If you have uterine fibroids that are causing you serious discomfort and pain and you are considering surgery, Dr. Marilyn Honegger is the physician to call. Her exceptional surgical skills and keen sense of aesthetics turn the medical procedure of removing fibroids WITHOUT hysterectomy into a fascinating art form that safeguards you, your organs, and your body's beauty. Yes, beauty!
Ultrasound and MRI reports showed that I had abnormalities (there was a question of malignancy) plus multiple fibroids of every type.
I had researched the function of ovaries and uterus when a woman is past childbearing age and discovered that these organs produce hormones that affect bone, brain, heart, and skin health throughout a woman's lifetime. So, I talked to Dr. Honegger about my wish to keep these organs and only if she found cancer then these organs should be removed. Dr. Honegger heard and understood me. I trusted her so completely to honor my wishes and her ability to perform the surgery (she has performed "hundreds and hundreds" of these procedures over a course of 35+ years) that I felt absolutely no fear about the surgery. I felt calm and deeply peaceful being in Dr. Honegger's highly skilled hands.
She recommended an abdominal myomectomy because I had so many fibroids of varying sizes and some were large (equivalent to mid-term pregnancy, larger than oranges) some were pedunculated which means they were growing outside the uterus and attached to the uterus by a stalk.
Dr. Honegger explained she would make a bikini incision, remove the fibroids, and literally take out the uterus and feel the uterus with her fingers for tiny fibroids that could be felt but not seen. She would make sure to remove every single fibroid she could feel. Then she would reconstruct the uterus and take great care not to injure the surrounding organs such as the bladder and intestines.
Dr. Honegger's remarkable artistry is in how she sculpts the uterus and uses her artist's eyes to place the uterus back into the body in anticipation of how the surrounding organs will shift as they move to where they belong. The fibroids had been growing inside me for 42 years (I've known I had them at age 25 and I'm now 67 years old). Dr. Honegger said it would take about a year for the organs such as intestines, bladder, etc., which had been pushed out of place by the fibroids for many, many years to find their natural place.
Both the attending physician and Dr. Honegger came to visit me daily during the 3 days hospital stay. The attending physician commented with great admiration that "Dr. Honegger is a SUPERB surgeon."
Dr. Honegger gave me a photo of the fibroids she removed. What a surreal sight! She gives photos to each patient who has this procedure.
Dr. Honegger had clearly explained how I would have control over managing post surgery pain through a device I could click whenever I wanted to feel more comfortable. By the second day, I did not need the device. Be assured you will have control during this time right after surgery. There will be pain, but you will manage it just fine.
When I went home on the third day, the first thing I did was look in the mirror to see the incision. To my DELIGHT and ASTONISHMENT there was just a very fine red line five-and-a-half inches long (yes, I measured it) and the width was so fine it was just a third of the width of my natural abdominal fold above it! There were no stitching marks at all! The incision was so low it would not be seen even if I wore a tiny, teeny bikini. There were short suturing materials at both ends of the incision that were stiff and lumps I could feel, but not see, along the incision line. Dr. Honegger explained what the lumps were (I forgot what she said) and assured me the lumps as well as the suture materials at the ends would be gone with time.
Seven weeks post surgery the lumps and suture materials are gone and the red incision line is losing color. In the places where there is no red, there is also NO trace of an incision! This could mean I may not have a scar at all! Or if a scar forms in the future, it would not be noticeable, and would fade completely away with time!
The bleeding that alarmed me enough to decide upon surgery and all the discomforts such as constipation, bloating, feelings of heaviness are gone.
Dr. Honegger informed me about post surgery pain, and how to get out of bed, and the importance of not lifting anything heavy for eight weeks so I was very well prepared to take care of myself.
Abdominal myomectomy is a complex surgical procedure that requires an experienced, highly skilled surgeon. With Dr. Honegger as your physician you will have an exceptionally talented surgeon who cares about you, your health, your safety, as well as the aesthetics of surgery. She is a warm, caring human being who is truly a rare gem. read more
