In 2016 I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids after seeking a diagnosis to explain a long list of symptoms related to my menstrual cycle. In March 2017 I published a post detailing my journey to diagnosis, full symptoms, and my plan to attempt to shrink the fibroids with Chinese medicine and other holistic methods.
I saw some profound improvements on my holistic protocol.
But, unfortunately, the improvements eventually plateaued. And certain symptoms have actually started to get worse this year.
This worsening of symptoms caused me to do a lot of reflection about my health, my body, and how I have been taking care of myself (or not). It has caused me to shed many tears, to sit with difficult truths during meditation and journaling, and forced me to finally be honest with myself: it is time for surgery.
Yes, I am going to have my holistic NaPro gynecologist perform robotic myomectomy to remove the fibroids while preserving my uterus and ovaries. This surgery will likely take place in late Jan or early Feb 2020.
This decision is a really big deal for me. And it is also very challenging for me emotionally.
I am certainly not “anti-Western medicine”, and up until about age 20 I wanted to be a doctor. When I decided to become a neuroscientist instead, I chose to work in biomedical research doing work that had an ultimate goal of contributing to Western medical treatments.
However: I was traumatized by Western doctors and nurses on multiple occasions as a child and young teen. That is a story for another post, but the events involved bullying, hurtful teasing, not respecting my wishes or bodily autonomy, threatening, and needless painful physical restraint. These begin with some of my earliest memories of doctors at ages 4-5.
As an adult, I experienced being completely and utterly failed by Western medicine, which is ultimately why The Curious Coconut exists in the first place (if you don’t know my story, read it here).
Western medicine is great for emergencies, injuries, and surgeries.
It is generally terrible at cultivating vibrant health through diet and lifestyle and also at addressing chronic health issues.
Had the only action I took when I had debilitating hidradenitis suppurativa, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and pre-diabetes been to follow the Western medical advice I had been given, I would be very sick right now instead of having achieved remission/reversal of all those things.
Right now I am so very grateful that this high-tech, minimally invasive surgery is an option for me, since I feel in my gut that I have gotten all that I can out of the Chinese medicine and other holistic treatments I have pursued since diagnosis.
But you better believe I am going to rely heavily on those healing modalities both to prepare my body for the surgery, to expedite healing and recovery post-op, and to reduce my risk of a recurrence of fibroids.
Why I decided to have surgery to remove fibroids
Choosing to have surgery is not something I have taken lightly. Reviewing my symptoms from an objective point of view helped me feel confident I am making the best decision for my health and wellness.
Let’s go through my list of symptoms as described in my 2017 post about fibroids, and see how things have changed since the improvement I saw across the board then. Some have continued to improve, some have plateaued out, and some have actually taken a turn and gotten worse:
Cycle regularity (improved): pre-treatment length ranged from 18 to 42 days; 2017 improved to 18-28 days; 2019 all 26-28 days except one rogue 20 day cycle
Bleeding intensity (plateaued): pre-treatment 2-3 days of very heavy bleeding; 2017 reduced to 1 day of heavy bleeding; 2019 still only 1 day of heavy bleeding
Spotting (worsened): pre-treatment I had 1-3 days of brown, old, stringy, ugly spotting before every period; 2017, spotting was gone; 2019 brown spotting has returned a few times
Clotting (improved): pre-treatment I had large stringy clots with every period; 2017 clotting became smaller and less stringy; 2019 clot size has become smaller still
Cramping (worsened): pre-treatment I had extreme, debilitating, curl-in-the-fetal-position cramping both during menstruation and in the week after, sometimes randomly throughout my cycle; 2017 saw extreme cramping become rare; 2019 the extreme cramping frequency has begun to increase and correlate with my one day of heavy flow each month
Painful intercourse (improved): pre-treatment intercourse was always painful, orgasms were always painful, sometimes bad enough to bring me to tears; 2017 saw this become a rare occurrence; 2019 it has only continued to improve.
Inflammation (worsened): pre-treatment my pelvic region always felt raw and inflamed; 2017 this feeling was restricted to during my bleeds only; 2019 this feeling has become chronic again
Bowel Movements (worsened): pre-treatment I would almost always have pain with a bowel movement; 2017 this became much less frequent; 2019 this has become an almost always present symptom again
Urination/bladder (worsened): pre-treatment I noticed increased urinary frequency and pain with a full bladder; 2017 saw a significant improvement here; 2019 I feel like I am actually worse than I was at diagnosis….this has gotten to be quite bothersome and I think a recent UTI was actually caused by the fibroids
Pelvic discomfort and pressure (worsened): pre-treatment this was constant and always in my awareness; 2017 this went away for a while, and it was such a gift; 2019 this has returned with a vengeance and is worse than it was pre-treatment
Fatigue (worsened): pre-treatment I dealt with extreme fatigue whenever I would have a pain flare; 2017 I stopped having fatigue except during my bleed; 2019 I notice fatigue and sluggishness often and feel it is related to the weight, pressure, and chronic inflammation/low grade pain/constant discomfort from the fibroids.
