This page is about women’s health and the importance of early detection.

I am going to begin by informing you of my recent health problems... It all started when I began my menstrual cycle; I have always had problems with it, ranging from just cramps to severe bleeding, although I can never remember a time that my breasts hurt. Since the evening I found out about the birds and the bees, I decided THAT night that childbirth and Motherhood was NOT for me. So, as the years went on, I began to have more and more problems with my periods...

I went to my Gynecologists and had the regular check ups. I begged him from the time I was 15 to give me a hysterectomy, but of course in my head I knew he wouldn't do it for several reasons, the main one being I was not old enough, the other because he kept telling me that one day I would meet a man, and want to bare his children. I informed him that no way would this ever happen. He disagreed with me. So, I had to continue to suffer with them for the next few years. When I turned 18 *then the legal age* I went back and begged him to do it then, still the same response NO!!!...

So, then I turned 21 old enough to do absolutely ANYTHING in this world and still the same answer... I said I would sign any papers, or do anything to relieve him of any legal responsibilities, still to be let down. So, then since my cycle still had no set course, I didn't know when/where it was going start up. I had not had a cycle for 3 years, this is when all of my real problems started. I started gaining weight and losing my long thick hair. I had gained so much weight that I couldn't fit into any of my clothes anymore...

One day I was at work and I felt fine, and then all of a sudden I felt faint, and lost the color in my face, my coworker told me I looked awful and to go rest a few minutes. So I took my break early and as I turned around to leave my work area, Wendy, my co-worker and friend, stopped me and told me that I had a problem and it was showing... I started to cry, knowing that I had NO change of clothes or anything to get me to the car so I could go home. This lasted several days and then my cycle was normal again after 3 years of being absence. Then about 2 years after all of this I stopped for a few months, only to start again, little did I know that this would be the beginning of the end of my hell that I have suffered for so long...

I began to be sick at my stomach and started to ache all over, having no strength to even roll over in bed. It had been several days since I had started and it was not letting up, and 32 days later I had to have a D&C to stop the bleeding. While doing the procedure my Doctor discovered that I would need to have a hysterectomy as soon as they could schedule it... He was not happy about the procedure he HAD to do to me...I can still remember when they let my Mother come into the little recovery room I was in to sit with me.

I was still so very drowsy as she tried to get me awake, she said to me "Wake up, I have extremely good news for you". "Are you awake". I said "yes" and she informed me that I would finally get my wish of the surgery. I thought I was dreaming, so when I was finally totally awake she asked me if I remember her telling me anything, I said YES with sparkles in my eyes!!!... I was so thrilled that I cried... Several days after the D&C I was still very very sore in my stomach and my throat from the tube that I didn’t think much more would hurt me.

I went into the hospital on Tuesday early afternoon to get settled in my room, after stopping by the registration desk and having to fill out countless forms and lectures. I only wanted to have the surgery before some new and improved technique was developed canceling the surgery...I went in and got settled and told my family that it really was the happiest day of my entire 26 years of life... So, on the afternoon of November 30, 1993 I finally had my wishes come true. They planned to do a vaginal surgery, but couldn't reach everything since all my organs were so far up, beyond their reach since I had never been pregnant.

So they had to do a laporoscopy through my belly button, when they looked inside me they discovered the reason for my irregular and painful periods... All of my organs were covered with endometriosis. This caused them to have to perform an 11-inch incision and I had over 300 stitches inside and out was in the hospital for 4 days and was very very sore. I couldn't even go to the bathroom by myself, but I knew that once all the soreness was over that it was the end of my suffering, so this made the pain tolerable. It took me 5 1/2 weeks to be able to go outside.

Right after the surgery I noticed that I lost weight and that my hair was no longer falling out, and that I didn't have to clean the bathtub drain out after each shower. I felt soooo much better inside and outside...I had such a better more pleasant outlook on life.... When I went for my 6 week check up I was informed that I also had Stein-Levinthol syndrome, which basically is a crust type of covering that forms over the ovaries, which it is about impossible to ever get pregnant with this... So, all the doctors’ worries were over nothing that I wouldn't have been able to have gotten pregnant anyway...

Please, if you are having any of these problems like I did, PLEASE urge your Doctor to check you for this. I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to discover my problem. Maybe I wouldn't have lost so much hair or gained so much weight.