#and doctors told me i had ibs then they told me i had kidney issues

[orphancookie69]

Health Around The World: Western vs Chinese

So, I don’t have the greatest relationship with doctors even in the western world as an American having grown up in USA. But my partner is from the Eastern side of the world. Normally I go to doctors, and find disappointment in the lack of natural solutions, and often answers. Which I still find shocking given how much science and technology we have these days. But, I recently went to a Chinese Doctor and man...that was an interesting comparative experience. 

Western Medicine: 

So anyone following my blog knows that I have some chronic conditions, which I have seen some doctors about and have adjusted my lifestyle for-compensating with drugs. But while dealing with infertility, I experienced abdominal/pelvic pain. I checked the pelvis out with an ultrasound, nothing there. Then I went to a Family Doctor and ordered a CT Scan. Did the CT Scan, and their guess is possible IBS, so they want me to adjust diet and see if I feel better. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love my doctors these days. But the confines of western medicine limit them greatly. I am down to try a new diet, it is not the first time a doctor has told me what to eat. But it would be nice to not play a guessing game-when by all accounts I am “doing it right” by going to the trusted professional. Look out for a future blog post regarding that. 

Eastern Medicine: 

So, running errands with my partners family-we end up in a chinese herb shop with an “in house” chinese doctor. He did a reading on my partner, updated his prescription of herbal tea and then did me. He spoke Cantonese, so my Mandarin speaking family translated to English to me. 

I had a visit with a chinese doctor, Dr Tan at Wing Hip Fung in Monterey Park. Diagnosis: The doctor looked at my pulse on both hands and visually at my tongue. He said to eat less sweets, work out more, eat better, drink less cold drinks. I ran cold. My kidney is weak and leads to migraine and fertility issues. He picked up on the too much fluid in me. Also the dizziness from my chronic migraines. Also my blocked tubes, if I want to carry a kid I need to do a couple of months of meds. I was told to relax and be happy. I was given stuff to make a soup to eat after the start of my next cycle. I have been dealing with the pelvic/stomach issue with my family doctor and that has yet to discover a cause or cure. My pulse and tongue were read, and I was given a prescription for a soup base. I was seen by the doctor, my prescription was filled at the counter with traditional weight and my price determined with an abacus.

First of all, this guy did not know me from adam. And yet, nothing was wrong. I did not know about the kidneys, but in my head-I thought...shouldn’t the CT Scan or any other test caught that? While I am waiting on the timing to do the soup, I started drinking a Kidney Tea. While I do plan on trying the new diet per the western doctor, they both had something to say about diet. I don’t eat that bad, I do have a sweet tooth. But maybe keto isn’t best for my system, and how can my system be good to me if I am not giving it the right stuff? 

Time will tell what works, and what doesn’t. Does the new diet make me feel better? Do I try and carry a kid again and it works? Do I have less symptoms from my chronic migraines on the day to day? Also, I share this to open up anyone elses mind to a secondary opinion from other parts of the world-and yet I wonder if there are bilingual chinese herbal doctors out there...Would you go see one if there was? 

#rant #medicine #western medicine #eastern medicine #pixabay #abacus #doctor #obgyn #family doctor #ct scan #herb #herbology #natural #healing #chinese medicine

[fleurdulys]

anyway life update: i’ve had emergency gallbladder removal surgery on tuesday

#personal #it was so weird though and hard to detect what was wrong with me #cause i had horrible pain in my left side instead of the right one #and doctors told me i had ibs then they told me i had kidney issues #then they thought i had diverticulitis or colon cancer #anyway i have none of those not even an ulcer #but my gallbladder was full of stones and infected like hell #so anyway thanks to my surgeon she was the best #she managed to take out all of it through laparoscopy #so now i am chilling at home #anyway everyone was so shocked cause i had the pain in my left side like a weirdo

[hellotweetygirl]