This last point, as well as the change in how the fibroids affect my bladder, are the biggest reasons why I am pursuing surgery.
Anyone who deals with chronic pain can tell you how much it wears you down physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
I have done so many things: acupuncture and electro-acupuncture, hardcore Chinese herbs, visualizations and meditations, trauma healing, seed cycling, castor oil packs, heavy duty supplements, topical essential oils, and even crystals and chakra work.
I have been diligent and committed, and know I gave it my best shot up until about February of 2019 when I embarked on writing a second book and things started to fall apart with my healthy habits and my life became consumed by work work work.
I am grateful for the improvements I saw, for the self-discovery and lessons learned, but it is time to get some relief and have a clean slate, so to speak, to work with as I move forward. It is time for surgery.
Holistic & science-backed pre-surgery preparation protocol
My acupuncturist advised me to think of preparing my body for surgery the way I would think of preparing for a marathon: to eat super clean, get daily movement/exercise, really good sleep, and no stress.
To this list I am adding supplements with scientific evidence supporting their use in the perioperative period to support healing. And obviously: acupuncture. That’s the one good habit I never once let fall by the wayside. I am on his table once a week without fail.
My acupuncturist’s answer about how to prepare is pretty much what I envisioned before consulting him. It represents truly making sure the basics of a healthy lifestyle are covered. But man, the “no stress” part feels daunting.
I am nothing if not committed once I set my mind to something, though, so 2020 shall be the time for me to put myself and my health back as priority number 1, not my work.
Let’s go down the list of my 5-pronged approach to preparing for and recovering from surgery.
Eating Clean with Fast & Flavorful Paleo Cooking
My next cookbook, Fast & Flavorful Paleo Cooking, releases on March 31st. The recipes are very clean Paleo, meaning that they focus on tons of nutrient-dense vegetables and fresh meats. The recipes are pretty much all W30 and applicable to Wahls Paleo too. The few “treats” are actually more like healthy snacks and only a handful of recipes call for a little starch in a W30-compliant way, otherwise the book is flourless.
They truly are the perfect recipes for me to cook for myself over the coming weeks to prepare for surgery! I will be making double batches of things so that I can put food away in the freezer, too, so that I have good food to eat in the weeks after the procedure.
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, I will be showing these recipes off as I cook them so that you can get excited to cook them yourself once the book is released.
And you know what one of the biggest things you can do to support me during this time is? Pre-order my cookbook!
Amazon is the most popular because they charge the least. That’s good for you, but terrible for authors, since it means we receive little to no royalties off those low-priced sales.
If you can afford to pay the cover price, please use IndieBound to pre-order. It will connect you with a local independent bookstore (if one exists in your area) or you can shop directly from the site. Using that link also gives me a small commission on the sale in addition to royalties, and I sincerely thank you for doing that.
If you must shop Amazon, please use this link so I will receive a small commission.
Daily Movement and Exercise
I have a membership at Delta Groove Yoga and plan to get back into the routine of going to classes at least 4 days per week. I have found ashtanga to be an incredibly beneficial style of yoga for both my physical body as well as my mental and emotional health.
Kundalini has been transformational in the mental and emotional realm as well, but I find I have to space out how frequently I do this kind of practice.
Restorative and yin are great on those days when I am in pain or feeling fatigued but still need to get a practice in.
On the days I don’t attend class I am committed to doing my own home practice. The book that started it all for me when I was 16 is Yoga Mind & Body. I still reference it to this day when I need inspiration for my home practice.
Because of the stress and time crunch associated with writing my cookbook, I allowed yoga to become an optional part of my daily schedule. That changes now, and I have added classes to my calendar to make them a priority.
Really Good Sleep
Rufus sets an excellent example to follow to better prioritize sleep
According to Chinese medicine, in the winter we should go to bed early and rise late. You don’t have to tell me twice to honor that! I get sleepy very early this time of year and love to snuggle in bed with my cats.
Of course I have my nights where I spend too much time with the TV, whether watching something or playing video games (currently really into Red Dead Online), so I am going to set my bedtime as 10pm leading up to my surgery.
My bedroom has noise-reducing panels in the windows and blackout curtains. It feels like a cave! I also use a humidifier in the winter which helps me feel more rested in the mornings.
