4 Surgeries to Avoid: Reasons to think twice before going under the knife

[steve2470]

http://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-05-2011/4-surgeries-to-avoid.1.html

*very heavily edited list, you can go to the link above*

1. Stents for Stable Angina

2. Complex Spinal Fusion for Stenosis

3. Hysterectomy for Uterine Fibroids

4. Knee Arthroscopy for Osteoarthritis

[enlightenment]

1. The comment toward the end

of this piece is the most important bit of advice. Start with the least invasive and work your way up. It's not a question of always avoiding one of these surgeries, but making sure that you have explored the other options first.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Let me disagree with one of these...

I had a hysterectomy for uterine fibroids. I was very happy to do it.

Why?

The bleeding was awful and interfering big time with my life. And at that time (1990) there were no good options to stop it. Maybe there are, now.

I wanted the problem solved and this surgery did it.

I got 8 weeks off from work, since it was abdominal surgery, and the last 2 weeks were like a vacation. I felt excellent!

[steve2470]

3. I'm glad you added feedback, Peggy, and felt much better !

Happy Holidays again !

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. It was an important change for me!

Happy Holidays to you too, dear Steve!

[Tikki]

5. Oh, me too…CaliforniaPeggy...

It was so awful…I can't even go into it here it was that gross. The fibroids were literally
cutting my uterus into.

I was still slightly under 30 y.o. so the surgery was taken seriously.

I am so thankful for that surgery, to not have done it would have ruined my quality of life at a young age.

Tikki

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. I'm glad your life got better, my dear Tikki...

[HappyMe]

8. My step sister had that same problem.

She had always had problems with her period, and it finally got so bad they did a hysterectomy. She was 24 when she had it. She was 1000 times better after it.

[X_Digger]

9. My wife had the same..

Imaging showed multiple masses, basically filling the uterine cavity.

During surgery they removed two fibroids that were baseball-sized, one that was grapefruit-sized, and one that was almost softball-sized.

Life was sooo much easier for her after that.

[FLyellowdog]

11. I agree. Had mine about that same time for the same reason.

Wouldn't change it for a thing.

[cthulu2016]

7. Not all bad in all cases, but yes... these are questionable procedures

That doesn't mean they should never be done, but that a patient should have skepticism about them.

These are things one wants a second or third opinion about.

[HipChick]

10. I had an alternate procedure for Uterine Fibroids..not a Hysterectomy

I never wanted kids, so that didn't bother me

but I did want a choice about it...

I had to do all the research myself, my OB-GYN was against it...but I found an excellent Dr, and it was minimal invasion, Insurance covered it and I was up and around kicking butt in days rather then weeks..

[spinbaby]

12. I assume you're talking about embolisation

Where they cut the blood supply to the fibroid so it shrivels up.

[Ms. Toad]

17. I had a hysteroscopic myomectomy

(Surgical removal of the fibroid through the cervix). I had it done on Friday, and was back to work on Monday. I could easily have been back to work on Saturday - except for the post-anesthetic driving restrictions.

I do take issue with this comment in the article, which had to have been written by someone who never experienced it directly: "But most patients undergo the procedure for quality-of-life concerns such as heavy bleeding or pain caused by uterine fibroids."

My heavy bleeding was a life v. death issue, not a "quality of life" issue. Before being diagnosed, I had been tested for leukemia and other bone marrow disorders because I was losing such large quantities of blood so rapidly (and was so anemic) that they could find no evidence I was producing new blood cells. I was also starting to experience heart damage.

Idiotic (male) doctors could not connect the dots between enlarged uterus, reported massive hemorrhaging, life threatening anemia, and fibroids. Once I figured out a way to quantify it (a quart in 3 days), they finally woke up. Before that, they (3 of them) were sure I was just all faint-hearted woman at the sight of blood and greatly exaggerating things.

[liberal_at_heart]

13. I was told that my fibroid would decrease when I hit menopause.

It doesn't bother me enough to have a procedure to get rid of it.

[REP]

14. Yeah, I'm just living with the stenosis

Or, limping with the stenosis. Spinal surgery scares the crap out of me.

[RebelOne]

15. Hysterectomy for Uterine Fibroids?

That is ridiculous. I had fibroids years ago and a simple D&C took care of them. No knife, no cutting, just a scraping out of the uterus.

[Ms. Toad]

16. A D&C will actually not take care of fibroids,

except in very rare instances. A D&C scrapes the lining within the uterus - fibroids are (typically) within the walls of the uterus - and there are often many of them scattered throughout the uterine walls. There are a few (submucosal ones) which might be loosely enough attached to be scraped out - but even those generally require slightly (or significantly) more sophisticated surgery than a D&C.

There are newer treatments - but hysterectomies are easier for the doctors to do, so far too many women are not being offered the newer options (Uterine Artery Embolization, hysteroscopic myomectomy, to name two - the latter being the slightly to significantly more sophisticated way to remove a submucosal fibroid).

(I had a tennis ball sized submucosal fibroid, and had to fight three physicians tooth and nail to be given an option other than a hysterectomy and, FWIW, an early option when they had no clue what was going on, was a D&C - which did nothing because virtually all fibroids, including submucosal ones, are embedded too deeply to be removed by scraping out the uterus.)