Ok y’all, I’m about to get painfully personal and vulnerable here about some chronic health issues. Feel free to scroll past, I know this is pretty much a fandom blog but I need answers and since I quipped on FB the other day that I ‘could crowdsource a diagnosis faster than my doctor could order another diagnostic test’ I’m putting it all out here to get the opinions of my fellow spoonies/disability friends in the hopes of someone knowing what the heck my body is doing. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Thanks. 😊

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At the beginning of July I had one afternoon of sharp pain on the left side of my back and mild cramping/spasming in that spot. For me it was an ‘oh no’ moment bracing for another round of kidney stones. I have been having pain in my lower back on and off for the last couple of years combined with some of the other topical symptoms (I learned) that accompany kidney stones but I was never really presented with a full episode until last summer when a full on episode of extreme back spasms (on my left side) sent me to the ER in the middle of the night with more pain than I’ve ever been in my life. That’s when I was officially diagnosed with kidney stones and anyone who has had them before knows that the pain is very distinct and unforgettable. However, this episode of back pain at the beginning of July initially never developed into anything more than one afternoon with a heating pack slapped my back. About two weeks later though I ended up on the couch all weekend with spasms all through my lower back and I figured that darn stone was on the move and heading for my bladder. Fast forward six weeks up to today and I have been consistently having lower back pain and a sharp poking in my bladder this entire time along with massive exhaustion and feeling completely drained. I could never determine that the stone had passed. 

At about four weeks into this fun little experience I saw my PCP for my yearly physical and brought it up to him. He was very surprised that I had never actually seen urology in person in the year that they had officially “been treating me“ so he recommended that I get an in person appointment to be seen and discuss reoccurring stones (this round would be my third).

When I called urology they refused to see me. Told me to go to the ER if I was in pain. I ranted at them that I wasn’t in that kind of pain that warranted an ER and asked that they order testing. I knew that my insurance wouldn’t approve the testing without an in office visit and I hope to force their hand and make them see me – but again after the claim was denied I was recommended to go to the ER. 😠

About 10 days ago and I called the urology office again and was able to convince them to give me an appointment – that afternoon!! 🙌🏻 The registered nurse that I saw in the office was pretty aggressive and so I was aggressive back and insisting and questioning what was going on why I had been in pain so long and if it turned out to not be a kidney stone (testing couldn’t prove my second episode 🙄) what else could it be and how could we treat it? She insisted that she couldn’t decide anything until we had done testing and taking a look at the results. I went for testing last week x-ray, and ultrasound on my kidney and bladder. Test results came back the next day. I could see them on my online chart and knew we were not going to get anywhere again. I had to call them the second day after the testing was back and ask if they could let me know what the testing said and what the recommendations were- on the voicemail. When they called me back I got all the information that I already know to be true from past x-rays/CT/ultrasounds- there are kidney stones sitting in my right kidney but they haven’t moved or changed in the last five years. I do have a gallstone in my gallbladder but it has not moved or changed in the last five years. And I do have a rather large uterine fibroid pressing on my bladder, but again that is not changed in the last 2 to 3 years at least.

So here’s the thing. What the heck is causing all this back pain that I’ve been experiencing?? When I saw urology they put me on Flomax to move the stone out if I’d had one and I’ve had a torturous week of heavy cramping and pain throughout my lower abdomin and lower back. I’m off of the Flomax now since they’re obviously isn’t a stone to push out and slowly the cramping pain is receding but everything inside hurts and is very tender and sensitive right now. And my lower back pain is continuing. It can be ok or be really bad in the morning and it’s bad in the evening but it can get better during the day for the most part. I have been using a rice heating pack almost constantly just to try to relax the muscles and bring some pain relief and it does work well but it doesn’t deal with the issue fully, obviously – and I’d really like to get to the root of this. August has been an absolutely exhausting month for me because on top of the kidney stone/not kidney stone merry go round I’ve been dealing with almost constant sick migraines for three weeks. I’m exhausted and I need answers and I don’t even know where to push the doctors buttons to get them to pay attention to it and help me to diagnose it so that we can treat it and I can regain some normalcy here.

