s. I was very happy at the thought that it might be menopause knocking; but then someone asked some questions and I started to panic thinking it might be cancer. Amazingly and interestingly menopause and ovarian cancer share some of the same symptoms. So I was a little relieved when it came back in October; but now I’m hoping for another episode where it goes 45+ days. My stomach had gone down a lot at one point during this break period. It was as near to flat as it has been since this nonsense started.

The Hysterectomy question

I’ll admit I still think about it and wonder if I should have done it or if I should consider doing it; but if menopause is a year or two away for me, and if my health is okay (if I don’t have cancer), then I think I’ll just wait it out. I’ve gotten this far. Sure it’s difficult having to walk around with this stomach. But it’s not like I have an active social life anyway. And who cares what thoughts go through the mind of people I don’t know when they see me?

Finally…

I am looking forward to improving my situation even more in 2016. My goals: increased fitness, better physical health both inside and out. The mental and emotional stuff gets tough. I have a lot of hurdles to clear with that; but that’s one of my goals as well–to become stronger mentally and emotionally–to own my age, because it’s an empowering thing to be at an age where you no longer have to prove anything to anyone.

**The featured picture was an experiment done last year to discover if a woman with large fibrods can get away with wearing a broad bet around her waist.

Previous articleTaking site offline for a bit
Next articleMy Fibroids today January 13 2016 #2
My name is Monica. I have fibroids. My fibroids are large enough that they have transformed my figure into something I am still trying to learn how to live with. In the meantime while I try to learn how to live with my fibroids I am also trying every possible method I can find to try to shrink them naturally because I am afraid of the idea of a hysterectomy. I lived with fibroids from 2007 - 2016. I started documenting my experiences on this blog in 2012. On March 7th 2016 I had a hysterectomy out of concern that I might have ovarian cancer. It did not turn out that I had ovarian cancer. The cancer scare forced the hysterectomy I was trying to avoid, and so, I became fibroid free as of March 7th 2016. I will try to keep this blog up and running in the hope that it will be of some use to others going through what I went through.

1 COMMENT

  1. Thank you so much for the update, very interesting. Thank you for the details too. I am very interested in see what happens with my body in the next year. In the few months I’ve been taking the herbs/supplements/vitamins, the night sweats stopped (and only happen in the 3 days leading up to my period). My anemia is improving. I’m actually not spending hours lying down anymore and had enough courage to start college courses again (online – I would miss too much class in an actual classroom, with all the bleeding).

    I’m hoping to take another iron test in a few weeks because I want to see how the blackstrap molasses is doing compared to the ferrous fumarate. 1 serving of blackstrap molasses contains 70% of the iron I need in one day. I am hoping that is easy for my body to absorb than the pills. Lots of clotting this month. I am hoping that it’s not my imagination that the left side of my stomach has a softer area. I’m hoping some of of the fibroids are shrinking or breaking down. I hate taking pills, so it took me a while to build up to all 11 or 12 vitamins/herbs. I still need to start my castor oil belly soaks still.

    I’ve learned a bit more since my last posts. I read a lot about caffeine’s bad effects on hormonal issues. It suppresses the adrenals, so I switched to decaf. That was the worst withdrawal I ever experienced. I mean fetal position, wanting to die. I had no idea coming off caffeine could be like that. I am sleeping much better (sleep helps the hormones/weight). And my mood is steady. My main urge for coffee has to do with anemia and fatigue. I didn’t know caffeine works so hard against the things that were helping me. Decaf has some caffeine in it, so I will let that go too.

    I expect that the castor oil and juicing/fasting should help my weight come down, which will help level out my hormones even more. Fasting has always been a big part of my life, not a weight loss tool. That’s just a pleasant side effect. Kefir has helped my gut stay calm, so I may be able to do some pure fasting instead of just juicing. After, I am sticking with real, not processed foods. Every single thing I put into my body will either help or hurt my problems with excess estrogen and androgens. I will keep this page bookmarked so that I can come back periodically to do updates. (anyone not experienced or knowledgeable about fasting is warned to avoid any type of fasts involving protein shakes…this can be detrimental to health).

    Peace to all!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.