kay m - Hostess | Hystersisters Article

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kay m - Hostess

kay m - Hostess

Date : 06-21-2005 - 07:31 AM - Readers : 2726

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Hi, I am Kay, and I consider it a real priviledge to be on the hostess team here at Hystersisters.

My gyn problems began when I got married. I know now that it was just a coincidence, but boy, my first Dr sure spent a lot of time trying to tell me that my annovulation was caused by the stress of marriage. He had me convinced. He first put me on the BCP, which didn't work, to start my cycle. Then he had me take provera for 10 days out of each month, this did work.

Forward to 2 years later, and a desire to become pregnant. I was told by a gyn that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible for me to get pregnant. So, I went home, cried with my husband about it, and threw the BC out the window (ok, into the trash). One month later, I was pregnant! (See? Dr's don't have crystal balls either). I was elated. When she was 10 days old, however, the Dr discovered a heart murmer that turned out to be a warning of a serious heart defect. She was a 1 in 25 million baby born with half a heart. This was before heart transplants and 4 months and 4 major surgeries later, God called her home to live with Him. I was devastated, seriously depressed. The only thing that kept me from "going to be with her" was my love for my husband. I knew that if I died too, that it would be awful for him.

Getting pregnant again was not so easy, but Clomid did the trick.
A healthy DD. Then, the gyn troubles really began. Now, this was back in the early 80's and PCOS wasn't even heard of yet. Dr's kept treating me for "symptoms". I started bleeding and literally didn't quit. As a matter of fact it just gradually kept getting worse. A had a several D&C's, but they only seemed to help temporarily. I was literally sitting on the toilet every 5 - 10 minutes. During this time I decided I wanted another baby. So, I went to see a fertility specialist, who told me he would humor me and try whatever, but he doubted he could help me. For 10 years he worked with me - I had lots of miscarriages, finally quit counting them. But, finally, it happened. I was pregnant again. Then - the next month - I wasn't - then the next month I was again (one of those extreme roller coaster rides). This time there were 2 babies. Because of combination of an RH incompatability and all the miscarriages, I had to have 2 amnioscentesis each week (one for each baby), for the last 4 months before they were born to check on their health. When they were 10 days old, we discovered that one of them had a heart defect. Totally unrelated to the one my first child had, which made me a 1 in many billion. The stat Dr's couldn't find any record of it happening before. This DS lived for 9 months, and died 2 weeks after his corrective surgery. The surgery was considered a success, he just wasn't strong enough to get through it.

OK, by now I was seriously depressed, bleeding to death again, cramping severely and scared to think about having another child that might die. No Dr was able to give me any relief from the pains and bleeding. To my ( and the medical communities) surprise, I found my self pregnant again, one year after the death of DS. The Dr's told me up front not to expect this DD to even be born, but she was, and although she had 4 blood transfusions before she was born, she is healthy. I had my tubes tied during that c-section.

The next 10 years were spent in the bathroom mostly, severely anemic, weak and sick a lot. D & C's didn't do anything but seem to make it worse. My Dr just kept telling me to live with it, that many women do. I was suppose to find comfort in knowing that there are many other women out there in the same kind of pain that I was in!!! Finally, a nurse friend gave me the name of a highly respected GYN who I went to see. She sent me for CT scans MRI's and ultrasounds. It was determined that I had a 16 week size uterus filled with lots of fibroids and probable adenomyosis. She scheduled my hyst without blinking an eye

After my surgery, she informed me that I had the ugliest mess inside me that she had ever seen. ( I wonder if she says that to all her post op hysts?) My cervix was at least twice as long as it was suppose to be, but appeared otherwise healthy, so she just shortened it. The adeno was so bad, that she said it was actually difficult to handle my uterus. My ovaries, which appeared to be otherwise normal, were heavily adhered to my uterus, and she couldn't save them. It took 4 hours of cleaning up adhesions to be able to remove my uterus from everything that it was attached to. My bladder also had things adhered to it that didn't belong, so she cleaned that up also the best she could. What was left of my cervix is still adhered to my bladder.

I love hystersisters !!! I found this site by "googling" for hysterectomy the day I found out I was going to have a hyst. I had so many questions, and this site has so many answers. If I had a question that I couldn't find was already answered, I asked and actually got replies fairly quickly. The ladies here were (and still are) so friendly and encouraging. And I was finding stories that were a lot like mine.

What I did for the next weeks was read as many posts as I could on all the posting boards. I read about the success stories and and the heartaches. I particularly read as much as I could about possible problems. The decision I had to make was whether my quality of life was likely to change for the better. I came to the conclusion that I may very well be exchanging one set of problems for another set of equally dibilitating problems, but the quality of my life could not get much worse, and if it did, I was still willing to take that risk.

Fortunately, my recovery went well, I am somewhat hormonally balanced on bio-identicals (though I know tweaking will be a part of my life).

I had just about decided that there was not much for me here at hystersisters anymore, when I got an invitation to join the hostesses. I am excited to have the opportunity to help and encourage others the same way that I was (and still am being) helped and encouraged.

Hugs to all,
Kay

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