To give a short medical history here my chronic illnesses include JRA, PCOS, fibromyalgia, IBS, and migraines. I know that any one of these could be creating different or new issues for me now that I haven’t had in the past- or they could be the start of something completely new. Please feel free to add comments to this post or message me privately if you have any suggestions on what to look at or what to look into before I take another whack at these doctors. I know this got longer more detail than I intended it to but I appreciate your patience and listening. Thanks in advance! 😊

#i’m just tagging everything i can think of here #chronic illness #disability #kidney stone #jra #fibro #fibromyalgia #pcos #ibs #migraine #spoonie #spoonie help #now that i’ve throughly exposed myself i’ll just scamper off and hide

[ppatibandla]

My Quarter Life Crisis

Told in a Series of Saved Snapchats

In about four days from now, I’m going to turn 26, which made me think that this might be a great time to reflect on year 25 of my life.

And well, also because I’m going through a post new year slump. You know, the point of time when you realize that you’re not sticking to any of your resolutions, you’re still recovering from the holiday season and struggling to get back into the daily grind, blah blah blah.

Since my creativity and productivity are at an all-time low, I figured that maybe if I just write and reflect, it might help get the juices flowing in my brain again. And I obviously had to tell my story in the most stereotypically millennial way possible - illustrated by a series of Snapchats that I’d saved over the year! :D

Sooo, back to 25 - the milestone number, the axis of our twenties, the pinnacle of our youth *eye roll*- was it everything I’d hoped it would be? Absolutely freakin not! Why? 

Well to start, I spent most of the first half of my 25th year, sick as a dog. I’m not sure what exactly happened but sometime in 2016, my immunity decided to go on a vacation.

Pretty sure I had brought it upon myself with my love for Indomie and Chunky Monkey (I’m sorry, mama!), but my body was suddenly no longer capable of fighting bad bugs on its own.

I was on antibiotics for various infections, eight different times in a span of fewer than six months. The amount and dosages I was prescribed caused absolute chaos in my body. 

Two months into my 25th year, after a particularly high antibiotics course, my stomach was pretty upset (common antibiotic side effect). I waited for the effects to fade away, but they never did. One week in, three weeks in, one month in, two months in…...my stomach was still chronically upset. When I say “upset”, you’re probably visualizing explosive diarrhea but it wasn’t that. I could literally not eat any food without my stomach bloating, having immobilizing cramps and feeling extreme pressure and fullness.

Now, all of these symptoms might not seem like a big deal, but imagine if this is your constant state of being where you’re always aware of the discomfort in your stomach. Imagine if the only time you feel relief is when you wake up in the morning because your stomach is empty then. Imagine if anything you put in your mouth is accompanied by the anticipation and fear of feeling like crap for the rest of the day. This was my life for months.

The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, they said I probably had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Now those who are familiar with IBS will also know that it is basically a medical pseudonym for “we don’t know what the hell is wrong with your stomach”. I didn’t even know what the problem was in order to look for a solution! So to fix myself, I had to turn to the last place I wanted to for help - the internet.

When you look up a sickness on the internet, it can actually be really helpful or it can fill you with a crippling fear and conviction that you’re going to die. But I had no choice because my doctor had sent me home with this very wonderful, completely unhelpful advice: 

“Well all your tests seem normal. Just wash your hands more and get more sleep so you don’t fall sick.”

*crickets*. This is what you went to med school for, lady? Thanks, much. >:-[

Also, everyone and their dog is a doctor on the internet. You have no clue who out there actually knows what they’re talking about and who is click-baiting you. 

Norma here would have made a much better doctor!

After trudging through hundreds of websites, I began my experimentation with the different remedies that Dr. Internet prescribed, in the hopes that it would give me some relief.

I tried three-day juice cleanses (juice only diet) and water fasts. This is supposed to help reset your stomach by giving it a break from digesting food. I received temporary relief but the moment I started eating again, my discomfort would return.

I avoided foods known to cause intolerance for months like gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, caffeine etc.

On a side note, I never realized how difficult life is when you have to actively check for and avoid ingredients like gluten, which wipes out more than half the options available to consume. My utmost respect for people who have to do this on a regular basis!

