SO, i have all sorts of female issues.
as {brandi} so eloquently put it {"I have week long crotch massacres. Days two and three, I can't even leave my house. I have to sit on towels. I can only wear black. If that much blood came from anyplace but my uterus, they'd have to give me a blood transfusion."}
now, i don't have to sit on towels but i do have to wear super-plus tampons AND overnight pads at the same time then change them every 30min to two hours depending on how far into the week it's been. then, magically it disappears until anywhere from one to three days later when at any random time (preferably while i'm out doing some sort of shopping) a gush of blood will come from my uterus and the heavy bleeding will start all over again for another 3-4 days. it's just fantastic. sigh.
since this has been happening for over a year now, i finally went in to see my GYN. before seeing him (we'll call him dr. a) he had me do an ultrasound to measure the lining of my uterus. i explained my situation and he asked me where i was in my cycle when i had the ultrasound done. it turned out i had just finished my period. he was quite surprised and said that the lining of my uterus was abnormally thick, a sign of polyps, growths or tumors. he gave me two choices:
1. have another vaginal ultrasound done and this time inject dye into my uterus to see if there are any growths. if there were growths, they couldn't do anything about it and would have to schedule number 2.
or i could just skip to the end and
2. have a hystoctopy. (sp?) it's basically the former procedure but i would be knocked out, they can be more aggressive and remove any or all growths that they find.
i chose the latter just because i was pretty sure that there were growths (i just had a feeling) and why put yourself through two procedures? plus, hard drugs would be involved and who doesn't love hard drugs? when he discovered my mom had uterine cancer at 50, he agreed with me.
so, i was scheduled to have the procedure done mid-april which meant i needed to go in for the pre-op appointment and have them explain to me all the horrible things that could happen to me and then sign my life away. only when i went in for the appointment i was faced with a new doctor (we'll call her dr. b.) and she was NOT a happy camper. she proceeded to tell me that the procedure i had scheduled was far to invasive for my young age and that that wasn't the surgery i needed at all. it was the first one dr. a had said was an option. i explained i really did have a feeling something was wrong, that i felt better about doing the latter surgery because i didn't want to have to do two procedures etc. but she wouldn't have it. she told me nothing was probably wrong, that it was just my body working itself out after my last pregnancy and that this first procedure would show that nothing truly was there. we went back and forth for over an hour and i finally gave in. i agreed to do the vaginal ultrasound that friday. i knew i shouldn't have given in. i should have put my foot down and been more assertive, but i was tired of arguing with her and just went with it.
so i arrived on friday for the procedure on my period, a massive stye and just wishing to get it over with. i was introduced to yet another doctor (we'll call her dr. c) who would be doing the ultrasound. she seemed a bit apologetic about what happened and what she was going to do. so, on with it we went. and low and behold what did we find? polyps. just like dr. a and i had suspected. dr. c even had the head doctor come in and make sure he saw growths as well and what did he recommend? the surgery that i wanted to have done all along. yeah. i was pretty pissed.
so, they scheduled my surgery the last week in april. once again, i went in for the pre-op appointment where this time they actually did tell me all the horrible things that could happen to me and had me sign my life away. blood work, an ekg and four hours later i was ready for my surgery the next morning. that is until 4pm that night i got a frantic call from dr. c canceling it. because my lab work came back bad. turned out my potassium was 2.9. now if you know me, you know that i've suffered from low potassium since my teens. i've had every test you can think of done to try and find out why it's low and all have come back normal. their is no reason why it should be low, yet it is. my normal level is 2.6. that's usually when most people are having heart attacks or irregular heartbeats (which i don't have) so for it to be at 2.9 i was not understanding the freak out. but the doctors refused to move on with the surgery because they were nervous of complications. fine. it was mostly my fault why my potassium was that level anyway because i hadn't taken my medicine in almost two weeks. so, i promised to take my med's (that they increased by the way. that medicine is like drinking battery acid. nasty nasty stuff), i had my blood re-taken and am NOW scheduled to have crap removed from my uterus next tuesday. i pray nothing else stands between me and the hard drugs. seriously. after going through all this crap i'm needing them right about now.
what annoys me the most is that all of these doctors have their degree in GYN. yet, all of them have a different opinion on what procedure i should have. they were all so drastically different. where dr. a and c were accommodating and listened to what i had to say dr. b was just a hard ass wanting to get her way. this is why i hate going to the doctor. i rarely see the same doctor twice, have to tell my medical history every time i go in and either the doctors listen to you or are total jerks. sigh. whatever. just let me do the stupid surgery. thank you very much.
