TGIF

seriously, the weekend could not have come soon enough...
i'll explain later.

lots of things since my last post:

1.) still going to physical therapy, and it's been helping, but i'm still having pain. i have an appt. with a new gyn. set up for mid April, but will try to get in sooner.

2.) school...i've applied to a four-year college for the fall. i will most likely live on campus. so, after i graduate with my associate's, only 2-2 1/2 years left.

3.) I was up in PA for my friend's wedding last weekend...i had a great time.

ok, so i had physical therapy on tuesday. tuesday night i had dance. i woke up on wednesday feeling ok, but a little while after i took a shower, my back hurt so much. i was going to go to a workshop on study skills/test taking, but i didn't think i would be able to drive b/c of my back. i went to physical therapy again on thursday, and told them what had happened. they spent a lot of time working on my back. it felt so much better after that!!
thursday night, as i was driving to dance, the tire light came on in the car. so, after dance, i called my dad (he's in Hawaii right now) and asked him to walk me through how to put air in the tire. Even after that, i don't know if i did it right. then, i drove the car to another parking spot in the parking lot by the grocery store. i got out of the car, and realized i had not put the little cap thing back on the thing on the tire. finally got home, and asked my mom to look at the tire. she said it looked fine. but who knows.

it's been a crazy week.

update...and a Not Me Monday

Update:

I have started doing physical therapy 2 times a week. It hasn't started helping yet, but hopefully it will soon.

****end of update*****
Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.




Not Me Monday!!

I did not sleep until 10:30am on Saturday. I also did not stay home all day. On Sunday, I absolutely did not go to work from 8:45 to 11:10, and did not go again from 1:50 to 5:15.
Today, I did not get up at 6:30am because I definitely did not have to leave the house at 7am for an appointment I did not have at 9am which was not in Birmingham. I did not have to wait an hour before my doctor did not see me. Before that, I did not ask to have an ultrasound to make sure that nothing was fine. The ultrasound totally did not come back normal. Finally, my doctor did not give me 9 trigger point injections because I was not in pain. He also did not give me a prescription for Baclofen, of which I am not supposed to take 3 times a day.


be sure to come back next week for another Not Me Monday!!

a new year...

***I decided to change my layout since it's a new year. I like it.***

Anyways, lots of updates:

1) At my 2 week post-op appointment, I found out that the ovarian cyst was actually a benign tumor. My dr. said that it would have kept growing larger, but no chance of becoming cancerous. so that is good. I was still in pain, so my dr said that I could take Percocet if needed, since Darvocet isn't doing a whole lot. My belly button incision also came open, so he cleaned it, and told me to clean it 3-4 times a day and put a band aid over it. Well, I put band aids on for a few days, but my skin got irritated where the band aid sticks, so no more band aids there. He said he wanted to see me again in 2 weeks.

2) My grandparents came for Christmas. It was a lot of fun, even though I had to work on Christmas Eve, and didn't get to go to a Christmas Eve service. Got lots of cool stuff for Christmas, especially lots of jewelry.

3) New Years Eve was weird. Since I live in AL, it is Central Time Zone. so, when they dropped the ball at midnight, it was only 11pm here. Last year, we were on a cruise, so we celebrated with all the other people whenever they said it was midnight. The year before, we had just moved to AL, and didn't have our TV set up yet, so we just kind of celebrated as a family (it was probably at 11pm, or maybe we waited until it was midnight our time...I don't really remember).

Which brings us up to present time. I am still in pain, but going to see my doctor on Thursday. Hopefully he will have an idea as to what to try next. Maybe physical therapy (tried it before, but that was when the pain was a lot worse..so perhaps it will work better now), or a pain management center. I just need something to get the pain low enough to be able to function. it would be great if there was something to make it go away totally, but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon.

well, that's all for now.

oh yeah, and I start my last semester of community college on the 12th. however, there are some issues that need to be worked out, so I can graduate on time.

surgery....and update

I went to my pelvic pain dr. on Wednesday. they did another ultrasound to check on a cyst that was on the ultrasound I had done in October, then I had to wait forever to see the dr. and while I was waiting, the pain was really bad. So, finally I got to see the dr. I still have a cyst on my left ovary, and it has grown, to the point where he wants to do surgery to remove it. The ultrasound showed it has some solid areas, which could be blood or endometriosis. He said that depending on what it looks like when he gets in there, he may have to remove the ovary. He will also look around to see if there is scar tissue, more endo, etc. and he actually was going to give me Percocet for the pain, but I already have some from when I went to the ER 2 weeks ago. I did get a shot of phenergan and toradol before going home since the pain was so bad.

Since it was so late when I got done seeing him, the person who schedules the surgery was not there. So he said that they would call the next day. He said that it was not an emergency situation, but not to wait too long either. I was hoping to get it scheduled for next Wednesday, so that I could go to my classes on Monday and Tuesday, and still have time to recover before finals.

The lady who does the scheduling called yesterday (Thursday). My mom took the call, as I was at school. They were going to look at the schedule to see if they could fit me in on Wednesday. They could not. So my surgery is scheduled for Monday at around 9am (central time). I had to go back today to do the pre-op testing.
Since it is 2 hours away, I will be going down Sunday night. Then most likely I will have to stay Monday night as well.

Starting Saturday, I can't have anything except for clear liquids and foods, like gatorade, jello, ginger ale, etc. Then I have to do a bowel prep on Sunday night. I'm going to save the gatorade for that, since that is the only thing that helps those nasty salty pills go down.

Hopefully this will take away most or all of the pain that I have been having lately.

I'm hoping that he doesn't have to remove the ovary, but if the cyst is attached in such a way that he has to, then it's whatever he feels is necessary for my health.

