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Jewel - Alumni Hostess 2000

Jewel - Alumni Hostess 2000

Date : 04-30-2003 - 09:34 AM - Readers : 587

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HI, my name is Julie but I am known on the boards as Jewel or JewelM. I will be 37 in June. I have five children and am married to my high school sweetheart. We went out together when we were teenagers but then his dad got transferred across the country we each moved on and eventually married other people. We each had children at the same time (me two boys, now 11 and 10, and he, two girls, now 11 and 10) and then got back together about 8 years ago. We have been married almost 7 years and had our one son five years ago. His ex passed away suddenly leaving the two girls' without a mother so I have adopted them and we are all one big happy family now. We also have a mini dachshund (black and tan) named Fritz. We have lived in NH, MA and now back in PA, where I went to college.

I have a degree in biology and went to nursing school in Philadelphia. I have various graduate credits in pharmacology, etc. as well. I work in clinical research which means that I design and oversee the collection of data when new drugs are tested on humans in order to get enough information to submit to the FDA for approval to sell the drug in the United States. My background is mostly in cardiovascular medicine but most recently I have been working on the approval of analgesics (painkillers).

I started with all the gyn stuff many years ago with the dreaded "right sided pain". I was 19 the first time I mentioned it to a doctor who told me that I had endometriosis. I then went on the pill so I wouldn't ovulate since the pain was mostly in the middle of my cycle. Went off when I married the first husband and had two children in 14 months. Pregnancies were complicated but everything turned out ok. Went back on the pill when pain reappeared after the second baby. This time it lasted all month so I was put on the pill on a straight through schedule - no weeks off for periods. I didn't have a period for three years but I had three episodes of intrauterine infections, probably because I never had a period to clear everything out of there. Went off the pill to get pregnant with my youngest son. My DH had the "let's not have any more babies" surgery so I did not go back on the pill. Fast forward through the last five years. The endo has had the chance to go nuts with no hormonal suppression and the pain that I had been experiencing has come back with a vengeance, appearing more days each month and it is now pretty much and every day occurrence. My mom has adenomyosis and I tried to get my new PA gyn to admit that I might have it too but it took a while. After months of pain and a CT scan (ordered by my internist to make sure I was having a surgical problem) my MD finally did a laparoscopy and hysteroscopy in mid-May. Uterus was boggy and "spongy" so now I have a presumptive diagnosis of adenomyosis to go along with my endo.

I am scheduled for a TAH in July, 2000.

I found this site while research adenomyosis and hysterectomies in general. What a great site. I quickly became a hystersisters junkie and was checking in many times per day. I decided to use my clinical and nursing school background to help other women understand the terminology that they must try to decipher as they make this journey and was flattered when I asked if I would become a hostess. I am so glad to have something to give back to the wonderful community of women helping other women through such an important time in all of our lives. I am helping another hystersister hostess, Trish, put together a dictionary of the terms of that we run across in our path reports, etc. so if you have any terms you would like to have defined or added to the dictionary, please email me!

Thank you for letting me share this part of your lives with you and I am happy that I will have all of you along with me as I make my journey to the Land of Hyster.

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