Seeing Red

{This post may contains information about a lady’s time of the month that may be too graphic for some readers. Please read at your discretion}

Last week, I had an awful scare when I saw red. Too much red to be exact.

It was like any other day in the office when my colleague noticed that blood was flowing down my legs. I froze for a moment and knew that something was wrong… I rushed to the ladies and to my horror found my sanitary pad completed soak and there were blood clots. This was already the fourth day of my period and by right, it shouldn’t be so heavy.

And as I sat in the toilet, I could feel myself hyperventilating and feeling faint both from the shock of seeing so much blood loss and losing blood at the same time. I think I saw there for a long time, at a loss for what to do as I was still bleeding profusely. Fortunately, I had my handphone with me and managed to get a colleague who rushed back from her lunch to rescue me from an awkward situation. But things didn’t improve and I had to rush to the toilet every hour as the the heavy flowed continued the whole day. By the end of the day, I was feeling dizzy from the excessive loss of blood, I had to ask Alexis to rush me down to KKH as my regular gyne is away for two weeks. They gave me a progesterone jab and I was given tranexamic acid tablets for the next three days to treat the heavy period.

The next day, the bleeding eased up and all was looking better. Thank God for mummy. After I told her that happened, she went marketing and came over to cook an iron rich lunch for me to boost and replenish what I had lost.

By the end of the day, the bleeding was back to normal and I also went back to work the next day.

But on Sunday, a day after I finished my last dosage of medicine, the bleeding continued and it was accompanied by bad cramps. I think I must have sacred little Sophie because there were almost tears in her eyes as she saw me wincing in pain. It was already day nine, so the bleeding was definitely out of the ordinary. So we made another trip to KKH and this time, they attended to me quickly after they saw how pale and ghostly I looked. This time I was given another jab and my head was spinning. So they wheeled me out in a wheelchair in case I fainted there and told me not to go home so soon.

Sorry if I scared everyone with the photo of it on Facebook. Thankfully, it didn’t warrant any hospitalisation but I was asked to come back again the next day for an ultrasound to see what might be causing the heaving bleeding.(Yes, they refused to do an ultrasound for me on the spot unless it was a life threatening condition at the A&E).

Cause of the bleeding

Back in my head, I suspected it had to do with fibroids as I’ve a long history since 10 years ago. I’ve done two ops before to remove them, once in 2004 and another in 2011. And the ultrasound confirmed that it was the fibroids which most likely caused the heavy bleeding. The doctor advised me to monitor and see if the heavy bleeding resumes next month and if so, then I may have to discuss with my gyne on the next steps. But meanwhile the hormone pills should help to regulate my period and I shouldn’t experience anymore bleeding until the next cycle.

Next steps

This whole episode left me feeling super emo. As it is, each month is a huge disappointment when I get my period, a sign that I’m not pregnant.

And seeing so much red, not only was another let down but a blow that things are not getting better in this trying journey for us to have a second child. In fact, we’ve embarked on TCM and for three months and we thought that things are looking up when this episode happened which really crushed my spirits.

All these while, I already knew about the fibroids which has resurfaced but I chose not to go for another op as we wanted to try… But nothing has been happening and the fibroids are growing bigger and growing more. At this stage, the biggest one is about 5cm. Not going for the op also has its risks as they may multiply quickly (which was what happened the last time) and even if I do get pregnant, it is not without it’s risks…. But going for the op, means more cuts and wound which makes the uterus even weaker and there’s be down time to recover from an op. Plus, I’m still having nighmares from the last op as it was even more painful than a caesarean delivery. Though I don’t need to take any action now, an operation may be inevitable as it is recommended by my gyne earlier.

I’m thankful for the many well-meaning advices from friends who have shared their personal experiences or even encouraged me that our hearts desire may come true after the op. I don’t know what the future holds, but for now, I’m thankful that we already Sophie. Thankful, that all is back to normal now.

So I’m just taking it one step at a time and letting go of what I think is best and letting God take control. Do continue to keep me in your prayers and thoughts and thank you all for your concern and support.

 

Linking up with

I wrote about my fibroid removal operation expereince in an older post. if you ar keen to find out more, you can read it here.

Tagged: fibroids, heavy bleeding