At one appointment, my mum and I were talking to the doctor, and he took us seriously and could see how much pain I was in. He said it was obviously something to do with the womb/ovaries, because the pain would be worse the week before, after and during my periods. he referred me to a gynaecologist. About a month later I had an appointment to see him. He was the most kind, caring, understanding doctor I have ever seen. I told him all my symptoms and described the pain as best I could. He said it sounded like I had Endometriosis. He explained what it was and gave me an information pack. He put me on the pill back to back for about 3 months and gave me some stronger pain killers.
A few months later I went back and he wanted to do a Laparoscopy. He got his diary out there and then and booked me in. That was in November 2002. I was in hospitalfor the day and when He came round to see me, he said that I had adhesions between my bowel and womb, so he seperated them and that was all he found. I felt so relieved but so angry and upset. I felt like I'd gone through an operation for nothing. Even though he didn't find any Endo, he put me on Synarel. I was out on this for 3 months, and while I was on it I was pain free.
At my follow up appointment I told him I'd been pain free, and he said that because the Synarel was helping it was very likely that I had Adenomyosis (Endo in the wall of the uterus). He kept me on Synarel for 3 more months. After the 3 months I came off it, and month later the pain was back. The pain killers I'd taken before didn't do anything for the pain. I made an appointment with the gynae, and he gave me some Oramorph and referred me to the pain clinic. The pain clinic didn't help at all, and they said they didn't know what to do to help me. At my next appointment with the gynae we discussed me having another laparoscopy. He did an internal examination, and I was very sore and tender between my bladder and womb. As well as the lap he wanted to do a cystoscopy to make sure my bladder was OK. On the 4th or February 2004 I had the op done. I have been diagnosed with Interstitual Cystitis. My gynae said that I had more adhesions on my bladder and womb, and my ovaries, tubes and womb were inflamed and looked very sore. He put me on Zoladex injections, and I was pain free again. Since then I have come off and gone back on Zoladex twice, because the pain was becoming unbearable again. I've had treatment for my bladder, and that has helped a lot, but it's starting to flare up again.
I'm not on my third course of Zoladex, and I'm pain free. I don't really like being on the Zoladex, because I think it makes me depression worse, I'm putting all these drugs in my body, and sometimes I just don't feel well on it, but then I'd rather feel like this than being in pain 24/7.
My next appointment with the gynae is in January, so not long. So we'll see what the next step is then.