Aches and Pains

So in addition to all my emotional stuff it seems like my endo is back with a vengeance. So much for acupuncture! I started my period last weekend and it was fine at the beginning. Not to heavy, no cramps. But then Sunday hit me like a ton of bricks. It was so painful. The odd thing was that the pain seemed to be centered on my right side. And not low. Higher up close to my navel. I started feeling hot and uncomfortable and took my temperature. 99.7. Not really a fever but close. I started freaking out about possible appendicitis and ended up going to the ER after checking in with the nurse line. And here is where my life starts to resemble a situational comedy.

As we decide to go to the ER, K takes Bailey out to let him pee since we don't know how long we'll be gone. And poor Bailey gets stung by a bee on his left paw. Our poor baby was whining and wailing. Bailey wouldn't let K look at his paw. He let me look, but with my sore belly I couldn't really angle myself to get out the stinger. So K ended up dropping me off at the ER and then took Bails to the vet. It was totally crazy. Poor guy. Poor dog. Poor me. We are such a sorry group.

Well after a pelvic, and a CT scan that somehow took 8 hours to complete, they concluded that the pain was caused by the endometriosis growing on new parts of my abdomen and leaving little pools of blood in various places. Awesome. So now I have internal bleeding. At least with this type of bleeding the body just reabsorbs it somehow so no surgery or anything of the sort will be needed. They sent me home with a prescription of vicoden and a really sore arm (from all the vials of blood they drew and the IV).

Bailey had a much easier time. He did have to wait an hour to be seen, but the vet techs just held him down forcefully and took out the stinger with a tweezer. They didn't even charge K for the service. We had given Bails a benadryl before we left the house so he was a little sleepy and thus easier to deal with. The techs thanked us for that.

So yesterday I explained to my acupuncturist what happened and she is all up in arms about how I really have to cut out sugar and wheat gluten from my diet because these are adding to the endo. And she would like me to do herbs but I can't since I'm on the pill now and Dr. W. does not allow herbs to used at the same time as meds. So I'm going to try this crazy elimination diet to see if the wheat gluten is really a problem. I'm not excited about this. I've already given up shellfish (no big deal for me), dairy (way bigger deal), and chicken (frickin huge deal) and I still have little pools of blood in my belly. All I know is if this stuff doesn't help with the endo pain for my next period at least now I have the vicodin. And all this crazy dieting is going to help me get wicked skinny because what have I got left to eat besides fresh fruits and veggies. Le sigh.

Coincidence?

Do you think this a good sign or what?  This sign met me in the elevator at work today.  So I snapped a photo with my ever trusty iphone.  

I had my suppression check today and my RE did the scan herself to check out the cyst issue.  She said it looks fine, there is just some endometriosis around my left ovary that probably confused the ultrasound technician.  So if my bloodwork comes back o.k. I'll be starting follistim and menopur on Friday.  Then she is going to do my first follie check on Tuesday.    So far everything is working.  So should I believe Paul Revere or what?

More To Think About

O.K. so it is as my husband described it.  My RE said that there is stage 3 endometriosis mostly behind my uterus and tubes, and she couldn't really clean that up.  She did remove a ton of scar tissue that she found on my uterus and around that area.  And my tubes are open and functional.  However,........ the endo tissue is restricting movement of the fimbriae of my tubes and that could prevent them from catching a newly released egg.  So IVF is our best option.  IVF! I'm ready for this.  My husband is ready for this.  We are ready to shell out thousands of dollars that we have been saving away and we are ready for the drugs, and multiple doctor visits.  Our parents our supporting this new turn.  But there is one thing that I'm afraid of.  One thing thing that is holding me back.  

What happens to any extra embryos that aren't inserted?  There is no way that I would kill them.  But could we keep them on ice forever?  Now I know at this point this is just speculation because I haven't even started the process yet and may not even get any fertilized embryos.  My husband thinks I've stepped into crazy Catholisism here.  We are both Catholic and go to church semi-regularly.  And I don't follow all of the church's beliefs.  But I do believe that life begins at conception.  Even if it does happen in a petri dish.  And any little embryos that are created in that dish would be our children.  So I would not allow them to be destroyed.  We talked about saving them for later on for future children.  But I've read about some women having upwards of 9 frozen embryos.  To reiterate, I know that it is silly to think of this stuff now.  That I may not even end up with a lot of embryos, or I might use them up just to get pregnant with one healthy child.  Who knows.  We are still only just starting to talk about this stuff.  

I go in this afternoon to have the balloon removed from my uterus.  Hopefully things are healing o.k. in there.  I started acupuncture again just as an extra help.  I really couldn't deal with any more scar tissue problems.  And I have an eight week protocol of estradiol/prometrium, estradiol/prometrium.  And a saline sonogram to check the lining of the uterus and to break up any new adhesions that may form.  After that we will resume treatments.  So it is back to waiting around.  But at least we can take the time to really think things through. 

Post Op

  I'm alive.  Yay.  I am such a baby, I really felt like yesterday could have been my last day even thought the chances of something going wrong were really low.  But my mind was all over the place.  What if there is an earthquake and the doctor pierces a vital organ by accident?  What if I get MRSA or some other antibiotic resistant bacterial infection from being in a hospital?  But so far so good.  My RE just called me to tell me that she is calling in an antibiotic prescription as well as one for estrogen to help me to heal faster.  

So the good news is that she was able to clean out all of the scar tissue from the uterus that was probably caused by my last hysteroscopy.  Apparently after fibroid removal the uterus collapsed and then as it grew back to its normal shape the scarring occurred.  Well now it is all removed and the uterus is clean.  Also my tubes are open.  

The bad news is that she found endometriosis on the outside of the uterus and around the fallopian tubes.  This could mean my best bet at conception is IVF.  I'm o.k. with that though.  It is more expensive but I don't really care about the money now.  I'm just ready to start a family.

So whatever.  As long as my uterus can grow a baby to term, I'm happy.  And now it can, so I'm happy.  

To prevent my uterus from collapsing again I have a balloon in there that will be removed next week.  And I will have my bandages removed then as well.  

So now I'm just relaxing in bed with my laptop and watching The View.  My mom is busy cleaning and making homemade chicken soup for me.  So this isn't so bad.  

Thanks to everyone that wished me well.  I really think it helped.