I got into the room and the tech had me undress in front of her. Now we're both women, but the idea that she was in the same room with me and I was not given a gown (I still had my top half on) was still a bit unnerving.
During my sonogram, the tech walked me through the different things she was looking at. At one point she said "Here's your fibroid". I was like - What fibroid?
She said you didn't know about it? And I told her no that it was the first I had heard of it. In a bad attempt to lighten the situation, she said "Surprise".
The first thing I thought about after hearing the word fibroid was "tumor". From there I thought about "cancer". Fortunately after my own research online I found out that uterine fibroids are rarely ever cancerous.
To make matters worse, she also mentioned that the sac was a little small, and measured it to be about 4 weeks 3 days. To me that wasn't a big deal at first, but she kept talking about it and making me feel as if it was. So I'm suspicious.
To add to my frustration, there was no real sonogram tech or doctor available because it was after 5:00 to answer my questions or to even look over my sonogram. So I have to sit here overnight and worry about it I guess. She said this is normal after 3:30 PM - so why didn't anyone tell me - because I certainly would never have taken that late of an appointment if that was the case.
I did do some research online and found that this is more common than I thought.
- There are some risks and this will put me into the "high risk" pregnancy category.
- I'll have to be monitored more frequently during the pregnancy which likely means more ultrasounds every few weeks. I found out that fibroids can grow during pregnancy because of blood flow changing and hormones increasing. Generally they grow within the first trimester, but there is a large percentage chance that they will not grow at all. Since I didn't know I had one previously I have no comparison unfortunately.
- The worst case scenarios could be that I could miscarry if the fibroid and baby battle for space, hemorrhage after delivery or have a C-section if the delivery canal gets blocked (depending on how big the fibroid gets).
- There is also the chance that the placenta could detach from the uterine wall if the fibroid and the baby compete for space.
I have to wait until tomorrow to find out more details and what kind of fibroid it is. During my reading I found out that if it is a submucosal fibroid, that it could thin the lining of the uterus and end up in a miscarry.
I've read a few stories online where the fibroid actually ended up being larger than the baby itself at delivery time and was perfectly healthy, so I know I at least have a chance here. I may be miserable through the pregnancy though depending on how the fibroids react to the pregnancy.