Reducing Stress
No joke, Rufus has a daily sitting meditation practice where he sits by the window with good posture, closes his eyes, and stays still for 15-20 minutes.
I have always found it more helpful to switch around the language and think of increasing contentment, happiness, ease, and fun each day rather than reducing stress.
Unfortunately this went completely out the window in 2019.
Everything went by so quickly in 2019 and I was so focused on work, work, work that I became very disconnected from my body.
My analogy for how 2019 felt: I was moving along at my own pace peacefully downriver, and then suddenly I hit unexpected whitewater rapids that were pushing me forward at a pace I couldn’t keep up with, making me go in different directions I hadn’t planned for, and preventing me from heading to shore to take breaks when I needed them.
Yes, I did write another cookbook that I am extremely proud of.
Yes, I saw huge growth in my Beautycounter business.
Yes, I saw my fine art photography business blossom and start to support me in a significant way.
But all this professional growth came at a cost because of the STRESS.
I know in my heart that I need a drastic mindset shift in order to get back to where I know I need to be with prioritizing play and joy equally with work. This is something I am going to be working on in the last days of 2019.
I am going to print out chapter 9 of the Tao Te Ching and hang it up behind my computer:
Do your work, then step back.
My 2020 mantra.
The #1 thing I am going to do in this area is to rekindle a daily meditation practice. My little furry Zen master Rufus is an excellent teacher and provides a good reminder each day when he sits down for his daily practice. I am not being funny here, he really does meditate daily, look:
Rufus also has a lot to teach me about reducing stress related to anticipating surgery.
He has undergone 4 major abdominal surgeries to remove foreign objects from his intestines (he likes to chew on strings…)
I am writing another post just about Rufus, and lessons learned from him about stress, surgery, living in the moment, and more. Our pets really can be incredible teachers, and Rufus has been an excellent mindfulness teacher.
Pre-op/post-op Supplements To Support Recovery
In addition to my acupuncturist’s suggestions, I am going to add in some supplements with scientific backing to support recovery. From Rahm 2004:
“Perioperative supplementation can have a significant and measurable effect on surgical outcome by favorably affecting 4 primary mechanisms: reduction of oxidation generated by surgery and anesthetic agents; enhancement of immunity; reduction of bruising, swelling, and inflammation; and promotion of wound healing.”
You can view the full text of this paper titled “Guide to Perioperative Nutrition” here. Table 2 provides dosage suggestions for these supplements based on the best available scientific evidence.
Here is what I plan to take to address the 4 concerns mentioned above, with links to the specific brands:
Trace Minerals Complex II (for the zinc and selenium)
Copper (taken 2 hours away from the other minerals)
Arnica montana oral pellets
Collagen (use my code CURIOUS for 10% off)
Visioning, Journaling, and other tools
I plan to do a visioning exercise very soon, where I write a narrative story that describes how I feel in vivid detail at several stages after surgery. When doing a visioning exercise, you are writing about the future as if it had already happened and were true.
I have found this kind of writing to be very beneficial in helping me to achieve my goals. And in the case of surgery recovery, I want to silence my monkey mind from telling me that I am going to have a hard recovery. Instead I want to plant seeds of belief that I will have an easy, speedy recovery and feel so much better very quickly.
I have also recently begun daily journaling again. This is very helpful for me to work through emotions, and boy howdy are a lot of emotions coming up right now. I often find points to work through via the NeuroEmotional Technique as I am writing (EFT/tapping could work too, I just prefer NET).
I also end each journal session with a gratitude list. A daily gratitude practice has been shown to reduce stress, reduce inflammation, and reduce fatigue.
Working with a NaPro gynecologist
I feel so lucky that Memphis has a NaPro gynecologist (Dr. Podraza) who is my doctor and who will be performing my surgery.
If you are unfamiliar with NaPro, it is basically functional medicine by another name. I’ve been seeing Dr. P since the end of 2017 and he is probably the first ever MD I have ever felt at ease around and whom I trust very much.
NaPro seeks to support the female body in a holistic way and commonly uses supplements, bio-identical hormones, and diet/lifestyle first before pharmaceuticals or surgery. And when surgery is needed, preserving all of the reproductive organs is the top priority.
NaPro also utilizes a type of cycle charting called the Creighton model, and is based on cervical mucus production (externally evaluated only), not basal body temperature.
Because I am a scientist and data geek, I do still take my BBT, but it has been fascinating to pair that with Creighton charting.
I’ll share more details about NaPro in a future post, but if you have questions please let me know.
Keep an eye out for more posts in this series
That’s it for now. Thank you for reading, and I hope that some of this information is helpful. This is the first post in a series I will be writing about my surgery journey. If you have any questions you want me to answer, please leave a comment below.