I will give an update at some point after I come home.

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

UPDATE:

The surgery went well. It started around 9:45ish, and it was probably 2 hours. The next thing I know, I'm in the recovery room.

My dr. had to make 4 small incisions: one in my belly button, one down by the pubic area, and one on each side.

While I was in the recovery room, they kept asking if I was hurting, and what my pain level was. I probably got about 3 doses of morphine. Then I went to another room so my mom could come be with me, and so the nurse could give me discharge instructions, and make sure I could go pee. Then the dr. came in and discussed the pictures (pretty interesting). He said that the cyst was between 4 and 5 cm, larger than my ovary. If I had waited (not sure if he meant 2 weeks or a month), the cyst could have gotten even larger, and then he would have had to take the tube and the ovary. So, I'm glad that I got it done and over with.

I'm still pretty sore, and probably will be for a while.

I go back for my first post-op appointment on Dec. 22nd.

I can't believe it's already December...

Well, it's December, and that means that 2008 is almost over. A lot has happened this year, some of it I am thankful for, some of it I'm not.

January 2008

I was still experiencing a lot of pain from Endo and IC. My aunt, who also has IC, suggested that I get tested for food intolerances. So, I found a naturopathic doctor who said that she would do the testing. Instead of blood or skin test, she uses electrodermal screening. It's kind of hard to explain, so just google it. Anyways, she found all sorts of stuff...bacteria, small strains of viruses, etc. And she told me that I have intolerances to wheat, gluten, and dairy. So I immediately changed the foods that I was eating.

April/May 2008

My pain is almost completely gone, but not quite. I didn't know if it was because one of my meds for the IC had finally started working, or if it was because I had cut out wheat, gluten, and dairy. But really I didn't care what it was, as long as it helped lower my pain.

July/August/September 2008

In the middle of July, I started getting horrible headaches. No one could figure out what was causing them. I went to a neurologist who said that I had migraines, and he said that the best thing was to admit me to the hospital for a few days to receive treatment to try to get them to a manageable level. He then had me on Topamax for about 2 weeks, then decided that the headaches were mostly stress headaches, so he put me on some other med. In the meantime, I found another dr. who specializes in headaches. I went to see him, and he said that I definitely did have migraines. He put me back on Topamax, and said that 2 weeks is not enough time to see if the medicine would work.

October 2008

I went to Disney with my family and my dad's side of the family. It was a lot of fun. However, my pain was slowly coming back. At the end of October, I saw the pelvic pain specialist, and he said that it was too soon to do another surgery, since it had only been a year. and he didn't think that the Endo could have possibly come back that fast(that's another story for another post). They did an ultrasound, and found a cyst on my left ovary. He told me to schedule a follow-up ultrasound, and if it has grown, or if they find anything else, then he might do surgery.

November 2008

I went up to PA for my friend's bridal shower. Somewhere between leaving from the airport in AL, and arriving in PA, I caught a cold. I wasn't too worried when I was up there, I just thought that it was from traveling and the changes in temperature. When I got back home, I was still sick. I was sick on Thanksgiving:( I went to 2 dr's, both gave me an antibiotic and a cough med. However, I still have the cough.

On Wednesday, I go see the pelvic pain specialist for the follow-up ultrasound.

The rest of December is busy with finals, more appointments, and getting ready for Christmas.

a turn for the worse

well, the Baclofen only helped for a few days. then I went to my family dr. and she gave me Bentyl, thinking maybe it could be intestinal spasms. but that didn't help. so, I've been trying lots of Motrin and Aleve, and it would help for a little, but then I would have to take more, and that's not good for my stomach. This past Wednesday, I was at an appointment, and was in so much pain that I had to call my mom to come pick me up. I put my TENS unit on, and was able to go to work. Last night, I was in so much pain that I called my friend and asked her to take me to the ER. well, I had been texting with my mom about something, and I told her that my friend was taking me to the ER. so, my mom called and told me that there was some Percocet she had hidden away. and "all they are going to do in the ER is give you more Percocet." BS!!!!!!!!! they will at least do an ultrasound. I ended up taking a Percocet, using my EndoFemm pad, and watching tv. the pain is kind of less, but still there. I'm just pissed b/c I think that my endo is back and maybe other things, but my dr. just thinks it's muscle spasms. oh, and my mom said "why didn't you call me first and tell me about your pain?" and I told her that I didn't want to bother and disturb them (and I knew what her answer to taking me to the ER was - a big NO).

The Percocet made me feel awake, but also a little sleepy. I was awake until 5am: on the computer, watching tv, etc. then my dog woke me up at 9:30. the pain started to get bad again, so my mom told me I could take another half a percocet.

the pain is a little better, but I'm still not 100%...I don't know if or when i'll ever be....I need to find a new doctor though, one who will actually listen to me and understand me and believe me about the endometriosis

finally some answers

went to my pelvic pain specialist yesterday, he said that most likely it is muscle spasms, so he gave me a prescription for Baclofen. They also did an ultrasound, and found a cyst on my left ovary. He wants me back in 4 weeks to have another ultrasound to see if the cyst grows or shrinks. He doesn't think I need surgery again yet, unless the cyst grows or I have more pain, etc.

My bladder is also better, so the med that I am on for that (Elmiron), he told me I can go down to one pill a day.

I'm still in pain, but at least i have a few answers.


I hope that I will be able to keep up with everything going on this weekend: I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, then Halloween stuff. Saturday morning/afternoon I am going to help weatherize homes for the elderly with people from church. I also have a lot of studying to do - I have 2 tests on Monday, and a paper due on Monday. Hopefully the pain won't get too much worse. If it does, well, I will just take it one day at a time.