Going Home After Fibroid Embolization: Confirm the Recovery Plan

If you are arranging home life around fibroid embolization, ask for the discharge plan before the day of treatment. Keep a copy where you and the person helping you can find it, including the contact for problems outside office hours.

Know when to get help

Guy’s guidance says that if the catheter puncture site bleeds or swells, lie down and apply direct pressure for ten minutes. If bleeding or swelling continues, call 911 or your local emergency number, or go to an emergency department.¹

The guidance also calls for medical assessment if vaginal discharge becomes very smelly, or you feel generally unwell with pain, fever or chills. Contact the treating team or seek urgent medical care; do not wait for a scheduled follow-up.¹

Keep these warnings with your own discharge instructions. Ask the team which service you should use when its clinic is closed.

Confirm the trip home and practical support

Guy’s requires a responsible adult to travel home with the patient. Its recovery instructions depend on the catheter entry site and the individual’s recovery.¹

• Confirm who will take you home and what help you expect to need afterwards.
• Ask for your own driving, lifting, exercise and work restrictions in writing.
• Arrange childcare, shopping or work cover around that plan rather than assuming everyone returns on the same day.

Leave with a clear medicine plan

Cramp-like pain can follow embolization, and the amount of pain varies. Guy’s describes prescribed pain relief and laxatives at discharge, alongside medicine-specific instructions.¹

• Ask what each discharge medicine is for, how to take it and when to seek advice if it is not helping.
• Have the team check your usual prescriptions against the discharge plan.
• Clarify any conflicting instructions with the team or pharmacist before changing medicines yourself.

Confirm recovery instructions and follow-up

The hospital guidance includes restrictions on penetrative sex and tampon use, advice about avoiding pregnancy, and follow-up with the interventional radiology team.¹

• Request personal instructions for washing, the puncture site, period products, sex and contraception.
• Ask what changes should prompt contact and how to describe them when you call.
• Confirm the next appointment, who will review the response and how to get help sooner.

Period, Handled includes a visit script. Use it to organize your discharge questions alongside the treating team’s written recovery plan. See the book.