But that wasn’t helpful either because my condition was seemingly random, not caused (though exacerbated) by any particular kind of food.

I tried more antibiotics (look up Xifaxan, you need to sell a kidney to even afford this medication) and a ton of herbal drugs. Seriously, while my peers were out spending their money on vacation and parties, I was spending all of mine on expensive herbs and probiotics which promised results, but sadly never delivered. The herbal stuff was especially scary because it’s not regulated by the FDA - I was gambling with trying to fix my problem at the cost of causing new problems for my body.  

And of course, I also tried more obvious things like yoga, crying, praying and what not, all in a desperate attempt to fix myself. I was trying to go about my daily life and work with a semblance of normalcy but I felt anything but normal. 

There I was at 25, prime of my youth, unable to consume food, taking fistfuls of pills every night and avoiding eating any actual food, just so I didn’t have to deal with the discomfort. I lost a bunch of weight and the stress took the biggest toll on me, making my condition even worse. As if all of this was not bad enough, various members of my immediate family were having serious health issues as well which was further upsetting me.

Finally, sick of my constant visits, the doctor recommended that I get an Upper Endoscopy - a procedure where they shove a camera down your throat to look inside your stomach to make sure you don’t have cancer or a tumor.

$800 and the awful experience of having a minor surgery all alone later, the doctor came back and told me the same thing - my tests were normal! He suggested getting some other tests done too and kept talking, but as I laid there in bed in my shitty hospital gown and listened to him talk, I totally had a dramatic, bollywoodesque moment. I felt the doctor’s voice fade into the background as I made up my mind that I was fine. I covered all my grounds, did all the tests, tired all the remedies which yielded no results. I decided right then and there that I was going to be fine, even if I wasn’t.

And I swear to God, it felt like a switch had flipped and my body started getting better overnight. That night for dinner, I said “screw this shit” and bought myself pizza - I was eating gluten and dairy after months! I went back to eating everything like normal and ignoring the familiar discomfort I felt in my stomach.

Hell yeah, I post food Snapchats! Judge away!

And just like that in the following weeks, I started feeling so much better. Am I absolutely cured today? Is this going to be a miracle recovery story? Sadly, nope.

I still have pretty bad days when I’m doubled over with pain and I still take many probiotics and supplements every night. IBS is a chronic condition with no cure, it can only be managed. I know that it could be worse and that I should be grateful - I am grateful. But IBS has definitely affected the quality of my life and I will probably never be able to fully go back to how I was before. But I have learned to live with it and it’s just another part of my life now.

These were just some of the herbs, probiotics, supplements, vitamins and prescription meds I took (and still take) over the past year :/

So there you go, adulthood hit me like a brick when I turned 25 by bringing on wonderful IBS and what’s more stereotypically a sign of age than GI issues?  I brought this upon myself because of self-imposed stress. The moment I consciously stopped thinking about it, I gave my body the opportunity to restore itself, at least to a capacity where I was able to go about my daily life with relative ease.

None of the stress I was dealing with was particularly special, it’s stuff we all deal with - career, visa, money, family, friends, romance etc etc. But I let it get to me and it nearly destroyed the one thing that I actually can’t fix if broken - my health.

In addition to being chronic, IBS is also pretty common and affects many people in different forms. I am hoping that my overshare story is relatable to those who suffer from it and for those who don’t, please chill out and don’t mess yourself up over things that don’t really matter like I did. Pretty basic life lesson which we all know but conveniently ignore.

But year 25 was still pretty awesome - I made great new friends (and lost some) and got my H1B visa finally after 3.5 years. IBS definitely did not hold me back from going on many many many adventures. 

A Snapchat montage of all my adventures from year 25.

While I’m super excited for 26, I do feel the twinge of regret because like most people my age, I’m nowhere near what I thought I would be by now. But a big part of growing up is realizing that the world sucks, it’s not fair, there’re always going to be men with bad hair and no intelligence (read Trump) trying to control you and there ain’t nothing you can do about it. It’s all about accepting that success is defined differently for everyone, that you can’t change everything and being okay with that. It took me a totally avoidable physical and mental crisis to realize that. Here’s me hoping that your journey to self actualization is smoother!

