Being a Woman & The Unexpected

If you are little squeamish about girly stuff you might want to skip this post. LOL! But I do share a cool spiritual experience I had too so maybe you don’t want to skip it. 😉

Being a woman isn’t always fun. I’ve been struggling with really heavy cycles. Seems to be hereditary as my sister, mom, and her grandma all have or have had the same struggles.

It’s been about 2 years since I first looked into seeing what my options were to help alleviate my symptoms. Things have only progressed and gotten worse and I decided I needed to do something about it now. Not being able to leave the house for the first day or two of my cycle is affecting my life and I’m restless at night for fear of having accidents on the sheets (sorry if this is TMI) and I’ve had enough.

Jared went with me to see my doctor and she went down the list of options.
-Do nothing – not an option for me anymore.
-Use an IUD – which uses a low dose of hormones and stops your cycles. I worry about blood clots and strokes as those run in my family. And I’ve had a few friends say the IUD has fallen out and others say it got implanted improperly and it caused a lot of pain and my sister-in-law had hers get embedded and had to have it surgically removed which was painful.
-Have an endometrium/uterine ablation- It’s an in office procedure where they destroy a thin layer of tissue (endometrium) that lines the uterus. They do this by several different methods. My doctor’s office uses the NovaSure procedure which uses radiofrequency energy. Recovery is quick. However, the procedure can fail.
– And the last option is a hysterectomy- which is a major surgery, but would be the final answer to never having to worry about having monthly cycles ever again. This felt too overwhelming for me just yet.

I chose to have the uterine ablation. It was not an easy decision for me. The ablation can fail. And I didn’t want to go through it and then end up having to do the hysterectomy anyway. The weeks leading up to the surgery were filled with anxiety. My heart raced, I had stomach aches, I couldn’t sleep at night. I just wasn’t sure I was making the right choice and I was nervous about having a medical procedure. It all relates back to not trusting myself to make decisions for myself/doctors after ending up in the ICU in 2016 and another surgery I had done in 2001 that went wrong.

Satan knows our weaknesses and he was having the time of his life playing off of all my insecurities and worries.

But even though I was TERRIFIED I moved forward. I know he would love nothing more than to leave me paralyzed with fear and keep me a prisoner. I prayed my guts out and I asked family and friends to pray for me too. It helped. I wish I could say it took all my panic attacks away but I can’t. But it did give me courage. I felt strengthened. I pushed through it. And I am SO DANG PROUD of myself!!!

I will share a really tender experience I had on the Sunday before my surgery (I had the ablation on Wednesday the 21st). I was getting ready for church and I always tell Google to play LDS Hymns or some kind of worship music. Well, Google started to play a song, but it wasn’t hymns…It was The Beach Boys!!!!

It played, “Don’t Worry, Baby”, and the first thing I heard was:

“Don’t worry, baby
Don’t worry, baby
Everything will turn out alright”

I stopped in my tracks!!!

God was speaking to me.

100% no question.

I felt so reassured and it made me giggle at the same time. This song was completely unexpected!! It’s not religious whatsoever. It’s about a kid who agrees to a drag race and didn’t want to go through with it.

The song could have started on any verse, but it started on those EXACT words I needed to hear. It was no coincidence!

I don’t even know if I had heard a hymn play that morning that had the same theme if it would have had as much of an impact on me. The Lord wanted to make sure I didn’t miss His message. And I think it’s because it wasn’t anything I was expecting that I knew it was Him. The Lord showed up BIG for me!! He doesn’t do that often. He’s usually the strong quiet type. But He knew all the fears, worries, uncertainty, and sleepless nights I’d been having. Boy! He sure did get my attention!!! I will ALWAYS remember this funny and tender moment. Just typing this is bringing tears to my eyes. And it still makes me giggle! Haha!

The night before my procedure my sweet Ministering Sisters sent me this thoughtful gift.

It meant more to me than they will ever know. I felt loved and seen!

Jared and Walker gave me a priesthood blessing that night as well. I wrote down what was said and I’ve looked back on it often. Grateful to have the priesthood in my home.

Back to the ablation- The surgery is done in office. They put you to sleep and it actually takes longer to get prepped for it than it does for the actual procedure.

I’m two weeks out now from the surgery. The first 5 days or so I moved a little slow and the cramping felt more intense that I thought it would. Even though they said you can return to normal activity by the next day it took me a bit longer than that. Ibuprofen and hot showers were all that were needed for pain and discomfort. I’m back to all my regular routines now. I still get cramping if I lift anything really heavy off the ground, like the 5 gallon water jugs. But my energy is back and I feel good.

I had my 2 week follow up appt. She showed me the images from the camera/scope she saw. I had a good size polyp which she removed. She also said that just removing that alone will help with the heavy cycles. The pathology was clear and there is no cancer. (Not that we thought they’d find any but good to know.) She said she ran the machine at high frequency and for a good amount of time to give me the best odds. She said it can take 2-3 cycles to know if it was successful. So, time will tell.

I’m hopeful this will be all that is needed. I have friends and family who’ve had it done and it’s been wonderful for them. Praying my results will be just as good!!

At times being a woman comes with it challenges. The hormone fluctuations, the monthly cycles, the engorged breasts from breastfeeding, stretch marks, and now I’m entering a new phase with hot flashes. But I’m incredibly grateful for my body and all it’s enabled me to do. Especially the gift of allowing me to carry and bring 3 healthy children into this world. It’s amazing and a miracle!