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Re: 16 yrs old and i need help or advice or something
From: k.b. (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Mon May 9 11:15:22 2005
I hate when I see the younger people who get this awful disease, because
I know I can barely deal with it and I am 35. Yes, endo can cause all
of your symptoms and steady pain that is independent of your period.
Reading your story shows the progression of pain and you need a lap by
someone who is knowledgeable about this disease. Endo, I have learned,
is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning they try to diagnose you with
everything else first, and that is extremely frustrating. You need a
lap, preferably by a specialist or at least a gyn that deals with this
problem VERY often. Most ob/gyns don't. The only way to diagnose is to
visualize. The specialists say that really you need to biopsy too. Read
Dr. Redwine and Dr. Albee's site, they are very informative. In my
opinion, hormones prolong the inevitable and I wish I had never done
danazol. Surgery has been the most effective treatment for me, and has
relieved some types of pain that have never come back (but it's not all
gone unfortunately). Keep pushing your docs, pain is a sign something
is wrong in your body. IMO, new endo is the most active, and the most
painful, also it can be small, mine looked like tapioca smeared across
smooth muscle tissue. Please get some pain meds, pain wears down your
ability to deal with endo and adds to your stress. But pain meds
constipate, so lots of fluids and fiber. Good luck with your lap,
surgery recovery is always a breeze compared to endo pain. I know
surgery is scary, but honestly I felt so much better to see the pics of
it because now I had proof and I know exactly where it is in my body. I
really think it is more common in girls your age than you think. Sadly
my own 14 year old is struggling with her periods too and it may be time
for her to have a lap too. Anyway, I hope the surgery provides you with
answers and please enlist your parents or another support person to be
with you during appts. They can force the docs to take you more
seriously and testify that you are not your normal self.
At Mon, 9 May 2005, Sara' wrote:
>
>At Fri, 6 May 2005, anonymous wrote:
>>
>>My name Eileen and I'm 16 yrs old. I have had extreme ovarian pain ever
>>since I can remember, like ever since I started my cycles. When I was
>>younger and when I had my cycles I was just stay in bed all day curled
>>up in a ball cause of all the pain I was in. I would have major cramps
>>and pain and would get chills and sometimes fevers. My face would
>>always be really pale and when I told my mom she told me it was normal
>>cause she always had really bad pains too. Knowing this I never really
>>did anything about. Being so young, I was afraid and embaressed about
>>this problem that I never saw anyone for it. I never told my doctor
>>about my pain cause my mom always told me it was normal. I would take
>>advil and in few days my cycle would be over and I would be able to go
>>back to my regular schedules until the next cycle. Then over the yrs I
>>experienced more pain. I would experience pain before and after my
>>cycles but as usual I thought it was normal and never said anything.
>>
>>In February of this yr my pain got really bad and after my cycle was
>>gone I still experienced the pain. Everday I woke up to pain, hoping it
>>would go away in a day or two like it usually did, but the pain never
>>went away! Thats when I realized it was definately time to see a doctor
>>about the pain. So around Feb 8 I went to my regular family doctor
>>about my pain and he told me to go get an ultrasound done because he
>>thought it might have been a cyst. So i went and got the ultrasound
>>done. Then after reading the results he told me that I did have one and
>>to go to a obgyn. So when I was there he told me I was having too many
>>pain for it just to be a cyst so he told me to go to a surgen to check
>>to see if i had appendicist also. So I went to the surgen and he told
>>me to get a catscan done. When I had the catscan done, it showed that
>>my appendix looked fine but my cyst had recently errupted. I thought
>>okay thats great. But then my pain continued and I had the doctors in
>>complete puzzlement and they didnt know what to do for me or what was
>>causeing it. So then I went back to the surgen in a week and he told me
>>they were have me have surgen so they could find out what was going on.
