Hi there - I don’t post on her any more either, as my triathlon days came to an end a year and half ago after my “fibroid” surgery. I do not want to make anyone scared at all, because the chances are WAAAYYY against anything like this happening to you, but I feel the need to let women suffering from fibroids know my story real quick. I asked my surgeon specifically if he thought there was a chance I had leiomoysarcoma (the radiologist said she didn’t like how my “fibroid” looked, due to its vascular nature - this after months of my gyno telling me my syptoms were "just hormones). Surgeon insisted I was just fine - just a fibroid. I had a myoectomy (which is removing the fibroid - leaving the uterus). This is absolultely, 100%, not advised for leiomyosarcoma - spews the little cancer buggers out into your system. Was diagnosed the next day with ULMS. Unfortunatley, went metastatic in January, and am now just counting my months, I’m afraid - maybe a couple years if I’m lucky.
I’m seriously not trying to alarm people, as there’s such a tiny, tiny chance that this happens to women (like 1000/year max apparently) and my symptoms were pretty horrible in retrospect. But I believe there are ways to detect this before a surgery. Turns out my radiologist had even advised in writing that cancer be ruled out in my case - I put my trust in the wrong guy – so I guess I just want to make sure people know this is a possibility, and that hysterectomy is best option (though no guarantee) for long-term survival if there’s cancer.
All that said, my recovery from myoectomy was about 8 weeks.
Best of luck - and take advantage of medical recovery to get some rest and do all those non-sports things we often don’t otherwise do: reading, knitting (ok, i don’t knit), chatting, sleeping - and an ill-advised pain pill with a glass of wine or two can feel pretty great (-;