Surgery or Medicine????
From: Caroline (anonymous@medispecialty.com)
Sat Mar 30 01:23:01 2002
Hi,
I'm new - and enter as a frayed knot at the end of the rope. 13 years
ago I had my gallbladder removed, the archaic way (6 inch scar). A
couple years later, a lap/laser for dx and tx for endometriosis. Five
years ago a hysterectomy for the same (left the ovaries in). Two years
of glorious pain free living and then BAM. Constipation/diarrhea back,
pelvic pain back w/a vengeance. Pinching in my bladder, burning and
stabbing pain in lower left and right side of pelvis. Recurrent cysts,
and the pain gets worse the more active I try to be. Sitting is bad.
Walking hurts after 20 minutes. It feels like a combination of a
pinched nerve and perpetual pulling/twisting to varying degrees.
Sometimes I'm merely annoyed. Other times I am incapacitated. Worse at
night than in the morning.
CT of abdomen revealed nothing but a cyst. Colonoscopy revealed polyps,
benign and removed. CA-125 negative, MRI of abdomen, nothing but the
cyst. The pain is unresponsive to motrin and celebrex and the worst
anxiety provoking symptom is one I can hardly bring myself to confess to
the doc b/c I now think I am nuts on top of it: Every time I eat more
than a very small amount of food, I am short of breath. Can't take a
deep enough breath in, and don't feel like I can let enough air out. My
breath sounds are unremarkable, however. My gyn is trying her best to
help w/out surgery, but she has NOT helped relieve pain.
My question is this: Medicine (pain management/lupron) or surgery or a
combo? I've never been diagnosed w/adhesions, but it certainly has been
talked about as a possibility in conjunction w/the ab surgery and
previous endo treatment. I don't want to get in a cycle of neverending
operations but I cannot live in this much pain all the time - especially
if there's a possibility that it isn't necessary. What do you think?
Thanks
--
Caroline
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