Long Post:
So i was speaking with a girl, who had been given my name from a friend of hers. She was recently diagnosed with endometriosis, it is all new to her and she didn't even know the word until the doctor told her she had it. A mutual friend told her to contact me due to my battle with the endometriosis. As i was speaking with her, she told that i should post my story to help get the word out more so to younger girls. So i will do this to the best of my ability. I do not speak of it much anymore but it took up most of my life and it was more than just endometriosis. So here it goes...............
I was a late starter and mother nature didn't start visiting til i was 14 years old. I was your typical teenager, sports, outdoors and always on the go, about 2 months before i turned 16 i started experience stomach aches and sickness and spend at least 2 days a week at the doctors office, the doctor finally done an ultrasound and said everything came back normal and i just had a stomach bug or was just looking for attention. November 7th (11 days before my 16th birthday) i started having insane lower stomach pains, to the point that i blacked out. My mother took me straight to a new doctor who performed an exam and sent me for an ultrasound and sent me home, later that day, the doctors office called and informed my parents, that i would be having emergency surgery the next morning (November 8th) to remove a 7cm cyst and what ever else needed to be removed from my baby making equipment. After surgery, they told my family they removed the cyst along with everything on my right side due to the fact the cyst had already took over everything. the cyst was the size of a grapefruit. and how the dr missed it they do not know.
Over the next couple of years, i experienced multiple cyst to the point, i ended up back in the hospital for iv meds to help with pain during that time of the month, while in the hospital the dr wanted to check out everything and so did an exploratory procedure and found the endometriosis.
I was given options at this point, really one option, birth control and pain meds. just had to choose which method of birth control. The dr then told me, that between the cyst and endometriosis, kids was not an option, so to be prepared to later consider other options for kids. The first year or so was hard, at that point in my life, my dream was a house full of kids running around everywhere (crazy i know). Everything had been shattered. Mentally i was going through many struggles, do to the surgery at 15, the scar was there and was a constant reminder everyday that i was only half the woman of the rest. now not only was i half the woman, but i couldn't have kids. What man in his right mind, would settle for a woman who couldn't provide him with kids, with someone to carry on his last name. If it wasn't for my daddy at those times, i would of probably sent myself to a pine box.
I started to not care about life, just done my thing, party and have a good time. That is when i met Andrews dad, after some months, I started feeling sick, pregnancy was the last thought on my mind due to i was not suppose to have kids. So when I found out i was pregnant, the emotions was wild, the best chewing i ever took from my granny cora. I was sent to a doctor in Texarkana that specialized in High Risk pregnancies, and for the most part, my pregnancy was pretty smooth. just meaner and crazier than normal. Not long after i had Andrew, the pain was back and the periods was like the life was sucked out of me, went to my regular doctor and was sent to another obgyn, this time more was added to my list of female issues. The cyst and endometriosis was going strong and my pap came back abnormal, so i went back for an in office procedure, that i still call getting "pickled and toothpicked" actually called "cervical clipping" lets just say it flipping hurt. less than two weeks later i went in to have a cervical scrapping done to remove cancerous cells from the cervix. and yet again i couldn't get pregnant to enjoy Andrew cause he would be it. Put on another birth control and at this point in my life, i had gotten use to the pain and no longer took pain meds. So to my surprise the following June, when I go to the doctor for what i thought was a sinus infection and learn i was pregnant with child #2. Lets just say that is when Dr Wilson really learned who i was and got to deal with me the whole nine months. After having Teya, the endometriosis, laid dormant for a little while. But then when she was about 2 it started to flare up and bacame worse. Over the next 6- 7 years, I spent time going from doctor to doctor. All of which told me the same thing. Birth control and pain meds. All of which refused to do a hysterectomy because i was under 30 and never been married. So when i was 31, I had my fill, I was living in pain and so was everyone around me. I swore I wouldn't leave the next doctor without something more being done. My cousin was telling me about an obgyn in Texarkana, they was a woman and very good. So here i went, I went into her office and i was making sure she understood, where i stood. vintage evening formal wears sales back to 1920s
To much of my surprise, she came in and asked me what was going on, with tears rolling down my face, I told her about the 16 years of female issues one thing or another. and ended with "I don't give a rats butt that i have never been married and the fact that i am fixing to be 32. something has got to give."
She cried with me in the end and prayed with me. She then told me that after testing and her getting my records from other doctors, she would do whatever i chose to do.
So thats when the prayers started. If a hysterectomy was gonna happen. I wanted God to let me know, I prayed to him and told him, if something came back on those test, then hysterectomy was it. if they all came back clear then i would shut my mouth and just deal with the pain. I do believe i had an angel (granny cora) up there helping me out (gosh i needed her then here). So we done blood work, pap and ultrasound. The day after my 32nd birthday, i went in for all the results, not knowing what God had in store for me. But knew he had my answers in my results. The dr then told me, blood and pap came back good, but the ultrasound showed another cyst (4cm), my uterus was tilted and she really wasn't for sure how in the world i was functioning at all. She looked at me and said its whatever you want to do. I will never forget looking at my friend Quinci with tears in my eyes and saying ultrasound. my emotions was everywhere, I went in on December 17th for my hysterectomy. When i went later for my post op appointment, she showed me pictures of what everything was suppose to be, the endometriosis had literally ate everything up. What was left of my female business was taken out piece by piece and the cyst was hanging on it by a thread.
I feel like a whole new person without the pain and still spend days thinking man, i wouldn't be doing this if i didn't have the surgery because i was in so much pain. I even get told i am a nicer person from time to time. lol
Most women don't think of the importance and don't start taking their daughters to doctors til they wanna put them on birth control or something happens. Ladies, when aunt flo pays the first visit, start getting your girls taken care of. Do to my issues. My daughter will have to start being seen then. I do not want her going through what all i have been. We have to get ahead of the problems early. No woman deserves to live a life in pain because of female issues.