I am 32 years old and January of this year I went in for my annual exam. My ob-gyn pressed down on my stomach and asked me if I was pregnant. Much to my surprise, I answered no and told her that I have had normal periods and really no symptoms. I usually go in every January for my exam but missed the year before because I was in the process of getting married. So it had been 2 years since I was last in. My doctor then went to get a monitor to see if she could hear a heart beat and was not able to find one. She then sent me to a local hospital in Minneapolis to get an ultrasound. It is here where the tech said that he saw an extremely large growth on my uterus. I became very scared ,as you could well imagine. My doctor, unlike yours, gave me a lot of information. Due to the size alone she said that I needed surgery, but would not be a complete removal unless they found cancer. My surgery was scheduled for 3 days later. Little to say, I wish I would have found this web site before this because I was very scared and had no one to answer questions. Nor did I know how common this really was.

The size...well it was the size of a football. Actually, I had 3 smaller ones removed at the same time, but they only took a picture of the largest one. It weighed a kilo (2.2 lbs). As my doctor put it, "the largest she had ever removed in 25 years". And the strange part about it was no symptoms ahead of time except for irregular bowel movements.

I had a myomectomy and have a substantial scar that will remind me forever. My surgery was on February 2, 1999 and lasted about 3 hours. They told me that it would only be an hour unless there were complications. And due to the size alone, it extended to 3 hours. A funny story my doctor told me....they had a nurse doing her rotation in the surgical unit. This was one of the first ones she had observed. When they finally got ahold of the tumor, her comment was "is that the baby's head?" Little to say, I did not go home from the hospital with that one. The only complaint I can say about the whole experience is that the doctors did not come out and inform my husband during the surgery what was going on. As he put it... he thought they were gutting me completely, and we would not be able to have children. I told the doctor they should really have a liason between the operating room and the waiting room to keep family informed. Also, just had a his-tro (HSG). My ob-gyn called and told me that all looks well, no sign yet of them coming back. What a good feeling that was! As far as posting my photo on your page - you bet! If I can help someone with my story and my photos all the better. Never knew how common this actually was.

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