P.S Before you click through and start reading my older blog posts, please note that everything before this was from when I was younger, dumber and not nearly as woke. 

[balancedbody2016-blog]

My Journey with Plexus

Welcome to Balanced Body 2016, Independent Ambassador for Plexus Worldwide

My name is Denise, and I am an ambassador for better health. I am a team leader that works together with a wonderful group of people that strive to help others gain better health and offer the opportunity to achieve financial freedom for themselves.  MY STORY I have always considered myself healthy, other then being accident prone.  I was always slim, had energy, and I took it for granted. I cannot say that I lived an unhealthy lifestyle, but I didn't take my health seriously either. I was an active person ( mother of 2, outdoors type of person, extraverted personality that was always looking for the next adventure), I tried to stay aware of the foods I was eating and make better choices.   I have not dealt with any serious health issues until I reach my 30's. The decline in my overall health started after I had a accident in 2010, I had been out with friends quadding, when my machine hit a root and rolled my quad (told you I was accident prone). I ended up with some torn ligaments, sprained wrist, whiplash, and a concussion from flying through the air 10 feet before landing ever so softly(*insert sarcasm*) in a pile of dirt.  The concussion is what slowly began to erode at my body, the damage caused, effected my mental health. I began my battle with depression and anxiety at this point in my life, stress's that I used to be able to deal with now became triggers. I wasn't the same happy, go lucky, positive ray of sunshine that everyone knew. I was hiding a secret!  And so began the vicious cycle, mood and stress began to cause health and digestive issue's, then  health and digestive issue's caused more mental stress. I became Lactose intolerant,  sensitive to many foods, I started to gain weight, had IBS type issues and fought worsening anxiety and depression. I started looking for better health options, I took natural supplements, vitamins, pro biotics, I watched what I was putting into my body. I educated myself and researched healthy alternatives.  I was managing my health at this point, and felt satisfied that I was doing everything I could for my body.  In 2012 though, my health took a very quick turn for the worst. After a fall, walking on ice (accident prone) my body went into a full blown attack on itself. That simple fall, triggered an extreme immediate, auto immune response.  I, not only was gimping along on very swollen and bruised knee, but now my body was over 90% covered in massive hives and angiodema, my food intolerances were now even worse, and nothing was giving me any relief.  I had to turn to the doctors for help, but here is tip for you.  While Doctors are necessary and can help, they don't know everything.  I spent more time in doctors offices and trying numerous different drugs and treatments then I did with my own family. The worst, was that I was only mildly successful at covering up the symptoms, but never treating them. The adverse effects of the drugs and treatments caused me a lot of other issue's, such as worsening IBS symptoms, massive weight gain (80 lbs overweight, on my little 5'4" frame), kidney and liver damage, and severe anxiety and depression.  I was now unable to work, scared about my health, and not fully functioning as a parent or wife, I was a train wreck!!  Up until this point no doctor, naturapath, drug, treatment or supplement was effective on helping my poor body.  Now at this point, I have studied and researched everything I could find that might apply to my auto immune condition. I was amazed when I found studies that showed exactly how connected you brain was to your gut, I began to take my studies in a whole new direction.  Full body health vs just my symptoms. This was the turning point for the good in my health journey, I know had information that could help me to not only survive, but possibly flourish.   My darling husband, has now watched me struggle, waited patiently while I spent money on treatments and supplements, researched everything I could get my hands on, and tried to help me in anyway he knew how. Honestly he wasn't much help and at times could make things worse, BUT he was the one that finally convinced me to talk to a friend that had found a supplement that could possibly help me. Now please understand that I was still skeptical at first because there were many companies out there that offer supplements and I had tried many of them ( I was spending over $80/month on just a pro biotic) however he finally won out and I went for coffee. That was the best $6 I ever spent on a Latte......  I walked away from the meeting feeling like I had a hope and I was going to give it an honest try. April 2016 is when I started my Plexus Journey....and I have never looked back!!!!!

