It's a condition that will affect more than half the women in the United States before the age of 50.
Uterine Fibroids can take the joy out of life and make every day living uncomfortable.
Kira Brown is a mother of three, and she loves raising her two girls and 4-year-old son.
Dealing with Uterine Fibroids made everyday life embarrassing and uncomfortable.
“Extremely excruciating mensural cycles and at times I could bleed anywhere from 7-14 days,” Brown said. “The pain would be almost like childbirth monthly.”
She had to wear adult diapers and working twelve-hour shifts as a nurse she gets very few chances to go to the bathroom.
“You have to wear adult diapers or be embarrassed to sit down in public because you don’t if you stand will I be bleeding everywhere.”
She went to her Gynecologist Dr. Leigh Matlaga at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center and asked for help.
In February she had a partial hysterectomy which means four incisions, two done by Dr. Matlaga and her team, and two more with the help of a machine called the da Vinci Surgical System.
“When they get to the Hysterectomy they really think why haven’t we done this years ago because it’s the definitive surgical treatment for heavy bleeding,”
The da Vinci is controlled by something called the surgeon console.
Through there the surgeon can control a camera and four arms that all have different functions.
One arm can be cutting, another burning, and another clamping.
“So, you can put this here, hold a tissue and then switch to another one and then all of a sudden your picking up a different instrument,” Matlaga said while showing the machine.
The machine gives the surgeon extra hands that can turn in ways human hands can’t, and a closer look for more precise cuts
All those extras add up to less recovery and surgery time for patients.
“Your eyes can be right on the tissue and your hands can be repositioned and very intricate to look for where the bowel the ureter the adhesion and so on,” Matlaga said.
The team at MedStar and da Vinci helped to get Brown back to her normal life.
“Not having to deal with the pain it’s amazing, Recovery was far better than one of my worst menstrual cycles so it was easy for me.”
To learn more about Uterine Fibroids treatment and MedStar Health click here.
