To Ab Myo or To Not Ab Myo

The decision to have an abdominal myomectomy was a big one for me.  Never been in hospital, used to having my own independence and the thought of things going wrong quite clearly scared me.  


Having had heavy periods and being diagnosed with fibroids around 4 years ago was where things began for me.  For the first couple of years my symptoms were being managed by taking tablets but gradually the impact of these was lessening and by stomach was ballooning.  

In the past year as well as starting to buy size 18 clothes (I used to be a 12/14) and am pretty fit hitting the gym regularly. I was effectively reaching the end of the road - and when I was away travelling worrying my arse off about what to do when my period arrived with its crazy flow and me sharing a room - I knew that I had to take action to deal with this.  The horrible fibroids that were invading my body had to go. 


When I got back from travelling, I had an appointment with the specialist 2 days and that was when I voiced that I wanted a myomectomy to have my fibroids removed.  The Dr went on to tell me the downsides of the op, how it's a major thing to do and the long recovery time.  But my mind was made up.  Being Afro Caribbean means that its more likely that the fibroids may make a reappearance.  I wanted to hopefully get this thing settled ideally once and for all or if not quite that, at least have some respite from my symptoms.

NHS Vs Private - The Big Debate

The recent huge international debate between the US and UK about private vs public healthcare earlier this year certianly fascinated me.  Up until then my main enounters of the NHS had been through my GP and heading in for the odd test now and then (not that I am odd mind!:) so I guess that you could have said that I was more pro NHS than everything.

In January this year, I was on holiday in the US and got pretty sick. As I was literally coughing my guts up and my ribs felt like I'd done 12 rounds with Tyson, I had no choice but to head to my friends private GP.  Wow, it was a private medical centre $100 just to register then you pay for the appointment and then you pay for your meds.  No subsidies here I tell ya. 


The medical centre was in the posh part of San Francisco and it was lovely, in terms of customer experience lots of wide open spaces, friendly and accessible helpful receptionists.  The doctor was lovely,really sympathetic and listened.  Ok - it does have to be said that my NHS GP's have been the same but for some reason the American level of service was just that touch better.  It could be argued that as I was paying for the consultation the GP had to be really nice to be as if I had been a local I could have taken my custom elsewhere next time.  None the less I left with a hefty prescription to relieve my acute bronchitis and allow me to be fit to board a plan to head home. 


The one big shock for me was the cost of everything.  Everything was plonked on my credit card and I kept all the receipts to claim on my travel insurance once home but still shelling out $500 was sizeable. The main chunk was my medications - one of the inhalers came in at $200 - ok it was super doper and was the one that sorted out my lungs and the bronchitis.  Only when faced with having to pay for healthcare consultations and their corresponding medicines do you realise how tough life is without free healthcare.  What would I have done if I was a low income american citizen unable to pay for health insurance - I would have had to wait until I was on deaths door before I could have a hope in hell of seeing someone.  That to me is a crying shame.  


My recent stay courtesy of the NHS this month was not the precise pleasurable experience that I had hoped for but it was free, I had a good surgeon who works in many of the prestigious private gynaecological hospitals - who knows maybe he had a hand in the birth of the Beckham clan! The hospital buildings had seen better days and some of the nurses were nice and some not so nice.  But the one thing that struck me is that you can't knock the fundamental ideal of free healthcare for all even if it is used and abused by some at times. 

Why Am I Here?

A rather profound question to ask but one which is actually quite simple to answer.  I had suffered from fibroids for 4 years with symptoms that were getting worse and worse. Often heading to the docs to explain this, I found myself questionning if everything was in my mind.  In the end, I realised that I wanted my life back and put myself forward for an abdominal myomectomy - actually I thought I would have had to battle a bit harder than I did but hey.

December 1 was the day of my op. This blog tracks my thoughts leading up to the big day, my 1st ever experiences as an NHS inpatient (good and bad) and how I am now doing in the long phase that is recovery.  Anyway, I figured that writing a new blog would be a good way to:

• keep me (and hopefully you) entertained whilst I'm home in recovery
• share my stories with others experiencing a similar op as the internet was where I found out lots of useful info

Anyway, I hope that you stay tuned for this journey :)