Long overdue: Surgery Results

The last couple of weeks have been crazy. Seriously. Very crazy. I was in the hospital two weeks ago because I had another one! It was not fun. I forget how absolutely terrible hospitals are. 

And last Monday, I had my laparoscopic surgery. The doctor thinks that he may have found what is wrong.

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When I first saw the pelvic pain specialist that performed my procedure last week, we discussed several possibilities that could be causing my severe pain and those horrible spells that I have. He prepared me for what he expected to find in my abdomen and pelvis during the laproscopic procedure. The doctor believes that I have something called Pelvic Congestion Syndrome. Simply put, Pelvic Congestion is like having varicose veins in your pelvis. Its cause is not known and its treatment is difficult. The doctor marked my abdomen with two big "X's" before surgery, the two points where my pain is the worst during an episode. He said that when he looked in my abdomen, two large, dilated veins connecting to my uterus were directly under the two "X's" he had marked. If those veins weren't directly under those marks, I may not have been as convinced but it was difficult to argue with such a pinpointed find.

I have a DVD and photos from surgery. The photo that he showed me of the dilated veins was amazing. On the left side (where the pain is) the two veins were so large, clearly visible and purple in color versus the right side (where there is no pain), where no veins were visible and all you could see was pink, healthy tissue.

I really didn't want to include a photo because I felt that may be too much information. So, I sort of made a crude example to give you a better idea of what I am talking about.

The good news was that after my previous surgeries from the car accident in 1994, I had very little scar tissue on my left side. My right side was another story. He said that my right side was quite scarred and the right side of my large intestine was covered with scar tissue and slightly connected to my abdominal cavity. He took no action (something we had previously discussed) because he didn't want to cause any problems that I wasn't already having. Which was fine with me. He said that I was at risk for a future bowel obstruction because of the scar tissue and I would have to watch for warning signs but it really isn't something that I have to worry about.

He also found a small amount of endometriosis that he removed. He said that it only takes a teeny tiny amount of endometriosis to cause pain, so hopefully removing it will help. And he also found a small polyp in my uterus that was removed. It may have also contributed to some of my pain. 

So, there were definitely some problems that only surgery could address. I am glad that I was able to have these things looked at and addressed. I was also able to openly and comfortably talk about pain management with my doctor; something that can be very uncomfortable to do. I have found that doctors are not willing to discuss aggressive pain management openly. I understand their caution but sometimes, aggressive treatment is warranted. I appreciated his understanding and willingness to work with me and LISTEN to me. 

I cannot begin to tell you how compassionate this wonderful doctor is.

I have some more things that I want to share about last week and the last few days but I don't want to bore you anymore today! 

Thank you so much for your kindness, love, prayers and support.