My name is DeAnna. I am 41 and live in Chicago. Since the age of 19, I
have had 8 abdominal surgeries. It all started with "endometriosis",
(verified in the mid- eighties by a lap.)To make a short list, besides
the multiple laps and D& c'S...I have had a tubal ligation in
1994....lap. chole (MISTAKE) to remove gallbladder in
1995....oopherectomy of L (healthy) ovary in 1996 (turned out to be
diverticulitis that caused the LLQ abdominal pain!)....laparotomy and
bowel run to find a "lead point" to my intussusception in my small
bowels (ADHESION caused, it turns out!) in 2004...hystewrectomy (TOTAL)
in 2005 and a multiple incisional hernia repair with mesh in 2006. Over
the many years of unimaginable pain, I have been tossed back and forth
between GYN docs (it's a GI problem, go to the GI guy!) and GI
specialists(it's a GYN problem, go back to your GYN) with one stint to a
pain specialists in 1996 that almost killed me (pain meds are BAD!!!) I
have been told I was a drug seeker...that I was "making it all up",
that's it's ALL in my head being a "hysterical" female (thank you U of U
hospital!) to a person who LIKES surgery....of the MANY doctors I have
had, only one even TRIED to help me, (thank you Dr. S in Hoffman
Estates!) and it was HE who found the adhesions and scars from previous
diverticular attacks that apparently were NOT all in my head. (To even
GET Dr. S involved, my husband suggested at one of my ER visits that I
LIE to the ER docs and tell them I had "never had this kind of pain
before"...and the doc actually LOOKED to see what was wrong. Normally,
when I went to the ER, I would tell them my history of endometriosis and
chronic pain and they would almost practically roll their eyes and
simply take some bloodwork and send me home with narcotics that I
could not take, (I get DEATHLY ill from narcotic...thank you Sphincter
of Oddi syndrome)So now I am FULL of adhesions and scars and am missing
some vauable parts. I have paid for many a surgeons kid's college
educations and bankrolled a few pharmaeceutical companies. I take no
drugs now except the MUCH needed HRT patch, but am now feeling like I am
an alcoholic because this is the only thing I can do to help me cope
with the pain. I have no doctor I trust, (cannot see Dr. S any longer
and truely he's done all he can). I have lost 6 jobs in 4 years and am
almost unemployable. Not looking for sympathy here, but death is
looking better and better as the pain only gets worse, more crippling
and no relief is in sight. My husband is seeing a "healthy" woman on
the side and I have run off all my friends because I am no longer thre
active, vibrant "Dee" I used to be......sigh....just a LONG vent, I
suppose, amoungst others who suffer from same or similar experiences...