Doctor #4

February 2007….Armed with my Creighton Chart… (which now has 2 ½ years of charting, a year and ½ with pain, all documented)…. all my files from pervious doctors (ultra sounds, bloodwork, etc), and my husband, I head off to my appointment at Texas Tech. I had such high hopes. Here is a facility that seems to pride itself on attention to WOMENS needs and issues. RIGHT! This was the worst experience on my journey. First the doc was over 45 mins late, George had to leave me and return to work, and when the doc finally does see me, he takes me into a conference room. He explains he doesn’t need to exam me because we are just going to talk. He has a student join him on this visit (poor girl). I start to tell him my story from the beginning…. Showing him the chart, when things started, how the pain has increased over the year, the concern I have over the cyst and more importantly now, how relations are starting to be too painful for me. After listening he goes into saying that I am not sick, I am making this all up in my head and I am perfectly fine. WHAT?!?!?! Did he not just hear what I said? I start to ask questions, he says I look healthy, I am having normal cycles and that I just need to settle down and that I should start trying to get pregnant. He kept me in his office for over an hour! No plan of action from this appointment, no solutions….just go home and get pregnant! Well now I am really upset. Doctor #3 said he would help me… but no such luck. Not to mention they tried to charge me $275 (extensive consultation) for this appointment. After calling the billing office to tell them this was ridiculous and we would be more than happy to pay for this “extensive consultation” if there was a plan of action that formulated from it …but I am still in pain and nothing came of this appointment. They moved the charge down to $65. Interesting…see you have to fight for yourself!

Doctor #3

I had lunch one afternoon where the speaker was a female doctor that really cared about women’s health. She gave a great talk and after speaking took a few questions. I thought to myself, “She may know something; she seems to care so much.” After the lunch I stopped her before she left and explained what the previous doctors were seeing, what I was seeing on my Creighton chart and my concerns with all the pain developments I was experiencing. We had to have talked for 30 mins. I figured I finally found someone that was going to help me. Mind you, this is January 2007. At the end of the conversation she recommends I see a doctor at Texas Tech University Medical Center here in Amarillo. He was supposed to be one of the best in town. I promptly went back to my office and called for an appointment…..

Creighton Fertility Care

Let me take a few steps back…. In September of 2004 I started to take more control of my healthcare. I believe every woman should know as much as she can about her body. George and I were getting married soon and we knew we wanted to use a natural form of monitoring my fertility and planning our family. To learn more I took classes in the Creighton Fertility Care Model. www.creightonmodel.com In my early 20’s I was on the birth control pill but stopped around age 25. Currently, I am not any oral contraceptiones and simply watch the signs of my body to figure out when I am fertile and when I am not. At this point in my journey of pain I have been charting my cycle for a year and ½. As the pains come and go over the month I am noting on my chart the patterns I see. The pain is taking over the last half of my cycle, its unbearable at night, my normal menstrual cramps have gone from a 5 to a 10 on a pain scale and this is really starting to affect my normal life as a wife. Not to mention, I am still worried about this cyst that is “hanging” off my fallopian tube…. Might this be causing a problem? Is it damaging the structure of the tube, is it growing, how long has it been there…still no one cares to look further. They just want to give me drugs....

Doctor #2

From the beginning I started tracking when the pain would come on, how much it would hurt and what would make me feel better. I was living and traveling with a heating pad, I would take painkillers when needed and I was watching what I ate. The only thing I could figure out was that the pain was related directly to my menstrual cycle. As I pinpoint ovulation, without failure the pains would start 4 days later.

A few more months went by and the pain continued. I made an appointment with my primary care doctor. She examined me and said, “It’s probably an issue with your bowels; let’s start you on some IBS medicine.” In my line of work, I am not allowed to go into my boss’s office and say, “This will probably work, let’s spend $10,000 on this ad campaign.” I need to have some reasons, projections…maybe a plan of action. Here I was in her office for 15mins and this was her solution, to just give me drugs and say this would probably work… nope, not good enough for me.

Doctor #1

A couple of years ago I woke-up in the middle of the night with abdominal pains. It kinda felt like I was getting ready to start my period, but I wasn’t. I wasn't too concerned, but it was unusual. I didn't think much about things and went back to sleep. Over the course of the next few months I started noticing that my menstrual cramps were getting more and more painful. I would sit at my office desk and be in such blinding pain, hoping it would pass soon.

The pain grew in intensity over the course of a few months and I went into my OB/GYN’s office for a check-up. He performed his usual exam and said, “You probably have endometriosis and should try to get pregnant. Getting pregnant will stop the growth of the lining and ease your pain.” WHAT? I was totally confused. We were not ready to start a family yet; we had only been married for a year. This was his solution? Before sending me home, he suggested an ultrasound series to assure I was ovulating. At the ultrasound appointments the nurse discovered I had a cyst hanging off my fallopian tube. She said it was nothing to worry about and everything looked fine. So in 2006 Doc #1 said I was fine, the cyst was nothing to worry about and if I wanted to relieve the pain, I should get pregnant. This was not good enough.

Getting started

It all started back in August of 2005. As I have time to write , I will take you on my journey….about how I was ignored by doctors, told I wasn’t really sick and given the option to take drugs that I didn’t want in my body. I hope my story will help anyone that is suffering and to know… there is a solution out there. Before I get started… here is the place where I found some answers – www.naprotechnology.com

What is endometriosis?

Endometriosis (from endo, "inside", and metra, "womb") is a common medical condition characterized by growth beyond or outside the uterus of tissue resembling endometrium, the tissue that normally lines the uterus.

Endometriosis occurs in roughly 5% to 10% of women. And can also occur in postmenopausal women, with an estimated 2% to 4% of all endometriosis cases being diagnosed in the postmenopausal phase of a woman's life. Endometriosis most commonly exists in the lower region of the female pelvis. The most common site of disease is the ovary (which I had). The broad ligaments (beneath the ovaries), uterosacral ligaments (supporting structures of the cervix containing sensory nerves from the uterus - which I had) and pouch of Douglas (peritoneum between the rectum and the cervix - which I had) are the most frequently involved areas and can produce intense to no pain felt in the pelvis, low back, and during premenstrual period. Less commonly lesions can be found on the bladder (which I had), intestines, ureters, and diaphragm. Bowel endometriosis affects approximately 10% of women with endometriosis, and can cause severe pain with bowel movements.