A long time coming

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I've had life stopping painful periods since I was about 13. At 15 I was diagnosed with my first ovarian cyst. Golf ball size my doctor told me. He wanted to do surgery, I was too scared and prayed and mediated it away... 2 months later, it was gone. Fast forward through several years of painful heavy periods and two separate attempts at birth control to try and manage what the doctor couldn't understand, I was 38 and 3 months had passed and my period was still going strong without a break. I was tried all the time barely functioning and sleeping 18 hours a day. 5 different doctors over one year and all kinds of tests and no one understood what was going on. Still flowing without a break. My doc says, it's stress and puts me in anti anxiety meds. Finally almost a year later, my symptoms and pain had gotten so bad, I finally get a CT, they see something... a closer look with an MRI gets me booked for surgery. A complex cyst on each ovary, ovaries and tubes are coming out. Fine by me, the promise of no more periods sounds great because we are hitting almost 2 years of straight bleeding.

Back at the doc for bloodwork as part of my yearly physical and doc asked, "did we ever test you for Lyme" No I say, that's one we never did. Let's throw it in just in case... I live in a heavily Lyme/deer tick infested area and I broach Geocache in the woods. Test comes back positive.... that explained alot of my symptoms. Especially the neurological ones. I was put on a strong dose of Antonio antibiotics for amonth which worked out well since I've also got Mitral Valve Prolapse and was having surgery in just a few weeks. Since I'd just married 3 months earlier I asked the doc, (who offered a total hysterectomy) If it's benign, let me keep my uterus I beg. 

 Surgery was supposed to last 30 minutes and I was going to go home that night if all went well. It actually took 2 hours and I was diagnosed with one of the story cases of Endometriosis that this seasoned expert in his field had seen. He was quite confident that even though I had multiple cysts/times fused all throughout my abdomen and my organs and bowls were all fused together from the scarring, he was confident he got it all and he also made sure that my uterus was clean and out side of residual bleeding from the surgery, I would not have to deal with periods every again. So 4 days recovery in the hospital, 3 months at home.... and he couldn't have been more wrong. I got a 2 month reprieve and now just over 2 years later it's like if never had the surgery at all and I'm bleeding just as heavily and long as before. As for the pain. Well until 6 months ago it was tolerable. Now I'm right back to where I started.

 

THANK GOODNESS FOR CLOTH PADS AND MENSTRUAL CUPS

Without them, there's no way I could afford this journey financially, physically or emotionally.