| Wiccan Cyster
Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Granite City, IL
Posts: 40
Points: 4,411.41 Bank: 0.00 Total Points: 4,411.41 |  My Story / What to do? Please help.
I hope this post belongs here - it is sort of a rant, sort of a newbie issue, I suppose. If not, moderators, feel free to move this. I'm sorry it's so long.
A little background is this: as soon as puberty hit, I gained a lot of weight that I've had ever since. As time went on, I developed extra hair (I pluck/wax/shave my chin, a fuzzy area on my neck, my 'happy trail' almost daily; my arms are also very hairy and my sideburns.) and had AWFUL acne that nothing helped. My periods were painful and not very regular.
My mother has had her ovaries removed in two emergency surgeries - one at 16, and one at 42, so when I began feeling some pain in my pelvis on one side or the other, she admonished me that it could happen to me too. I did some research and came across PCOS - all the symptoms fit. However, I didn't want to have children and wasn't very concerned and, more importantly, I didn't have health insurance.
Then the pain got worse. I tracked my periods and one cycle would be 28 days, then 72, then 32, then 65, then 30, then 61. I began to get nervous that one of my ovaries wasn't working properly or that something else was wrong. Finally, I have an episode while in grooming school where the pain becomes incredible, I get nauseous, and spend two hours throwing up and laying on the bathroom floor. So, without insurance, off I went to a friend's doctor who agreed to see me on a sliding pay scale. He did a urine test for any infection, since I'd also been urinating frequently. I listed all my symptoms, discussed the pain, and scheduled an ultrasound.
On the day of the ultrasound, the act of having a full bladder is very very uncomfortable. As I wait there, it becomes more and more painful until tears start oozing down my cheeks. When they finally bring me back and touch my pelvis, I burst into tears from the pain. They have to let me relieve myself a little to work with me, so they tell me I can. They did the ultrasound, then called for an interuterine ultrasound (or whatever that lovely trick with the wand is called.) Of course, they tell me nothing, just whisper to themselves and send me home.
The highly-recommended doctor calls me a week later to tell me I'm right, I have what I think I have, and weight loss is the only cure - have I considered WLS? And that's the end of that. I follow a low glycemic diet at home and drop 30lbs; I get a new stressful job, I gain most of it back.
In January, I request to be put on Yaz as a birth control method. A few months later, he stops practicing.
Things go on. The pain is unbearable sometimes. The urinating is more frequent and it feels like my bladder doesn't empty all the way; there is always pressure like it's full. In my new job, there is another girl with the same symptoms, who has lost one ovary in emergency surgery. I have a few more dizzy/nauceous/almost passing out episode at work. Fearing she might need to lose her other ovary, my coworker goes to planned parenthood and sees a doctor who is quick, decisive, and takes care of her. He doesn't mention her weight. He does a procedure to take the cysts off her ovary and is monitoring her to see if it has to go. I now have insurance. I make an appointment with the same man.
Thursday I went to see him. My appointment was for pelvis discomfort and ovarian pain. He comes in and begins to explain to me that I can't possibly know that it's my ovaries hurting, and it could be anything, that ovaries are SUPPOSED to have cysts and I could have had a 1000 bladder infections since I was last tested and even though that wasn't what was causing the same problem then, it could be now. He treats me like I'm stupid and silly. He tells me he's going to take urine from my bladder. As soon as he begins the pelvic exam, he shoves a catheter into me - which I was not expecting and have never had done, and was incredibly painful. He tells me my urine looks fine. Then when he begins the pap smear, I almost begin crying from the pain. He sobers then somewhat and tells me he can't feel a cyst but they're going to do bloodwork and schedule an ultrasound. A tech takes my blood, they schedule an ultrasound for November 19th, and send me on my way.
I come home and cry on my boyfriend's shoulder. I do not want to go back, but if something is wrong, I need it treated.
Another coworker, who referred me to her gyno first, heard the story and gave me his number again. She's had infertility problems and precancerous lining dealt with. She tells me he's gentle, he explains everything before he does it, and listens. He also does ultrasounds himself in house.
So, do I call the new guy, wait for an appointment and go through the same song and dance, hoping for a better appointment? Or since I have balls rolling with the first doctor, do I just shut up and let them do the ultrasound?
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