Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to anyone and everyone who takes the time to read this blog!!!  It is quite personal for me, so I appreciate you spending the time to read my posts.  In the spirit of love for the day (I'm ignoring the blatant commercialism), I am not going to post of any troubles today.  I want to send a lot of love to my friends and family for loving me, for being there for me, for any small act that I'm sure has meant a lot to me.  I love everyone who reads this just for trying to understand a little bit more about something that affects me so deeply on a daily basis.  I have even "met" via email some awesome women who also struggle with endometriosis and so lots of love for everyone suffering with this disease... I know it affects everyone differently and very personally.  So this Valentine's Day, send a little love to someone struggling with endometriosis... it may be a commercial holiday, but I can assure you she will take all the love and support she can get!

Doctor's Visit (Feb 2014)

Ok, so I went to see my doctor, Dr. K, on Tuesday.  I know I said I was going so I should post a summary.  Basically, it went exactly how I thought it would go.  I am going back for my follow-up appointment in 4 weeks, rather than my regular 3 months, due to the stressors that have loomed large over the past month or so.  At that point, I will hopefully be feeling better, but if not, she said she would likely recommend trying Lupron.  Lupron is a drug that essentially fools your body into thinking it has hit menopause.  I've avoided it and not wanted to take it due to the many horrible side effects (hot flashes, irritability, mood swings, mental breakdowns, any and all menopausal related side effects) I've read about, but Dr. K said she would feel pretty good about it now because it is always accompanied by hormone replacement therapies.  Also, since I have been getting a hormone injection already which lowers my estrogen levels, the change would not be as drastic as it would be normally.  Honestly, I still am not all that excited about the prospect and I would prefer feeling better in a month, but if she recommends it, I will probably do it.  I haven't regretted any course of treatment she has suggested/implemented so far so she's earned my trust.  Plus, pain sucks, so if I feel bad in another 4 weeks, I will probably be interested in anything.  Lupron is a federally regulated drug that I have to apply for through my doctor's office (or they apply for me) and I would need approval to start it.  I did not know that part until yesterday.  For now I just got my regular hormone/birth control injection.  That does sometimes help with pain management when it kicks in, probably at the end of the week.

Interesting Article

Interesting article in the news today about an MIT bioengineer who is studying endometriosis and also has the disease:

http://www.boston.com/news/science/blogs/science-in-mind/2014/02/05/endometriosis/QPaGvDagBHnTjXQFqUZBTL/blog.html

and for a more economics-based view: 
http://www.sys-con.com/node/2954818

A Kind Office

(not my real doctor's office)

So I may not have gone into great detail yet about how important finding the right doctor is, but I am constantly reminded that it is equally important to find the right doctor's staff, because they can make everything so much easier!  With my doctor, she has one employee, who I will call "T" who somehow manages to take care of the office, be kind to everyone who comes in, and always be on top of any problem you have.  She is an advocate for patient issues and will help me with any problems that may arise between doctor visits... insurance issues, pharmacy problems, prescriptions, supplements, you name it.  I realize that while I am very happy with my doctor, my experience would be very different if it weren't for T.

Some Random Stuff

Tomorrow I go back to the doctor (who I call Dr. K, since I have no idea if she wants her real name used in a blog, but I like her a lot).  When I first started seeing her, I would go every two weeks.  The staff and I know each other on a first-name basis.  Now I am going every three months.  Definite progress there.  I was hoping my mom would have surgery this week so I would have something definitive to say about how I've been feeling pain-wise and whether it's stress related, but since that's not happening, I may just schedule an appointment in one month to reassess. 

A Night In the Life of Pain

Ahh... bedtime.  It seems to come around oh so often.  I think I would enjoy longer days and less sleeping...  But we all know that we have to sleep.  Well sleep is something that has been consistently hard since I began having endometriosis symptoms.  

At the beginning, I don't know if I would have been sleeping or not, but the pain was so bad, I basically didn't sleep normally for months.  The thing with sleep is that we try to relax and turn off our brains and let the sheep counting take us away...  Well when you have acute pain, chronic pain, post surgery pain... it is not easy to relax.  I could make it throughout the day simply by keeping myself distracted by doing about 3 mindless things at once.  But if I stopped doing those things, it didn't matter how tired I was, all I could think about was the pain.  I was uncomfortable every second before I found a doctor who could manage pain while also dealing with the endometriosis.  I have never slept with the tv on, radio on, or even been able to fall asleep to music, but I started leaving Netflix playing on my computer while I was in bed trying to sleep and I am only now getting myself able to sleep without the computer playing some television show.

TV

I mentioned in my previous post that I use tv to get me through the day...  Specifically I find that a smart fantasy show is the best thing (although I've pretty much run through most of my first choice television shows).  Something that takes my focus off of myself, and often, something that doesn't lead to me thinking all about the real world I'm missing.  Reality tv seems to be the worst...  It always seems to be privileged or idiotic people on television which just pisses me off that they don't even know how good they have it, so I skip any and all reality television.  But with my computer, I have everything I need... HD, I can find pretty much anything I want to watch whenever I want to watch it, and it's portable for however I am comfortable.
*Disclaimer: I am positive I will forget some important shows when I list some examples.  Just assume I've seen them all but also feel free to suggest, just in case.