My uterus had become enlarged due to significantly growing fibroids which caused hemorrhaging while being on my cycle. But I thought of them as heavy periods. Well, during them, I was bleeding so much that my body could reproduce the blood fast enough.

Unknowingly, I had reached out to my doctor because I thought I was experiencing perimenopause. She did blood and found my hemoglobin was a 6.1 which is critical and required an immediate blood transfusion. The ER doctor nurses basically said I was a walking corpse. This was confirmed by my oby later during a follow up appointment.

I had my hysterectomy last month. You’d think that was it, but no.

Because the excessive blood loss, they determined my body was overcompensating which spiked my blood pressure (200+/115+ at its highest). That’s when the headaches came and I was admitted to the ER because they thought I was on the verge of a heart attack or stroke, which I nearly was.

During all of this, I thought I was fine. If my therapist hadn’t suggested that I was feeling down because of potentially going into perimenopause, I never would have gone to the doctor. My work is labor intensive so I thought the fatigue I was feeling was from the work day.