KU Med Appointment

Oh wow! So much news to tell! And so little time to tell it because I have to be at work in a short while. Haha, well, part of a busy life. So, KU Med yesterday:

We were there for over 2 hours, but the long and short of it is I LOVE the new specialist. She took the time to really explore everything and ask questions and listen to my answers and seemed to really want to figure out what is going on.

Basically what she said is that my endo was excised in 2011 (though she was mildly annoyed my old OB/Gyn didn't do a biopsy to positively confirm it was in fact endo) and she doesn't want to operate with "tunnel vision" by simply assuming the endo has returned. She also says that by the time you've been dealing with pain for as long as I have it's likely that multiple body systems are at play to try and cope with whatever's going on. She also paid attention to how my ED may be affecting everything. She asked a lot of questions about my poops...

I mean, man, I even offered her a pic of my poop that I just so happen to have on my phone (...dont ask) but she didn't want to see it and I'm like "dude, youve rejected a genuine bowel movement of mine that I felt was problematic. Haha, anyway... we'll stop talking about poop now. The long and short of it is she wants me to have a colonoscopy asap.

...oh joy.

And an ultrasound that I'm having in 3 hours. I'll let you guys know how that one goes.

Another oh joy. My uterus is retroverted so I have to have them trans-vaginally. For those of you who don't know what that means, lets just say that at Advice and Aid Pregnancy Centers where I intern, we lovingly call it "Dora the Explorer."

So, colonoscopy: check. Ultrasound: check. Then she wanted to do a pelvic exam, even though she knew that I had pain even trying to use something as simple as a tampon. This is where shit gets interesting. So I'm out of my skivvies covered by the little sheet waiting for her to come back in the room and me and my mom are talking about how nervous we are.

Me: I'm so nervous.
Mom: I'M nervous, and it's not even me on the table having my life laid out in front of me.
Me: Dude, don't be nervous, you're the mom. I'm probably feeding off your nervousness like a horse. And you're feeding off mine. We should do some mindfullness meditation.
Mom: Ok, what are we mindful of?
Me: Your body, your breathing, your heart beat. Just close your eyes and feel the sensations and accept what your body is offering you without judgement.
Mom: ...I have to pee again.

So the doc comes in and asks what's so funny and I simply say that we're laughing in the face of danger and then I get put in the little stirrups and she goes spelunking. She didn't get very far, I was in a lot of pain and she wasn't even able to tell anything about my uterus or ovaries. But she did find out one very important piece of information.

Doc: Relax
Me: I AM RELAXED
Doc: Does it hurt when I do this?
Me: YES
Doc: Is it one of the three types of pain that you talked about?
Me: NO
Doc: Does it hurt when I do this?
Me: YES
Doc: I told you to relax!
Me: I AM RELAXED
Doc: Contract this muscle for me.
I contract said muscle
Doc: OMIGOSH!!! You have the strongest and tightest pelvic floor I have ever felt.

Basically she said my relaxed in my entire pelvic floor is tighter than other people's contracted and that I'm just one giant knot of tension down there. So any time I am having pain, it's made 10 times worse by already tense and spasming muscles. Even when she was doing her thing down under she said that she thought if she had tried to go much further, she was afraid I was going to lunge across the table and punch her in the face and she really didn't want to do that because she would like to make it to lunch today.

So on that note, she's sending me to a sort of special pelvic floor physical therapist to loosen me up and try to get some of the tension out of those muscles.

Sooooo the plot thickens and we began talking about treatment options for the abdominal cramps themselves and she gave me three options that she said would all work whether the endo had in fact come back or not. Depo shot (which is a form of birth control), Lupron (which I had already decided I didn't want), and an IUD put in via Laperoscopy, where she could take a look inside me and check out for endo and other issues and take a biopsy and things like that.

Long story short, we're leaning towards the IUD and surge. Now, before any of my readers from the generation above me freak out about the IUD, they are much safer than they used to be and just have a bad name that they no longer deserve.

Basically an IUD is a T-shaped device that delivers a high dose of estrogen locally and can kill off any endo cells that may be present and help calm down the cramps and lighten flow.

So, all in all, I am feeling very positive and hopeful. I love her approach that, you know what, maybe the endo was entirely removed in 2011 like it was supposed to be and has in fact not returned and there are other nepharious systems at work here, like the muscles, nerves, and GI tract. And I feel super hopeful about the next few months.

Hopefully I'll be able to get all those tests and appointments and surge in before school starts so the IUD can have 3-6 months to regulate and start working. I'd really like my boyfriend to be here if I have another surgery, because I'm a wuss and a baby and want a hand to hold if I'm going under (hey, sue me) but his brother is getting married in California and, lets be honest, that's more important.

So yeah. Woah, lots of words! I have to get ready for work now. Just thought I'd update you guys on how things went! I'll let you know how the ultasound turns up soon!