I haven't spoken here much about HusBean and I's desire to have children. The short version is that we want them and haven't had any success yet.
When we moved to GA, we selected a GP Dr. that had been a fertility specialist in her home country. My first visit to her was in spring of 2009 and was a pelvic/pap exam. I mentioned our history (2.5 years at this time) of attempting to get pregnant and she recommended a few things and said that it seemed like my uterus might be tilted.
When you aren't on birth control, there is no reminder to have your yearly exam because there is no need for a prescription for said birth control. Consequently I hadn't had another exam and when I needed an updated prescription for something else the computer pointed out that I was long overdue.I scheduled my exam for January 27th. Immediately upon starting the exam my Dr. (hereafter referred to as "Dr. D" commented that there was "definitely" something "in there" and it felt like a fibroid. She finished the remainder of the exam and scheduled me for an ultrasound on January 31st.
Between the two appointments I started doing some research to learn about uterine fibroids. I also called my mom and she reminded me that she had a hysterectomy at age 41 for the same thing. Between her stories and my research I started realizing that I had been suffering from symptoms caused by the fibroid for quite awhile and just ignoring them because I'm good at ignoring pain.
Starting in November I had started having sciatic and hip pain that was pretty severe, I figured that I had pulled something while moving furniture. I have also had to urinate much more frequently in the last six months, and intercourse had been QUITE painful for over a year.
At the ultrasound appointment, the tech measured the fibroid and told me it was 7.5cm x 10.3 cm. I asked what the plan was and the tech said that Dr. D would be contacting me to make a plan.
I waited until January 4th (Friday, the ultrasound had been that Monday) and hadn't heard anything, so I called and spoke to Dr. D. She said "We'll just watch it for now until you become 'really' uncomfortable".
I got angry. I have a pretty high pain tolerance and had been able to work through my symptoms when I didn't realize there was an issue. The problem is that once I was aware, the pain and discomfort was magnified and I realized that my periods during the previous year had been VERY painful, especially the last three - I would double over at work and have to go home early.
Just because I HAD lived with it I didn't think it was fair to CONTINUE to live with it! She offered to prescribe some pain meds for my periods and left it at that.
I discussed my feelings with my Mom, my HusBean, my coworkers, and female relatives with similar issues. I decided to get a second opinion.
Dr. S was recommended to me and I managed to get an appointment with her right away. We talked in her office and she agreed right away that the fibroid needs to come out, even commenting that my "belly" that is visible is BECAUSE of the fibroid.
She wanted to do an exam, and upon completing the exam had me stay and do another ultrasound. THIS ultrasound showed that the fibroid is actually 10.5cm by 11.3cm.
We scheduled pre-op and surgery dates, which have had to be postponed because HusBean's job changed and we ended up not having insurance between 3/16 and 4/1.
All of this is a major factor in my being burned-out physically and emotionally at work.
I emailed our new insurance card to Dr. S' office today and am hoping to hear back for a rescheduled set of appointments soon!
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