#lletz

"Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated"

I really need to stop referencing songs.

Warning.

Contains blood & is a lengthy story.

Some of details are hazy or completely forgotten also.

It was an extremely traumatic experience.

Me:

"Get up. I need an ambulance!!!"

JV:

"I can drive you to the hospital quicker than an ambulance can get here"

I won't disclose how long it took JV to drive from our house to the nearest hospital, but yes he was correct.

Lights were left on, doors left open. Im surprised none of the neigbours noticed.

LLETZ discuss what happened a few hours prior...

I'd visited the after hours GP service after my bleeding increased. 

JV had come to work to have his teeth cleaned. I went to the toilet half hour prior to leaving work and by the time I had arrived home I had gone through the pad I was wearing.

When we arrived about 7pm at GP access, I could feel myself bleeding. I couldnt even concertrate enough to give the nurse my correct details, for some reason I tried to give her my mums mobile number instead of my own. JV had to take over and help.

The GP I saw actually happened to be a patient at work and recognised my face.

She examined me and saw that I was bleeding but I seemed to be clotting which was good.

She knew the surgeon who performed my surgery and phoned him personally to advise and discuss my case.

My surgeon thought it was some sort of infection so advised to start me on a course of antibiotics and to phone his rooms first thing in the morning to make a review appointment.

This put my mind at ease.

The GP phoned the local hospital to gain advice on the best antibiotics to give and to alert them that if my bleeding increased I had been advise to present to the emergency department.

I was given antibiotics and was told to go home, rest up and phone the surgeon tomorrow.

I felt a little bit more reassured.

I went home, anxious but knew it would all be sorted tomorrow.

Close to 12am I woke up, heart rate through the roof, sweating. 

I had only been asleep for maybe an hour but I knew something was wrong.

The only way I can describe it was like alarm bells in my body.

I went to go to the toilet but when I stood up I immediately felt something “let go”. Id started to hemorrhage.

I screamed at JV to wake up - he is the world heaviest sleeper.

For someone who is pretty neat, the first time since living where we are I had left a towel on the floor at the foot of the bed. THANK FUCK.

I placed the towel in between my legs, laid myself on the floor and kept screaming at JV I needed an ambulance.

He had by this stage chucked some clothes on and was yelling back at me to get in the car, he knew where we live the nearest ambulance station was around 10 minutes away. Reluctantly I agreed.

I called the ED as we drove out of the driveway and calmly explained what was happening and we were on our way.

I asked JV to talk to me the entire way and not to stop. I can only describe the feeling as tired but I knew I was on the brink of passing out. I told him to ask me what I saw, what my name was, how I was feeling, just anything that would keep me with it.

We arrived at the hospital and the surprise we were already there was apparent.

I dont think they really believed the panic. I was placed in a single room and awaited to be seen a Doctor. The blood just continued to pool around me. Almost 2 hours later a male Doctor came in to assess me.

JV had to step out, he isnt the best with blood or needles.

Between the surprise on the Doctors face and hearing the blood coming out of me... I was began to think I might die.

He tried to stop the bleeding as best he could with gauze and immediately called for the resident gynecologist to come down.

She was delivering a baby - emergency cesarean, so I did have to wait a little bit for her.

When she came down I was busting to wee. That’s all I could think about. 

She helped me go to the toilet in a bed pan and between the blood, clots and wee practically overflowed it. 

I know it sounds stupid with the weight of the situation but also I just wanted to get out of my clothes - they were covered in blood and I was very agitated.

By this stage I was on the borderline for a blood transfusion (I am so thankful for blood donors and had previously donated blood). The Gynecologist called for her intern gyno to come down to assist.

There were no available operating theaters so it was perform what was needed in the ER to stem the bleeding or wait for a OR which could exacerbate my condition.

Things got a little hazy here and I was in the mindset of just save my life.

I was treated with silver nitrate, stitched in several places and packed vaginally with gauze to hold pressure on my cervix/LLETZ procedure site.

She placed a catheter in also as I wouldn't be moving for about 24 hours for any reason.

I was a little uncomfortable after all of this but so thankful I was in the right place to get the care I needed.

I was admitted to the ward at about 6am.

I sent JV straight home to rest and also call the family and let them know what had happened.

They advised me it would be a minimum 24-48 hour admission.

I spent the day resting and managed to eat a little bit of food. I felt a lot of pressure not so much pain as such.

I also forgot to mention earlier I had lost 5kg in 6 days... a sign my body was in distress.

