I love my family. You know, it's such a pleasure. I enjoy going to church,
and I enjoy school. But in 2013, everything started changing when the symptoms of the
fibroid showed up. My name is Chinelo Ogu. I received my care from MedStar Georgetown
University Hospital. I had my last son Noah Samuel in 2007. I noticed a few months after
I had him and my period started again, that my period was quite heavy. The flows were heavy.
My physical energy was depleted. I couldn't do all these things I'd love to do. I couldn't play with
my children. I'm a graduate student. There's a lot of reading, but I wouldn't have the energy
I woke up one day, and I couldn't get out of the bed. I was also having my period. The walls were
spinning around me, so I called up the OB/GYN. She did ask me to get an MRI. She looked at the
images, and she told me it was fibroids. I told my doctor what the OB/GYN had told me, and he
said there's nothing to worry about. Lots of women have had the procedure done at my hospital. That's
at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. And that was a relief to me because I know MedStar
facilities are wonderful, you know. I had my last child at a MedStar facility, and I liked the way I
was treated. And I learned about Dr. Spies. He's a world-renowned surgeon, and I went to see him
Uterine fibroids are benign muscular tumors of the uterus. They're very common. They affect up to 50%
of women. They're more common in African-American women, but all racial groups have them. And
they're the most common reason that women need to have intervention under the uterus in the United
States, most commonly a hysterectomy. My specialty is uterine fibroid embolization. Many women these
days would like to avoid a hysterectomy and that's often the first thing they're offered.
And what we're offering as an alternative. And this procedure has now been well accepted as a
very effective therapy. I finally settled on the UFE. That was something I knew I'd really like
to do because I wouldn't lose my womb, it'd still be there you know. In this procedure,
we're able to advance very thin tiny tubes into the arteries that supply the fibroids
and inject small beads into the vessel. And those branches to the fibroids get blind, and it causes
the fibroids to shrivel up and the symptoms to go away. This has been done in tens of thousands of
women now with really no side effects that we're aware of. And I can show you on this study here,
that we have put in these catheters one into the left side here in this patient and one into the
right. These are the uterine arteries, and this is the uterus in this patient. And you can see
these large areas of density are darkness on this and those are blood supply going to the fibroids.
After the embolization is completed, the blood vessels were going up to the fibroids here and
over here are blocked. And the normal branches are left open so that allows the fibroids they
actually die over the course of several hours. But by tomorrow morning, the patient will be fine,
ready to go home, and take a few days recovery, and be able to get back to work in about a week.
After the surgery, there was an immediate relief. Such an improvement for me. God used him to heal
me, you know. The difference in my life now is like night and day. There's been such a big
difference. Many women now, they understand what I'm talking about. My boys got their mother back,
you know. It's such a pleasure to be able to do the things I used to do in the past with
them. There was a remarkable change for me. There's no more lying down anymore,
no, no. I'm no longer anxious. I'm involved at church. I study,
and I'm no longer feeling light-headed, you know. I can give it every part of me, the best of me,
100%. So the procedure has helped me a lot, and I'm thankful to God for that.
you