Breaking Down a Few Walls (Part III)

Picking right back up where we left off yesterday:

Now What?!

Flash forward two years: I begin to notice I am retaining fluid in my abdomen. I constantly feel nauseated. My stomach is large and distended, and my sister jokingly remarks that I look about 6 months pregnant. She was right, I did...

Once again, I KNEW that I was not pregnant.

My stomach also hurt when touched. I vividly remember being extra careful when I was around anything waist high in an attempt to spare my large stomach. I had to be especially careful in the kitchen - Those counters, eergg-ouch! Any pressure on my abdomen would turn into pain.

At the time, I was a preschool teacher. When I walked around in my classroom I crossed my arms down by my waist just in case one of my students attacked me from behind with a stealth hug. Their little heads were at just the right height to cause severe pain when they nuzzled in close. I was so ill on a daily basis that I consciously made sure I was not farther than an arms grasp from a garbage can...just in case I needed to vomit. Sometimes I did.

One day, I had my mom take me to my primary care physician. I was so ill in the waiting room, they brought me two garbage cans for the 2 second wait until they could get me back into an exam room. My doctor immediately determined that I was having an appendicitis attack. He called over to a local hospital and ordered a CT scan STAT (I think, my memory of this day is hazy). The hospital wheeled me up to an exam room. Made me drink some nasty stuff and told me that if I vomited it up I would have to drink more of it and it would delay my surgery. I chugged it down and gagged. Fortunately, it stayed down.

While waiting for my CT results (which seemed to take hours,) I split my time in between the bathroom, and the exam room where I made progress singing the required paper work for my surgery.

Imagine my shock when a nurse came in and told me that everything looked fine. No appendicitis attack for me. She gave me prescription strength IBUprofen and sent me home. I was too out-of-it to put up much of a fight and insist right then and there that they figure out what the hell was wrong with me.

After a few weeks of missing days of work and constant nausea. I went back to my Gynecologist, Dr. D.

(Editorial Note: NOOOOOOO!)

GYN #1, AGAIN.

She doesn't know what to tell me. She runs some labs, including a CA 125 blood protein test, but everything is normal. "Have I been working out? No? Well, maybe I need to exercise more..." She suggests 3 times a week for 30 minutes, and sends me home.

I am 21-years-old at this point. And although I usually feel I am competent and capable, in my weakened and vulnerable state I will believe anything you tell me as long as you have that good-ol' "M.D." after your name.

Four months fly by: Five out of seven days a week I experience symptoms. Two trips to the emergency room (ER's diagnosis? Both times: Food poisoning. ER's treatment? Keep the morphine coming!) Countless missed days of work and college classes.

But finally! New symptoms emerge. Diarrhea, and a missed period. Thank-goodness, for that one missed period.

I make another appointment with Dr. D who concludes (with her superior diagnosis skills *Sarcasm Intended*) that I have Endometriosis. She sets a surgery date, and they cut me open. To her astonishment, there is no endometriosis tissue anywhere. But there is one large cyst on one of my fallopian tubes. She cuts the cyst off and has it biopsied. It was apparently a "run of the mill" cyst. Whatever that means.

What Was It Then?

For reasons that are still largely unknown to me and my (now competent) doctors, almost immediately following my surgery my stomach begins to return to its normal state. I no longer look, or feel, 6 months pregnant. My nausea is completely gone. And my period returns, on schedule, just like normal. I had no idea what had happened to me, but I didn't really care because it was gone and I felt better!


(Editorial Note: Many women who have cyst(s) on their reproductive organs feel the same symptoms I experienced.)

It was not too long after my surgery that I realized what an absolute quack Dr. Dwattctsrdkaaashrmtsas really was. After my surgery, she made several statements which contradicted her earlier statements regarding justification for my surgery, symptoms, etc. At one of my post-op appointments, she told me that my fallopian tubes were bleeding. She also stated that I had Adenomyosis.

However, she never mentioned either one of those possibilities directly following my surgery? I ordered my medical records from the hospital were the surgery was performed and even received the video taken during the laparoscopic procedure. No blood was present on the fallopian tubes, but a large cyst was clearly removed. And as far as Adenomyosis, she never did an abdominal MRI...so where is she coming up with this stuff? Did she mix me up with another patient? Was she just trying to scare me? Or was there something else going on that she had failed to treat?

On one of my last appointments with Dr. D, I remember asking her:

"Will I be able to have Children?"

"You won't know until you try!" She laughed.

I slinked out of the exam room with tears welling up in my eyes.

OBGYN #2

On the recommendation from a co-worker of mine at the time, I found a new OBGYN. This doctor deserves some sort of medal in heaven. He specializes in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Infertility in Central California. He did not waste anytime getting things moving. On my first visit he refereed me out of town to two separate specialists. An Endocrinologist at Stanford Medical Center who specialized in pituitary disorders, and a Gynecologist at San Francisco University who specialized in unexplained pelvic discomfort.

Not only did he refer me to people who could actual help me, but he took the time to address my FRUSTRATION and borderline HYSTERIA regarding my medical treatment. He told me that depression was not the reason for my lactation. Instead of berating me for submitting myself to such poor treatment by medical professionals, he empowered me to advocate for my own health the next time around.

When I managed to muster up enough strength to squeak out, "But will I ever be able to have children?" He looked me straight in the eyes and said, "I don't see any reason that you wouldn't." When I broke down in tears on the exam table. (Butt naked, mind you.) He took a clean robe out of a closet and put it around me. He told me that, while the last time he checked he was not God...he saw nothing that would indicate to him I couldn't have children - naturally.

Stanford Endocrinologist

New MRI shows a pituitary microadenoma. Turns out Dr. H's hypothesis was incorrect, most likely not caused by head trauma. Dr. Stanford reassures me that he has dealt with HUNDREDS of patients with pituitary adenomas. Only two of them have been cancerous, and my symptoms are not consistent with a carcinoma.

(The above picture is not my own MRI, found it on, yep: Google. This image shows a pituitary macroadenoma, which is drastically larger than my tiny little micoadenoma.)

"Will I be able to have Children?" I ask him.

"You won't know until you try!" He said. "Most of my patients don't have any trouble conceiving. However, some choose to switch back to Paroldel when they become pregnant (because it is FDA approved for use during pregnancy.)"

I must have looked ill at the mention of Paroldel because he went on to say, "However, if you can not tolerate the side effects of Parlodel, I have had many patients continue to take Dostinex with zero complications. It's a personal choice."

"Okay. Breath." I thought to myself. "If I can become pregnant, I might have to take drugs during pregnancy. Just breath. There is time to figure it all out. Try not to think about it now..."

Please No. Please Not Again.

Flash forward once more, this time to June of 2009: While at my parents house for the summer, I realize that my period is three weeks late. My period is never late. Never, ever, ever, ever. Not since that one time way back when I was 19-years-old...

Part IV of V will follow tomorrow.

Don't worry, it is already written. I didn't steer ya wrong today! ;)