April 14th, 2010
UFE an Option on the Table
Today, a visit to the Washington Hospital Center’s Fibroid Clinic for a consultation. I expected to find a doctor that would perform the procedures my main OB-GYN recommended. Instead they hipped me to my possible eligibility for a procedure that my Doc in California wouldn’t even discuss with me four years ago.
Uterine Fibroud Embolization, or UFE, wasn’t even on the table when I told my doctor in Cali that I wanted my monsters out. It wasn’t considered because there isn’t scientific evidence indicating long-term data that show how the procedure effects fertility on women of childbearing age. I wasn’t hankering for a baby four years ago. I am still not hankering for a child today, but that’s beside the point.
At WHS, I saw an OB-GYN, Dr. B., and an interventional radiologist. The OB told me mostly what I already knew, but he suggested that UFE might be an option, because I’ve had multiple surgeries, and the monsters rebound. I asked him my doc suggested another hysteroscopic procedure and trying a laparascopic procedure. But Doc B. said it’s better with fewer fibroids.
Well, I have a a bunch of the critters. My fibroids have fibroids… They’re probably grandparents. There are generations incubating in the bag. Maybe we’re at the third and fourth generation, and I surely hate them, but let me get back to the point.
Particles that are injected in the uterine artery during the UFE procedure.
The radiologist showed me a chart with the possible procedures I could have, including hysterectomy and endometrial ablation, which eliminate possibility of childbirth. We checked off the other measures I’ve tried, including medication and two types of surgeries. Maybe I had a look on my face that said “Tell me something I don’t know” or maybe they just reviewed my medical history.
“So we’re preaching to the choir here,” Dr. O said.
I nodded.
Now, children are not an impossibility with UFE. Some women have gotten pregnant after the procedure. The radiologist, Dr. O., told me the oldest child born to a UAE woman is a teenager–about 17 years old.
So Dr. O and and a nurse practitioner spoke with me… Dr. O explained how UFE works. In a nutshell, they make a small incision in the groin and inject Emposphere Microspheres into the uterine artery that leads to the fibroids. These microspheres block the blood flow to the monsters and cause them to shrink. My next question was what would happen to those Emboshpere Microspheres. Will the body absorb them? No, I was told. They will just stay in the body. *Insert quizzical expression and Scooby-Doo “Urrr?”*. But they say it is safe, that the microspheres are too big to flow into the blood vessels of the healthy uterine tissue, and also too big to flow into the vessels leading to the ovaries. Before injecting the Microspheres, they will inject a dye to make sure the spheres will flow in the right direction.
My next question: “So, outside of death, what other risks might I face from this procedure?”
I’m not sure if Dr. O was expecting me to pose the question in such a manner, but she didn’t look at me crazy (comfort level points) and answered my question.
Now I have more to ponder. I will go to another fibroid clinic in the area for another opinion. I really don’t want surgery. But I must reclaim my quality of life… quality that I’ve let lapse for far too long. I hardly know what normal is anymore.
Next step: An MRI. That will also determine if I am a candidate for this procedure.
And the fight against me continues.
