May to August 2008 - All Hell Breaks Loose

I started back on Yasmin, hoping it would stop the bleeding. It seemed it worked temporarily and I had some relief for a week or so. But it was just playing with me. I started having increasingly heavy bleeding with large clots for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. The clots were anywhere from a walnut to a golf ball size - pretty large in my mind! And it wouldn't stop. I bled 3-4 weeks at a time with only a week or just a few days of no bleeding. And it was heavy. Very heavy. I would sometimes bleed through a pad or tampon in just 15 mins to an hour.

I have cleaned up more messes on the floor, bed, my cloths, etc than I care to even admit or discuss. Each time, I would put in a super absorbant tampon plus a pad on. And each time, I would bleed through both. I can't begin to describe the depression that started to settle over me. Bleeding. Bleeding. Bleeding. Just the mere thought of more bleeding or changing my tampon/pad yet again would practically bring me to tears. This girl who is largely unemotional had hit a bump in the road that was too difficult to go over or around. And the pain of that fact crushed me.

There were actually 2 weeks of time when I didn't leave the house. I couldn't. I had to stay close to the bathroom. Thankfully, I was able to work from home, so I managed to work during that time. But any extra activities outside the home were out of the question.

It was far too much to handle for me or my husband. It was too much to put on my girlfriends who tried to understand, but they really couldn't fully. They all tried their best to understand and sympathize, but unless you're in the shoes of someone with symptomatic fibroids, you really can't understand completely.

Even on top of the bleeding, I had to use the restroom to relieve my bladder frequently. The enlarged uterus was pressing on my bladder. It really was as if I were pregnant.

I was familiar with every restroom in every place we went. I had to. I was going all the time to change or clean up. It was awful.

As you can also imagine, sexual activity was slim to none during these four months. With such a surplus of bleeding, it was practically impossible to do anything. Not good for our relationship, self esteem, etc.