Update. . .

Well, at this exact time last week I was having surgery. After a few years of extreme pain that just seemed to get worse with my periods I was finally doing something about it! It was not always this bad for me during my periods. In retrospect it makes sense now to me. I had painful periods all my life and after I started having children it got better. I got pregnant with my first baby at age 19 and then a year later got pregnant again, then 2 years later again, then a year later again and yes, a year later again. That is 5 pregnancies and 5 babies. Now that I read about this nasty thing called endometriosis it all adds up! Pregnancy prevents endometriosis from rearing its ugly head sometimes for a few years. . .not that until after my last baby I gave it that long to come back mind you. Of course I have heard of endometriosis, but I never thought I had it because we got pregnant when we looked at each other it seemed! (okay, so that is a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean right? We never tried to get pregnant, it just happened. Me infertile. . .yeah right!). It seems that other then that fact that I would not trade my children for anything. . .usually. . .they have helped keep me out of the endometriosis hell for quite some time now. Oh, but endometriosis came back with a vengeance to make up for all the lost time!

The past few years have been awful. I was lucky that my period was only 3 days, esp because recently I spent most of those 3 days either in bed or in the bathroom. . .or on the way from one to the other. I'm talking migraines, heavy bleeding, cramps so painful I just want to die, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and extreme fatigue. My doctors tried some meds to help with the amount of bleeding which did not work. Then they suggested I take part in a study they were doing. That medicine actually worked . . .for the bleeding at least. But I still had all of the other symptoms, like clockwork, every month. And I knew that this medicine would not be available to me when the study was over.

Around April or May of this year I was having a particularly bad period and was trying to lay still in bed to help the migraine. The kids had other plans. . .they were across the hall playing and arguing and yelling. . .and basically just being normal kids you know, but I could not take it anymore. When your head is pounding and if feels like someone is shredding your internal organs. . .something just snaps. So I got up and went into the kids room, where 4 of the 5 kids happened to all be (everyone but the oldest girl) and I looked around for a second and then picked up this deflated soccer ball (similar to the one in the picture, but not as deflated at that one) and I squeezed it with both hands and threw it to the ground and stomped on it. Then I said to the kids "This is what my uterus feels like right now, so SHUT UP and let me rest!" As I walked back into the room and collapsed on the bed again, I heard my 6 year old son say, "Whats a uterus?" That is when I knew I had to do something else to get to the bottom of this pain!

So I scheduled an appointment with my doctor to talk about having a hysterectomy done. (time to make lunch for me and grandpa. . .and stretch a bit too. . .still healing from my surgery.)

Okay back. . .a few days later!

So I went to see the doctor and had a pelvic and pap smear done. First of all it was painful, and I have had 5 children. . .so I have had lots of pelvic exams and they were not painful, but this one was, esp when the dr pushed on my uteris! WHY do they do that!! It is not a roll of Charmin here people! He then tells me that my uteris is enlarged and wants me to get an sonogram and see a gyn as well. He is a GP now mostly, he does do OB/GYN stuff and as a matter of fact he is the one who delivered (even though he almost missed the last one) my last 2 kids. But he does not do all the specialized GYN care stuff. So anyway he sent me to see this other doctor. That took a few weeks to get that appointment.

When I saw the GYN, he adviced starting with the D & C and ablation instead of the hysterectomy since that is pretty drastic. So we scheduled the surgery. . .for September! This was JUNE, so that meant waiting for almost 4 months! for some relief (hopefully!). But I had to do something so I scheduled it with him and waited. IN PAIN. I called him almost every month when I was having my period or just after to see if we could move the surgery up or do something else to help me get some relief! Most I got was some Compazine to help me not throw up! So any way a few weeks after seeing the doctor and scheduling another sono to look at what I was told were ovarian cysts again, I was having my period and I just had this tremendous sharp extreme pain, so bad that I could hardly stand up. And fever, and nausea etc. So I called my regular doctor right away who told me to come right in. I also removed my tampon because I thought it might be TSS. When I got to the doctor he examined me and sent me right to the ER because I had what he called referred pain. When he pressed my left side it hurt my right. So I called my husband and then drove myself to the ER.

While at the ER, they gave me drugs. . .so I was not in much pain anymore, just uncomfortable sitting on a hard hospital ER bed with a lovely hospital gown covering up some of my body and using pads instead of tampons ( so I felt unclean...)and waiting. . .and waiting. . .and waiting. . . Apparently there was a HUGE 3 car pile up not far from the ER- it was rush hour when I drove to the ER after all. So my husband got to the hospital awhile later and tests were taken and while we waited for them to do a CT scan we watched the premiere of Hell's Kitchen on Fox. The doctor thought it was a kidney stone attack and said it was prob unnessecary for me to have the CT Scan done etc since I have a history of kidney stones. There was prob a stone cause I had blood in my urine and the fever. Well, duh, I am having my period. When I told him I thought it might have been TSS, he just looked up from his clipboard at me with this look that said, "Oh, another idiot who thinks they know what they are talking about." and said "Are you a nurse or something?" I said no and he then asked me how I knew about TSS and I told him, um I am a woman who has been using tampons since I was in like 5th grade dude. Anyone who has ever seen a box of tampons knows about TSS. Heck I knew about it before I started using tampons cause when I was in the bathroom as a kids I used to read the warning insert to my mom's box of tampons! DUH!!! So anyway, I told him that we were leaving in 2 days to drive to Florida for a wedding and then to Maryland to visit family and I wanted to KNOW exactly what is was so I did not have to worry about it while I was gone. So we did the test and sure enough he tells me that yes, it is a kidney stone. So he sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin and a PAPER strainer to look for the stone. So the next day I went to my doctors office and got a plastic strainer to use instead of a paper one. And for the next several weeks I strained my pee. . .what FUN!! And I had several other times of pain as well. So when I came back from vacation and had not passed the stone I called my Urologist and made an appointment to see him. The day of my appointment I had to fast and do some tests and take the results to him as well as pick up the results from the ER. So I arrive at my Urologists appointment and when he comes in the room he looks at me and says, rather annoyed, "Why are you here?!" And I said I am here because I have a kidney stone that wont pass. (BTW, the last kidney stone I had had me in the ER several times and he finally had to remove it surgically after 2 months of intense pain every week or two!). So he looks at me and says, "you dont have a kidney stone. None of you tests indicate that you have a kidney stone. I think your problem is your ovarian cyst and the ER even said that in their report." So I wasted my time and my money paying a specialist to tell me I was an idiot (and had to pay twice as much to hear it! cause he is a specialist!). So I called my GYN again and after reviewing my latest sono and finding that my cysts had grown even in a few weeks, he added a procedure called a Laproscopy to look at and remove my cysts to my already scheduled surgery. Which of course was still set for September.

Well, we have to head out for a picnic with some friends now. . .if I can wake up my hubby that is. . .LOL. Will finish the saga later. . .