Wednesday, June 27, 2012

endometriosis

This is similar to what the growing tissue looks like inside of me:

So I've been living with this stuff growing inside of me for about 9 years now. I've seen about 8 doctors, and no one really has good ideas of what to do. I'm on a birth control that only gives me a menstrual cycle 4x a year. That seems to be helping a bit, I'm not on the couch dying for 3 weeks out of each month. Then last April I had surgery to burn out the growth, like you see above. It helped for about 2 months but then the pain kept getting worse as each month passed.

I went to a new OBGYN in january but she was rude. She did give me numbing medicine for one day when I'm married, but the pain is still there. So I went to a new one today who works in an office that deals with odd and crazy things, like my situation. The doctor was very nice and listened to what I've been going through and really understood that I'm done being told to live with the pain. She is making me get an ultrasound to see if there is anything large growing, then she is going to put me on a shot called Lupron that will induce premature menopause- which will only last 3 months. She is also going to give me a medicine to complement the shot so I don't have hot flashes and night sweats and get all moody.

Then she is sending me to a specialist at St. Josephs hospital who only deals with endometriosis. She said that getting the shot will help shrink the growths and make the pain less, and make it easier for the specialist to get rid of the pain. Then this is the BEST news! She said the specialist can go in for surgery and cut the nerves in and around my pelvis so that I no longer feel the pain! but she said I can still enjoy being with my husband one day because they will only cut the nerves that are leading to the main source of the pain, like to the ovaries and the abdominal wall etc. so I was so thrilled to hear this because I may be able to live an almost pain free life!!! yay!!! I think I will be more excited when my week on narcotics ends and I can think clearly when the worst pain is gone. and this is big, expensive news so i'm full of mixed emotions but so happy that there might be a chance to keep my pain at bay!!! yay!!!!!

If you have any questions about endometriosis or what I'll be going through in the next few months, feel free to ask!!!

1 comment:

  1. RACHEL! This is EXCELLENT news! I'm so sorry you have to go through this, but I'm so glad you have gotten things figured out! :-) LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!

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