I am going to start this post off with a disclaimer...
If you find talk of women issues such as period, vaginas, uterus, and all of that gross and intolerable, stop reading now. This post will contain nothing but the above listed items.
I will give you a second to leave.
Good bye!
For those of you still with me I am going to start this update with first explaining all of my medical problems that have lead up to where I am today, so if you already know about it just scroll down till you find the new update part of this post.
Now sit back and relax and enjoy the wild ride.
So the wonderful part about being a girl is that once a month we have what is known to a normal body as a period.
This is when the uterus prepares itself for a baby, but sheds when no such baby is detected.
Here is a video that explains it for those who need it:
So that is how it works for a normal girl, however, this is not how it has ever worked for me.
Since day one I have had what is called "dysfunctional uterine bleeding". This means I have irregular uterine bleeding that occurs in the absence up recognizable Celtic pathology, general medical disease, order pregnancy. It reflects a disruption in the normal cyclic pattern of ovulatory hormonal stimulation to the lining of the uterus. The bleeding is unpredictable in many ways. It may be excessively heavy or light and may be prolonged, Frequent, Or random.
In other words, my periods are not really periods. My uterus bleeds when ever and for how ever long it chooses. It is normally quite heavy, I use both pads and tampons and tend to change them about every hour. It is also very painful, so much so that I call into work because it get too bad. The longest I have ever gone without bleeding is a year, and the longest I have bled for is about a year as well.
As you can imagine this is quite annoying and there isn't much I can do to prevent it. I have been on a number of birth controls, pills, shots, rings, you name it I have been on it. I have also had many blood tests done to check for different diseases, and have had countless belly ultrasounds and transvaginal ultrasounds, this is where they go inside to look at everything, and all of the tests have come back normal.
And since the doctors have no idea what is going on or how to fix it, I was told at age 16 that I would not be able to have children. Since then this has been confirmed by many MANY doctors, so I gave up hope. I decided that I was going to adopt and have a bunch of babies form different parts fo the world.
This problem has become so bad in the past that on my 15th birthday I had to get 4 units of blood pumped into me, and then in Feb. 2014 I had to get another transfusion. over the years I have also had to have countless numbers of iron transfusions and have become quite used to having all sorts of needles in my arms.
So about a year and a half ago I had a doctors appointment just as a check up, they did a pap smear, which scans for cancer, and the test came back abnormal. So I was then told I had to have a biopsy taken of my cervix, that was fun, let me tell ya... Just kidding we don't need to go that far into detail.
So after they did the biopsy, I was told that it came back as pre-cancer but it was nothing to worry about as long as I got my tests done regularly, which since I have tons of vagina problems meant I was going to have a pap smear done every time I went to the doctor, so I wasn't worried.
Then a few months later I was in a tremendous amount of pain, and had been bleeding for about 3-4 months. I went to my doctor and he didnt seem to want to fix anything and told me it was fine.
So I called a new doctor, Dr. Gayle, I was set up for an appointment in January of 2016, all I had to do was make it from August to January. I could do that, or so I thought.
I started having more problems so I went to a doctor in Houston, based on a recommendation. At first this doctor seemed promising, she seemed as though she was going to help.
She ran a TON of blood tests, ordered ultrasounds and wanted to figure out what was going on... but when all was said and done, she put me on a new birth control, Nuvaring, and sent me on my way.
When January came around I had to reschedule my appointment, and the next time was not until July 2016. So I set it up. Then when it got closer, I realized I was going to be out of town for work the week of my appointment so I had to reschedule AGAIN. The appointment was then set up for October 11,2016. The morning of that appointment I got a call from Dr. Gayle's office saying he was going to be in emergency surgery all day and wouldn't be able to meet with me, so we rescheduled AGAIN!
NEW UPDATE
So I rescheduled for October 17th, 2016. I was quite nervous going into this appointment as you can imagine. I had seen so many different doctors for this and all of them had done nothing to help me, and why would this doctor be any different.
SO the appointment started off with me in his office going over my past medical history. He asked me a TON of questions. I told him everything I explained above. He then asked if I had ever had any surgeries for this in the past and I said no.
He then stood up, declared he was going to start from scratch and give me a clean slate, and he was going to do a transvaginal ultrasound himself, right then.
So i got ready to have this done, he came in and started it. First of all, I have never had the doctor themselves do this ultrasoud, it was always a tech. Second, he spend about 45mins looking around in my uterus, in my opinion, that is WAY too long for anything to be up there. However, this was the most thorough anyone has ever been when doing an ultrasound.
While he was looking he found a few different things that he thought was concerning.
First, when he got to the top of my uterus, he said and I quote, "This is interesting, I can see right through it." He showed me what he was taking about. I could see where the healthy normal part of the uterine wall was and then the part he could "see through" was a brighter white color instead of a lightish grey. He just kept staring at it and saying it was interesting. He would move the camera a little to either side then go back and just stare at it. He is not sure what it is and therefore, wants to do surgery to take it out and biopsy it.
And if that wasn't enough there were also polyps and some other things that could be effecting my bleeding just hanging out in my uterus.
The third thing he saw was a large dark spot lower down in my uterus close to my cervix. He was also not sure what this was so, again he wants to biopsy it.
The forth and final this he is concerned about it endometriosis. This is where the lining of the uterus grows where it is not supposed to and causes what looks like blood blisters all over. This can be quite painful and can lead to many problems. However, the only way to check for it is surgery. Yay!
So I was supposed to have all of these procedures done on Monday, October 24, 2016. But due to insurance problems, I cannot do it until November 29th. Recovery will be between 1 - 2 weeks, and then I should be back to normal.
I am both nervous and excited about all of this. I am finally getting answers and maybe after all of this I may have a normal real period.
However, the best part of all of this I have saved for last. I asked Dr. Gayle what I ask every doctor I see, what is the possibility of me having kids. He looked as me and said, "The problems you are having DO NOT and WILL NOT effect your ability to have kids. I do not know why doctors tell patients that. It only adds stress and anxiety to an already terrible situation." I looked at him dumbfounded and confused. I had been lied to for the last 9 years of my life. He then said "I dont want you to think or say that you cant have kids anymore, it simply is not true!" This made my day!
Anyways, I have attached pictures of a drawing that Dr. Gayle did of what he found.
Big red dot it where he could see through.
Little red ovals are the polyps and other things just chilling.
Bid black dot is the unknown dark spot.
Small red dots is where the endometriosis could be.
Front View:
Side View:
I know this was a lot of information and went into too much detail but I know that everyone is curious and this was the easiest way to get to the most people. Please if you have any questions let me know.
Remember that when life gets hard, keep moving forward and...
UPDATE as of 9:30am Oct. 24, 2016:
Results from the Pap Smear last week came back normal.
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