>>So I had a laparoscopy done on March 8 and they checked out my appendix
>>just to be sure it my appendix was ok and they found out my appendix was
>>inflamed. So they removed my appendix and they thought they took care
>>of my problem. 2 weeks later go by and Im still in pain. So I called
>>up my obgyn and he told me to go to the ER to have another ultrasound
>>done. When I went there I had one done and they told me it looked like
>>I had another cyst and it recently errupted. After the results of that
>>one I went to a follow up with my obgyn, but I was still having pains.
>>He tried to do an examination but doesn't have much luck because it was
>>a very painful experience for me. He couldn't get the instrument in me
>>because I was very tender because I havent had sex and therefore my wall
>>hadnt been broken. Anyways he wasnt able to find out what was wrong and
>>he didnt think it was ovarian....I was like WHAT!?! He told me he
>>thought it was gas pains so he sent me back to me back to my family
>>doctor because my family doctor also specializes with gas pains. So I
>>went back to my family doctor and he told me that he didnt understand
>>what the obgyn was talkin about and he knew it was definately ovarian.
>>So my family doc put me on birthcontrol about the beginning of april
>>saying lets just shut the ovaries down for awhile and see if that helps.
>>He told me it woulkd take about 3 months to wokr though. Since then I
>>was in extreme pain everyday (and still am now) so he prescribed me an
>>anti-imflammitory pill to see if it helped. It helped for only the
>>first day then I experienced pain again. So I went back to the doc and
>>he told me he really didnt want to change my birthcontrol to stronger
>>unless it was possitively neccessary because of the side effects, so he
>>advised me to take tylenol with the other pills. So a week goes by and
>>Im still in pain so he told me to get another ultra sound done. In
>>between the time of getting my ultra sound I decided to look up
>>somethings on the web hoping maybe I could find something related to my
>>pains. Thats when I read about Endometriosis and realized I have every
>>symptom of it. So lastnight I went and had my ultrasound done and the
>>lady told me that I had another cyst that errupted. But she told me to
>>go home and look up Endometriosis. I told her it was a weird
>>conisidence that I was thinking about that and that I had every symptom
>>of it. She told me in her opinion she thinks I definately have it and
>>that I should research some more and decuss with my doctor about having
>>a laparoscopy done to be sure that I have it. So thats where I am now.
>>
>>Im in the middle of having the surgery scheduled and I thought I would
>>share my story to see if it was similar with anyone else who actually
>>has endometriosis ....welll someone please reply and let me know...i
>>need some advice...thanks
>
>Hi Eileen,
>I can relate to what you are going through.I am almost 36 now, but when
>I was younger I had problems very similar to what you describe now.I was
>about 15-16 when things first started (repeat ultrasounds that revealed
>nothing, frequent trips to the ER with no answers - you must have PID so
>we'lll keep flooding you with antibiotics - never mind the fact that I
>was still a virgin.)When I was 21 things got really bad, the GYN clinic
>again thought PID but during an ultrasound they found cysts in & on both
>ovaries - they watched them for a few weeks, the size kept increasing &
>so did the pain. I was scheduled for an emergency lap.The GYN that did
>the surgery said it was my appendix - it was wrapped in adhesions - so I
>was dx'ed with appendicitis - had it removed & pretty much was sent on
>my merry way.No mention was made of the cysts, & the Doc. said it was
>maybe dysmenorrhea & that I would have to deal with it.The pain actually
>got worse after the surgery, and when I went back to this Dr. for
>follow up she said I couldn't possibly still be in pain because she took
>care of the problem. I switched Doc.'s and after about a year of
>watching & waiting, birth control pills, & pain meds. I finally had a
>lap. done by the new Doc. & was Dx'ed with endo. & a fibroid. I hope
>all goes well with the lap.Unfortunately, I have found from my personal
>experience that all too often your symptoms are not taken seriously
>because of your age. You will need to be that much more persistant
>about your treatment & care. I wish you the best, and I hope this
>helped some.Feel free to email me if you like.
>Sara'
>
>--
>Sara'Fleming
>
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