I’m Finally Sick: Part II

After spending almost my entire day off at the hospital and doctors office, I think it’s time for me to tell you a little more details about my journey with endometriosis.

Let’s start with this important question: what is endometriosis anyways? Endometriosis is a fairly common disease which can, in some cases (like mine), be debilitating. When you have endometriosis, the tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus actually grows outside of it, it causes scarring and adhesion's. Sounds unpleasant, right? It can effect women from ages 8–40, or anyone is has menstrual periods. Some people have chronic pelvic pain, while others seem to have no symptoms until they try to have kids, infertility is another common symptom. There’s a few other things such as painful sex and severe menstrual cramps. If some of these things hit close to home with you- I would suggest trying to see a specialist because your reproductive health is important!

Now that you have some background information of my new found culprit, it might be a little easier to understand what I’m rambling on about. After my post-op appointment, I agreed to get an IUD put in to try it as a long term (5 years) treatment. Oh man! That was a HUGE mistake for me. What was supposed to be my amazing long term super helpful treatment, ended up being the worst 3 weeks of my life and costing me $415, not even including all the time I had to take off of work. I couldn’t walk, or stand up straight. I was in constant debilitating pain, it was unbearable. I was in the hospital 4 times in that 3 week period and one of those times I had to stay over night. I surprisingly still have a job after all of this. Not only did I have to have what I referred to as the “medieval torture device” removed after such a short time because of the pain, it also left me with reminders such as bacterial vaginosis (BV) and a wonderful bladder infection. Totally not sexy.

I was exhausted from fighting with my body. I was taking 750 mg of Naproxen twice a day AND Tylenol 3’s every 4 hours. On top of that, was antibiotics and an anti-nausea medication. I felt like a walking pharmacy, I was constantly taking pills and my prescriptions were costing me almost as much as my rent.

Finally, I was able to see my doctor at the one month mark after I got the IUD inserted. From there I’m told that I’m running out of options. I have two more medication type treatments to try and both are going to be expensive and potentially hard on my body. I’m willing to try anything other than that awful T shaped death trap! I get put on a medication called Visanne which is apparently successful for a lot of women and I only have to take it once a day for 3 months to see how it works for me. The side effects were kicking my butt and they weren’t really even worth it, in my case. I’m nauseous constantly, my pain is still there and I’m VERY aware of it, plus, the breast pain is unbearable.

I’m finally coming up at the 3 month mark and since this treatment was unsuccessful, I’m on to the next one.