#SlimHealthyandHappy #PlexusForTheWin #GutHealthIsImportant

[queerhellion]

I posted something on my main about it, but in case you don’t follow me there, this week was... interesting:

Part of this gets a little scary, but it’s actually just kinda funny. All of this is TMI, but I figure you’re following me in order to laugh at disgusting things like me anyway, so here you go:

I’ve had gut issues since 2013. Every doctor I’ve talked to says I have IBS. None of them write this down, they just say “you have IBS, but we have to do tests to write down that it isn’t something else a bunch of times.” 

They never refer or schedule me for tests.

But this week, my stomach has been distended to the point where it feels like something’s about to tear. I look pregnant. My lower abdomen (basically my colon) has been throbbing in pain, nonstop, and it’s gotten severe enough that the other muscles in the area (i.e., the ones around my lower back, specifically near my kidneys) are following suit. I’m burping up acid. 

So I went to the doctor on Thursday. They told me to go get imaging at an urgent care, and they basically tricked me into going to an emergency room that was labeled as an urgent care, and that’s a rant for another day, but I got an ultrasound on my kidneys and bladder (they’re clean!) and an x-ray of my abdomen (less clean.) They also put an IV in me to keep me from leaving, and also gave me some toradol (aka Morphine Lite)

So now, I’m clinically diagnosed as Full To Capacity With Shit. Like, throughout my bowel there’s just a bunch of things that Aren’t Moving Like They’re Supposed To, but there’s no blockage. They did two things specifically because of this:

They told me to take a laxative (and as I said on my main, I think it’s hilarious that I’m under doctor’s orders to PEG myself)

They gave me a shot of an opiate, but they also prescribed me some vicoden (and as I may have said on my main, opiates are like Instant Wereslut Serum for me. They do absolutely nothing for pain, unless my only libido inhibitor is my constant pain that I’ve stopped noticing... which actually tracks a little bit. Huh. That’s a question for another time.)

They’ve gotten me a referral to an actual gastro doctor, who can formally diagnose me and get me some actual meds or something to make this not suck, hopefully.

So, long story short:

Basically I’m back on the toilet nonstop, only now I’m not in horrible agony the whole time -- it’s down to only half of the time, which is progress!

My libido is back to My normal, but I feel so gross I can’t bring myself to do anything with it.

I’m grumpy because they made me wear a hospital gown and do Actual Hospital Things which I wasn’t mentally or emotionally prepared for.

#personal #text #it's gross and I feel gross #but hopefully this is the actual point at which I can make some headway and stop feeling gross

[binglesbanglesbabies]

Pcos, an ovarian mass and laproscopic surgery. Part 1 pre op

LONG POST!  I apologize, but I decided to post this for anyone facing this same procedure, because if you're like me you're going to do your research and there are LOTS of scary things posted out there and LOTS of outdated information.  Also, I’ve held nothing back, too many women are afraid of talking about their health without skittering around uncomfortable symptoms or unpleasant issues.

Anyone that follows me elsewhere (like IG) probably already knows that about December 20th 2018 I went to the er because of kidney stones. (I knew I had them, having had them before, but the er doc had to rule everything else out, so an abdominal mri was ordered, where it was discovered that in addition to many small kidney stones in both kidneys I had a 7mm stone (that later turned out to be 9-10mm, but that's a different story) just outside my left kidney and a 9cm (about 4 inch) mass on my right ovary.

So then a super long period of waiting to have my kidney stone problem resolved before I could get the mass removed began (also a story for another time).

FINALLY on January 24th I saw the obgyn about the mass. Let me just note here that every body and everybody is different. So the symptoms and issues I lay out from here on may or may not affect you. You may also tolerate pain better than I (I'm a wuss) and I had JUST gone through kidney stone surgery the DAY before the appointment and week before the surgery, and had a stent placed running from my left kidney to bladder, so again, may cause fun changes. Also due to my pcos I AM overweight, carrying most of my weight in my stomach, which may also cause different outcomes based on your body shape/size. 

