Well, my plans for today have been derailed somewhat, so I have some time to kill. J is off helping fix his father's stereo equipment, so I have to wait for him to return before we can go to the apartment.
My journey with endo really started almost 6 years ago. Truth be told it's probably been even longer. In high school I had painful periods, but I thought it was normal. The only thing I thought was weird was that I would get dizzy and nauseous on day 1 of my period, sometimes to the point of vomiting. I'd never heard of vomiting as being "normal" though. However, it wasn't until 6 years ago when I really knew something was not right.
It started when my cycles became irregular. Now when I say irregular, I mean irregular for me. One month I would be a few days late, the next a day or two early. I didn't understand. For nearly 10 years my cycles had been like clockwork. That alone didn't push me to go see a doctor though. I'd never been to a GYN and was scared to go. Then 3 years later I was late and having pain (not cramping) on the left side of my pelvic area. I didn't know what was going on and after a week of the pain and no period I went to the ER. They did a HPT which was negative and when the doctor came to see me he didn't even touch me. He asked where I was feeling the pain, which I pointed out, and then proceeded to tell me there was nothing there that would be causing the pain except maybe a cyst and told me to take some ibuprofen and follow-up with my PCP. The ER doctor completely blew me off. After that experience I decided it was time to see a GYN. However, there was a 3 month wait for an appt, oh joy!
When I finally had my appt. I brought up my symptoms that I'd been having and concerns about the irregular cycles. She told me it was normal for women's cycles to change and that my problems could be fixed with BCP. I was sent home with Loestrin Fe and made a follow-up appt. for 3 months. Things did not get better. At my follow-up my doc said she would have expected improvement by now, but that I could give it a couple more months and see how it went. I decided to keep at it because I was nervous about increasing the dose. My grandmother had breast cancer that she insists was caused by hormone replacement, so ingesting any hormones made me nervous. Things continued to get worse. I was having a period every two weeks lasting a week. Finally after 5 months of the BCP I said screw it and went off of them.
Then, a very odd thing happened. Suddenly my cycles were back to normal! This continued for several months and at my next annual visit I told my doc what had happened and that I wasn't interested in BCP. Low and behold, the very next month my cycles were off again. Great. As the months went by and my cycles were still "off" I started doing some Internet research. What I found was interesting. The symptoms I'd been having, besides the weird cycles, were all classic symptoms of endo. Coincidence? I didn't think so. I decided at my next appt. I was going to be more assertive and push for answers rather than just be fed with BC. However, that appt. didn't happen because I had to reschedule and when I called to do this I found out my GYN was on maternity leave and they couldn't fit me in for 2 months. My insurance had changed and my GYN wasn't covered under it anymore, so I decided to move on. I found another OBGYN and made an appt. for early Oct. Before this appt. I ended up in urgent care though. Again I was late with pain and cramping, this time on my right side. The nurse was rude and thought I was just constipated. The doc was nice, but didn't want to do anything. I felt bad because I was all sorts of hormonal and trying to choke back tears when he said he didn't want to do an ultrasound. I left very sad and thinking no one was ever going to take me seriously.
Then, I saw my new OBGYN. She was super nice and was convinced that BC could help me. So, I decided to give it another shot. This time with Nuvaring. I tried to be optimistic, I really did. After 4 months I wasn't noticing any improvements with my symptoms though and ended up back in the doctor's office with pelvic pain again. This time she sent me for an ultrasound to look for cysts, but said she also wanted to do a Lap to see what was going on. She said my symptoms were classic endo. My ultrasound came back negative for cysts, but did find a fibroid. It's small though and the doc wasn't worried about it for now. We scheduled my Lap for March 4th and she switched my BC to Seasonique.
On March 4th I went in and had my Lap done. My follow-up appt. is next Tuesday so she will go over everything with me then. She talked to J while I was in recovery and showed him pictures of what she found. Of course J forgot that she wasn't going to see me after the surgery so he didn't remember many details. She did find endo though and removed it with a laser. She mentioned to J that I could continue on the Seasonique or change to a shot (I'm assuming Lupron) until we want to start a family. What I find comforting is that she told J that she suffers from endometriosis as well and also had a Lap done. While I don't wish this disease on anyone, I feel comforted to know that I have a doctor who's been through it too and understands what I'm going through.
So, off to be somewhat productive for the remainder of the day. I'll update Tuesday after my appt. with the game plan.
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