Julie B. - Hostess Alumni 2005 | Hystersisters Article

		HysterSisters > Alumni Staff Bios Articles
Julie B. - Hostess Alumni 2005

Julie B. - Hostess Alumni 2005

Date : 02-07-2005 - 05:34 PM - Readers : 2376

Printer Friendly Version

Hi there, my name is Julie and I'm 34 years old, very happily married to my wonderful husband Steve, and we have 2 daughters ages 12 and 8. My family is the light of my life! I thank the Lord for all that I have!

I graduated high school in 1988 and went on to study nursing. I learned a lot, but came down with a violent form of the chicken pox from my little brother and sister(they are 13 and 14 years younger than I am)and became bed-ridden and had a hard recovery. I ended up having to take too much time off of school, so I left and got my money back for the rest of the school year. I needed a job desperately at this point to pay my bills, so I started working for an escrow company, not knowing I would stay there for the next 13 years of my life, all the while longing to go back to school to get my nursing degree, but we just didn't have the money at the time.

By now I was almost 20 and had met my EX husband who was 7 years my senior. We married and had a very rocky relationship. There was violence and many other problems, so I left him when I was barely 23 and within 6 months after my divorce, I met my wonderful husband Steve. I've never been happier or loved someone so much. We had our kids, losing one in between them(we call him our angel and know one day we'll be reunited with our child), and when our youngest was three, I decided it was time to quit and become a stay at home mommy. I loved it with all of my heart.

Around this time, ironically, is when all my *female* health problems started cropping up. I think they had been creeping up on me, but became so much more worse in the year of 1999. I noticed that with every period I would get, I would be in excruciating pain that would land me in bed for 3 days! I also bled very heavily and became severly anemic, no wonder I slept half of my life away during the next 3 years. In 2002 I just could not take it anymore and consulted with my gynecologist. He sent me for a bunch of tests, one of which was an MRI of my uterus. It was then that we learned I had this evil little disease called adenomyosis and it was taking a toll on my poor body. It was decided that a hysterectomy would be the best thing for me. I asked him what caused me to get this, and he said it was common in women my age and especially women who had c-sections, of which I had 2!

The decision to have they hyst led me to a frantic search for information on the subject and that led me to hystersisters, a saving grace for me, like so many others! In April I had my surgery and a very rough recovery, but I got through and went on with life. Then one day in February of 2004 that all too familiar pain came back, although this time it was just a little different and seemed to affect the way my bladder was working. I freaked out because I had kept my ovaries and was scared that I had cancer. My gyn sent me for an ultrasound, which showed I had a "suspicious" large growth on my right ovary. I was scared out of my mind, as they could not tell me for sure if this growth was benign or not. We decided to wait a month to have another look see at the ovary. My pain had greatly diminished, so I was pretty certain that we were dealing with a cyst.

During the next u/s, which was sometime in late March or early April, the tech told me that it must have been a cyst that had bled into itself and then ruptured, as it was half the size that it had been. BUT, I was getting another one on my other ovary. I decided that it was time to have my ovaries out. This was not the wisest decision I've ever made and I did it out of pure fear of getting ovarian cancer. At any rate, in May I had them out. Oh boy, that was the start of a whole new set of problems that I had never dreamed of. My bladder decided it just was not going to work right anymore, and to this day almost a year later, it still doesn't, but I manage.

This surgery was a mixed blessing. While it has brought a lot of heartache and tension into my life, it has also taught me that I can get through almost anything. Over the past year I have had many urethral dilations, bladder tests, bladder irrigations, and even a botox injection into my urethra(BIG MISTAKE). The botox migrated to my bladder muscle by accident rendering it useless. I had to learn to self cath for a while. On March 8 it will be 3 months since I had the botox and my drs have told me that I will start to grow new nerve endings and my bladder should at least get back to where it was a few months ago, but it will never be the same as it was before I had my ovaries out. Live and learn, right? I was also recently diagnosed with IBS, but it became much worse after the botox. My theory is that it may have gone a little systemic on me, so I am just praying that it all gets out of my system over the next few months. My IBS does affect my bladder, too. Fun, eh?

Right now I am pretty healthy, always happy! I work part time while my girls are in school and I love it. My interests are movies, baking, shopping, bike riding, going to the lake with my family and dancing and anything medical related. I am a Christian and currently have my girls enrolled in a bible study group called the Good News Club. They meet after school and have a wonderful time while learning about Christ.

At any rate, I am VERY happy to try and help the women here and especially those in the bladder forum, as I have had my fair share of problems in that area!

Thanks again for having me.

Printer Friendly Version

HysterSisters is girlfriends with -- Moms Who Think - - Girls Get Going -