The next day the packing was removed and very minimum to nil blood was noted.

I was anxious but they were more than happy to send me home to recover fully.

A week off work and some bed rest.

Little did we know...

For 6 weeks!! Well pissed off as im getting fatter. I know i should do a calorie deficit. I tried today on my fitness pal and its just so time consuming.

Plus planning everything you eat in advance is tough.

So i dont know what to do. Keep on walking a lot i suppose.

I had my first cervical smear test back in May (I should have had my first one over a year ago, but I kept putting it off because I was nervous) and the results were abnormal, so I was sent for a colposcopy so that my cervix could be examined under a microscope and a biopsy could be taken. I should mention that I was given the results over the phone and that the doctor immediately reassured me that it wasn’t cancer, but I was still kind of terrified before I had it done because I was expecting it to be painful and awkward. And while it was a bit uncomfortable, it was nowhere near as bad as I had imagined. Plus, the doctor and nurse who carried out the examination were lovely, and really helped to put me at ease.

The results from my biopsy came back as CIN3, meaning that there’s a high chance of the cells becoming cancerous if the cells are left untreated for 10-15 years, so I was booked in for a LLETZ procedure (large loop excision of the transformation zone) to remove the cells. And that brings us to today. I was even more nervous than I had been for the colposcopy because I knew I was going to have local anaesthetic injected into my cervix. It was painful, though not as painful as I expected it to be. It was nowhere near as uncomfortable as when the speculum was inserted. The GP who performed that part of the procedure was training to do colposcopy, so it took her a few tries to get it in the right place. And it probably didn’t help that I was pretty tense because of that.

Anyway, the whole thing took about 20 minutes, and the actual treatment didn’t hurt at all. I was so glad to get it over with, and I’m hoping that when I get my results back, they’ll be normal. It wasn’t completely awful, but I’d rather not have it done again. I’ve felt crappy all day and had cramps and light bleeding (which could last for up to 4 weeks), which is normal but not fun. Also, I’m not allowed to go swimming, have sex or use tampons for 4 weeks. And I need to avoid strenuous exercise for a few weeks.

I’m sorry if I’ve gone into a bit too much information here, but I think that it’s important to talk about stuff like this, so that other people who might find themselves in the same situation know that it might not be anything to worry about. I had no idea about any of it before I actually had to go through it, and I didn’t know anyone who had gone through it either (beyond knowing someone who knows someone who had been through it).

LLETZ talk about it...

I've never fully spoken to most people about my experience after my LLETZ procedure.

She was a wild ride afterwards I tell you. I will go into that story in a separate blog.

LLETZ stands for - large loop excision of the transformation zone.

I had to have this procedure done after high grade cell changes were discovered on my cervix (see one of my previous blogs for more on this).

I chose to have my LLETZ done through a private hospital not through the public system in Australia for a few reasons. There was concerns that with the wait list through the public system that more changes may occur and change the surgery plan. 

The cells were located spread around my entire cervix not on one particular spot which was concerning.

I had a day procedure under general anaesthetic for my LLETZ. 

The surgery involves a small wire loop with an electrical current running through that cuts away the lower part of the cervix and also seals the tissue at the same time. 

Unfortunately my cervix required 3 passes of the ‘loop’ to adequately remove the affected tissue.

I woke up after my procedure feeling quite okay, a little sleepy but good.

I had some bleeding and discharge that started immediately - but this was expected.

My recovery after my LLETZ was... fucked.

It started off fine.

I was only able to use pads after surgery to decrease any irritation to the surgery site/for adequate healing and It was also advised not to have sex, swim or do any exercise for 4 weeks.

This being my first general anaesthetic and first surgery I followed all instructions to the letter.

All was well for around 5 days but quickly went down hill.

The compliactions were discussed prior to having surgery and I happened to be the 1 person per year that had major complications.

I still didn’t realise what to expect. After using tampons for 10 years it was hard to know what volume of blood was normal and what wasnt.

I wouldn’t change having the surgery, it was a given if not treated I would have ended up with cervical cancer in the next 10 years.

I dont want this to scare anyone from having surgery but please look after yourself following surgery, take additional time to recover and listen very closely to your body.

JTS Medical Centre in Dubai provides expert colposcopy and LLETZ procedures for the diagnosis and treatment of cervical abnormalities. Using advanced technology and specialist care, these procedures support early detection and effective management of cervical health concerns.

If I'm still feeling rough Monday I'll go to the doctors just to ensure everything is okay...