The Beginning....

For several years I've had the worst menstrual cycles. They are horrible, but I've learned to deal with the pain and was told by several doctors that as I got older they would get better or as I had children the pain would lessen. Well, I went with my gut instinct and found a doctor who would help diagnose me with an actual disease rather than the excuse of, "your young, it will get better with time." Frankly, that excuse made me angry. I knew my body, I knew that what I felt every month wasn't normal at all. In January of 2011 I went in for my yearly check up. Something I don't look forward to but was bound and determined to get answers. I explained my pain and what not and she immediately suggested birth control. For a year and half my hubby and I had not been "trying" to have a child but would welcome the surprise if it came along. By not "trying" I mean I wasn't calculating my ovulating and all of that exciting stuff but for a year and a half no baby. The doctor I went to a year prior put me on birth control. The Nuva Ring to be exact. What a joke....It was the lowest dose of hormones she could give me and I hated it. I hated my life, I wanted to divorce my husband, I was moody, my family irritated me, my friends drove me crazy and to top it off I felt like I could harm myself or someone else. When I called the doctor a month into this horrid birth control she explained that it had only been a month and I should keep taking it to "give it a chance." Um...give it a chance? If I give it a chance you will probably end up with a law suit because I might do something harmful to someone. Needless to say, I took the Nuva Ring out myself and was back to normal in no time.

Ok back to January 2011. After I told the doctor NO to birth control she suggested we do an ultra sound. I was ecstatic. As weird as that sounds I knew something was wrong and this might be the answer. Ultra sound #1 showed 3 cysts. One rather large and the other two somewhat large. The doctor gave me some options but wanted me to wait a few weeks to see if the cysts would heal themselves. 6 weeks passed and I went in for ultra sound #2....cysts were still there. The larger one was even bigger but the 2 smaller ones looked as if they were decreasing in size. This could be the answer to my pain. Thank God!!! I wait another 4 to 5 weeks and we did ultra sound #3. The larger cyst had finally decreased in size and the other 2 were barely visible. The doctor gave me a couple options. She said that the larger cyst was now decreasing in size but that didn't mean it wasn't harming my body. She thought maybe it was an Endometriomen Cyst and those don't just go away. They are also associated with Endometriosis. The only problem with all of this is that in order to actually be diagnosed with Endometriosis, you have to do surgery. The doctor makes an incision through your belly button and goes in with a camera to check things out.

So my options were again, birth control to try and help the painful menstrual cycles and to possibly cure the lingering cysts I had or we could do the surgery. After much consideration I decided on the surgery. It was an in and out procedure and the doctor was 70% sure that she could get the cysts laparoscopically which meant I would be in and out of the hospital. Mind you, I've never had surgery so this was a hard decision for me but at this point I would do anything to help my body. Before the surgery I agreed with the doctor to cut me open if for any reason things were worse than she thought. That's where the fun begins.....