So the appointment went like this: Jan 24th

Obgyn was running extremely late due to a delivery. Took over 2 hours before I could be seen, but fearing my risk of ovarain torsion or other problems and having had to wait so long to even get looked at, I was afraid to reschedule, as the next appointment would be many weeks out.

Resident comes in to see me after a couple hours. We run through my symptoms. Now, as I explained to her, I work outside most of the year, and have a family history of multiple various and wondrous genetically inheritable diseases, in addition to not having insurance for 10 some years. (Thank all the powers that be for the Virginia expansion of medicaid for 2019) so most of my symptoms I blew off for one reason or another.

For me, the pcos symptoms and mass symptoms can get a little criss-crossed but they go something like this: I've had problems with my period since I was 13, the first time was the period that never ended, I became anemic from too much blood loss. They put me on a month's supply of birth control, told me it didn't give me licence to sleep around and if I wanted more I would be subjected to pelvic exams by big scary, hairy men, all of which was terrifying to a 13 yr old, and no help whatsoever to identify a cause. Since that time, there's been the fun missed periods, or periods that last for a month to 6 weeks, I've gone 6 months without a period and had 2 or 3 within the same month. The cramping has gone from none when I was a teen to "curl up in a ball and die" in my late 20s/early 30s. When I was 15, I began being pre-diabetic and gaining weight uncontrollably. It was discovered I also had a fatty liver and despite my insistence to the contrary, I was accused of heavy drinking. I also began asking my doctor about my excessive body and facial hair, as the bullying was becoming intolerable. She merely told me to lose some weight and it may decrease the hair and that women in the area I was living commonly had hormonal issues such as excessive hair, so not to worry about it. I was put on metformin to control the pre-diabetes/weight gain. No further tests were ordered. I stopped going to that doctor, and soon after we lost insurance, and I "aged out" of Medicare before we knew it was an option. Next on the pcos/mass brigade hit list came the "pms/pregnancy symptoms", you guessed it, around my period, my breasts would be tender, I would need to urinate more frequently, moodiness increased 10 fold, bloating/weight gain in the abdomen, the fun stuff. As the mass grew I began to have some incontinence issues.  Sneezing/coughing/laughing meant losing some urine. Bowl movements became difficult and painful. Both of these were easily passed off as "hereditary disease problems" (IBS and fahrs or similar). There was frequent pain in my right groin and side which I passed off as pulling something while working. My stomach continued to grow even as the rest of me thinned down a bit in the spring/summer/fall due to the manual labor. After getting the mri results back and talking with my urologist (because of the kidney stones) a lot of this stuff started adding up to mass symptoms.

After telling the resident all this, the obgyn finally showed, we ran through the same things, and the first mention of pcos was FINALLY brought up. She asked if I'd ever heard of it, and I told her I'd long suspected I had it but at 15 wasn't even sure what it was called. Years of research on my own led me to believe I probably had it but had no doctor or insurance to confirm. She said a few more tests would confirm it and thus I was sent off for a transvaginal ultrasound (or as I like to call it, being machine raped) to check mass size and position and look at my other ovary. Mass was huge and had "blown" my right ovary, necessitating the removal of the mass, ovary and stem. Left ovary is/was covered in cysts.

I pushed to have both ovaries removed. Obgyn would only take right one due to "early onset menopause" if both were removed. Bonus, to control my pcos, they would have to put me on birth control, which can cause, guess what, all the same symptoms of early onset menopause like bone loss, weight gain, moodiness, and hormonal imbalance.  She asked when I wanted the mass removed, and I said the sooner the better, so we scheduled it for Jan 28th.  She affirmed I probably had pcos based on the cysts on my left ovary and other symptoms.

#laproscopic surgery #laparoscopy #laparoscopic surgery #pcos #ovarian mass #large ovarian mass #ovarian mass surgery #large ovarian mass surgery #laparoscopy ovarian mass #laparoscopy pcos #surgery