Weighing Discharge/for New --

[Guest guest]

Weighing Your Pads:

An interesting idea: many of us have been frustrated by docs & staff asking

about how much we were bleeding – how many pads we were going through, or

how fast we were going through A pad, etc. & not being able to really get

the volume thing across to them. An RN friend of mine suggests WEIGHING

your bloody Kotex, tampons, Depends – (whatever you use). Weigh them

pre-use (or weigh some unused ones) and then weigh them saturated. The

difference is the WEIGHT of the bloody discharge. Use a food scale probably

- or a postage scale maybe. I think this idea has a LOT more merit than the

standard “how many pads” thing – I mean, I would always say “what SIZE pad

are we talking about here?” – and they’d never have a good answer for that.

This way you can say " 9 ounces in 20 minutes " - that sort of thing. Seems

pretty darn objective to me. __________________________________

:

Welcome. I hope your book list includes “Sex, Lies and the Truth About

Uterine Fibroids” by Carla Dionne (our moderator) and “What Your Doctor May

Not Tell You About Fibroids” – By Goodwin, MD and Broder, MD.

There are other worthwhile books, but those two definitely top my list for

learning about fibroids, symptoms and treatment options. Also see the NUFF

website – which includes links to several other very worthwhile websites on

the subject of fibroids: http://www.nuff.org

If you don’t have symptoms which are bothersome to you personally – or TRULY

dangerous to your health (watch out for scare-tactic doctors – fibroids are

not cancer & they don’t “turn-into” cancer either) – then you don’t really

HAVE to do anything about fibroids. At your age, menopause might be only a

few years away. If you make it to menopause, they should start slowly

shrinking & give you less trouble. On the other hand, I’m nearly 56 and

still menstruating – so I can tell you, there are no guarantees on getting

to menopause soon.

I think a lot of us let fibroid symptoms sneak up on us – we just don’t

realize how our bodies change a tiny little bit at a time – but over time

they change a lot. I do think that women who choose to wait should keep

track of symptoms in some way so that they will realize how much things

change & have a better way to decide if and when to treat their fibroids.

Like you, I found that activity started my bleeding. My bleeding got to be

very heavy. I am a hiker/backpacker – and I had to give up hiking because it

would bring on bleeding & I couldn’t carry that much kotex (let alone find

that many bushes to change it behind). I think your doc is wrong in saying

that activity doesn’t have any effect. I believe it did for me.

For me, it was the one pedunculated fibroid inside the uterine cavity that

was the culprit. I wound up having only that one removed vaginally & the

bleeding problems & urinary frequency problems went away. I’ve still got

other fibroids, but I’m living with them quite nicely. Fibroids can be

removed without hysterectomy, and there are other options for dealing with

them such as UAE (uterine artery embolization). If you read the two books

I’ve mentioned and visit the websites, you will learn a great deal about

other treatments. There is also a great deal of info in the archives for

this list-group. Many doctors recommend hysterectomy – not because it is

truly necessary – but because it is the procedure they perform/or which they

prefer to perform. You need to make sure you have a doctor who is skilled

at the treatment you choose. There are many reasons besides childbearing to

want to keep your uterus.

Pat

_________________________________________________________________

MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*.

http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus