Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Rethinking this Mirena thing....

Since my last post the pain has continued to increase in frequency as well as intensity and duration. My migraines are still being held at bay (thank goodness for that at least!) but man, the pain is killing me. This is all starting to feel uncomfortably too familiar. It hasn't been 2 years since my lap and here I am again feeling very much like I was months before I had it. I feel myself slipping with regards to energy and how much I have to give to my everyday responsibilities... With work, school, hubby, and church callings I'm beginning to feel much like Bilbo Baggins, "like not enough butter spread over too much bread."

The plan was to get the Mirena next month, but I wonder now if that will even be worth it when my pain (especially with regards to my bladder and bowel movements) has increased this much in just a span of a month and 1/2. I know the Mirena helps with not letting the Endo progress as well as with the bleeding, but will it even touch my other symptoms? Why put myself through a painful insertion and 6 months of crazy bleeding when it may not even help? Does that make sense or am I just panicking?

I think I need to have a good talk with my doc and explore other options. I know this sounds insane, but I want to have another Lap. I figure if we go in and do some more work on those adhesions and endometriomas, perhaps I can have the Mirena placed during the surgery and we can start from a better place... I'm not sure if this is possible or if my doc will even go for it, but I don't really know what else to do/try/think.

On another note, I've taken up yoga and am working on cutting out wheat from my diet. I've increased my flaxseed intake and am thinking of adding fish to my diet. (I was allergic to it most of my childhood and just never learned to like it.) I know this won't make all the pain go away, but at least its a start, right?... I hope?

Tonight is going to be another Lortab night... *sigh*

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Whoops, I sat on a knife!

Or not...more like my Endo giving my intestines a really hard time this week... *sigh* Ever since I started on this new "mini-pill" my head has felt a whole lot better (hooray for no daily migraines!) but a lot of my "old friends" (as I cynically call them) have resurfaced. Before I had my Lap I suffered from a lot of intestinal pains that I had a hard time convincing doctors of. The best way to explain the pain would be to compare it to what sitting on a knife might feel like. Sharp stabbing pain whenever I'd sit down too quickly, and especially during BM's. Horrible, tearing/pulling type pain. After my Lap I was told that my intestines (both small and large) were just covered in Endo and it was the primary location of most of my adhesions. Lovely! Finally an explanation for all that pain! Turns out it wasn't IBS and/or my imagination after all! Grrrr....

After my Lap those pains disappeared for a considerable amount of time. Recently they've started resurfacing, but this week has been just ridiculous! I've been in constant pain for about 5 days now. Ben says, "Have you gone to the bathroom today?" I just roll my eyes as I know I'm not dealing with constipation here... if I were to eat any more fiber I think I'd explode. :)

So this is exactly what I'd feared it would be... a simple trade off of pain. I can either deal with the migraines (which we've established isn't very safe for me at this point) or deal with the Endo pain because my meds aren't really suppressing it worth 2 beans! Along with my intestinal pains I've also been reacquainting myself with my other "old friends"- bladder pain and that randomly wandering side pain. Oh the joys... I've missed them so much! NOT...

This past AF was atrocious and I'm dreading my next one. My only consolation is the hope that when I get the Mirena inserted in May/June things just *might* start looking up. I've also been seriously contemplating doing that drastic diet overhaul that's supposed to be really effective at relieving Endo symptoms. I've been resisting that because giving up wheat, sugars, dairy, and red meat leave me with little to no palatable choices, as I am NOT a very big veggie eater. I may have to take it one food group at a time, but I'm reaching the point where I'm just about ready to do/try anything.

Anyone have some good recipes? :)