Post by cawsings on Oct 8, 2014 15:08:00 GMT -5
This is a copy of my post from the "introduce yourself' board but I wanted to post it here as well since we are TTC. Any suggestions are welcome.
My name is Christina. I live in Central Missouri and I'm 30 years old. I teach K-5 music. I am married to Tim and we have a cat, Ringo.
My journey to the discovery of endometriosis has been an interesting one. I started my period at age 11 (Christmas Eve!) and was put on birth control pills soon after because I would have periods that would last forever (30-45 days as a teenager...not fun!). I remember seeing several specialists and particularly remember having so much blood drawn when I was 16 years old. Eventually I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and was just told to stay on birth control pills until I wanted to conceive. So I did.
My husband and I celebrated our 5th anniversary in June and started trying to conceive August 2013 (I went off the pill in July). I didn't immediately get a period so my OB-GYN induced one in November with Provera. After that period, I went a few more months without a period and in March we did another round of Provera and I started taking Metformin. The Metformin did a great job of regulating me (woohoo 35 day cycles!) until this August which is when I had a looong month of period/spotting.
By about September 1, I was waking up in the middle of the night with horrible cramping even though the period had ended. This went on for a couple of weeks before my OB-GYN sent me in for ultrasounds. The doctor said they found a 10cm cyst on my "left" ovary and her recommendation was to have it removed by a specialist.
Soooo, I set up an appointment with a Minimally Invasive Gynecology Surgeon to have the cyst removed. I did mention to the surgeon that after a previous unrelated surgery (I had the Lap Band removed in 2012), a surgeon asked if I had endometriosis or had recently had a cyst rupture because he saw bleeding when he removed the Lap Band. The Lap Band surgeon didn't document anything and we weren't really worried as I was still on the pill and wasn't having any pain. SOOO the current surgeon said he'd take a look around and "kill 2 birds with one stone" if needed (cyst & endo.).
Surgery was September 26, was supposed to be laparoscopic, and I was supposed to go home that day. It ended up being a 6 hour long surgery resulting in a 2 night stay at the hospital because the ENDOMETRIOSIS was so bad, he had to change to an open procedure! I'm now home with laparoscopic incisions and a big vertical incision that goes from my belly button down to my pubic area. We were blind sided to say the least. Who knows how long I've had endometriosis. He said he had to rearrange quite a bit of my insides due to scar tissue (ex. bowels, and my bladder was like folded over on itself). He did have to remove the ovary and tube...which ended up being the right ovary (not the left like the radiologist said on the ultrasounds) but was able to save my uterus and left ovary and tube. We are SO grateful to still have a chance at conceiving.
I go Tuesday for my 2 week follow up; however, he (surgeon) did suggest 6 months of Lupron (I've slowly been making my way through the Lupron post lol so I've seen the negatives) and said that our best chance of conceiving naturally would be the 6-8 months following the Lupron. I'm supposed to go to my OB-GYN this week for my first shot. Of course, I'm hesitant...but my husband and I have a LOT of respect for both my local doctor and the surgeon. We also have ZERO fertility coverage (even for diagnostics). I also know that my body will need time to heal after this major surgery.
Well, that's my endo story so far! Thanks for making it all the way through!
My name is Christina. I live in Central Missouri and I'm 30 years old. I teach K-5 music. I am married to Tim and we have a cat, Ringo.
My journey to the discovery of endometriosis has been an interesting one. I started my period at age 11 (Christmas Eve!) and was put on birth control pills soon after because I would have periods that would last forever (30-45 days as a teenager...not fun!). I remember seeing several specialists and particularly remember having so much blood drawn when I was 16 years old. Eventually I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and was just told to stay on birth control pills until I wanted to conceive. So I did.
My husband and I celebrated our 5th anniversary in June and started trying to conceive August 2013 (I went off the pill in July). I didn't immediately get a period so my OB-GYN induced one in November with Provera. After that period, I went a few more months without a period and in March we did another round of Provera and I started taking Metformin. The Metformin did a great job of regulating me (woohoo 35 day cycles!) until this August which is when I had a looong month of period/spotting.
By about September 1, I was waking up in the middle of the night with horrible cramping even though the period had ended. This went on for a couple of weeks before my OB-GYN sent me in for ultrasounds. The doctor said they found a 10cm cyst on my "left" ovary and her recommendation was to have it removed by a specialist.
Soooo, I set up an appointment with a Minimally Invasive Gynecology Surgeon to have the cyst removed. I did mention to the surgeon that after a previous unrelated surgery (I had the Lap Band removed in 2012), a surgeon asked if I had endometriosis or had recently had a cyst rupture because he saw bleeding when he removed the Lap Band. The Lap Band surgeon didn't document anything and we weren't really worried as I was still on the pill and wasn't having any pain. SOOO the current surgeon said he'd take a look around and "kill 2 birds with one stone" if needed (cyst & endo.).
Surgery was September 26, was supposed to be laparoscopic, and I was supposed to go home that day. It ended up being a 6 hour long surgery resulting in a 2 night stay at the hospital because the ENDOMETRIOSIS was so bad, he had to change to an open procedure! I'm now home with laparoscopic incisions and a big vertical incision that goes from my belly button down to my pubic area. We were blind sided to say the least. Who knows how long I've had endometriosis. He said he had to rearrange quite a bit of my insides due to scar tissue (ex. bowels, and my bladder was like folded over on itself). He did have to remove the ovary and tube...which ended up being the right ovary (not the left like the radiologist said on the ultrasounds) but was able to save my uterus and left ovary and tube. We are SO grateful to still have a chance at conceiving.
I go Tuesday for my 2 week follow up; however, he (surgeon) did suggest 6 months of Lupron (I've slowly been making my way through the Lupron post lol so I've seen the negatives) and said that our best chance of conceiving naturally would be the 6-8 months following the Lupron. I'm supposed to go to my OB-GYN this week for my first shot. Of course, I'm hesitant...but my husband and I have a LOT of respect for both my local doctor and the surgeon. We also have ZERO fertility coverage (even for diagnostics). I also know that my body will need time to heal after this major surgery.
Well, that's my endo story so far! Thanks for making it all the way through!