Endometriosis

I want to put my story out there so that others who might have issues like mine could see that they are not alone and may be get a few tricks that worked for me to help them out too.

I was an early bloomer and I started my period at the age of ten. Right off the bat they were extremely painful. At first I just thought that was how they were supposed to be. Then my mom noticed that it was getting difficult for me to even walk for the first day of my period and I usually would just sit there rocking back and forth, hitting my legs to get some relief. By the time I was 12 or 13 we started to get the doctors involved to try and see why I was hurting so badly. There were exams, MRI’s, and test after test. This was nothing a girl so young should go through. All the testing went on for years without any headway. When I was 15 years old I was going to a local gynecologist who said that all the symptoms sounded like I had endometriosis, but in the same breath she told my mom that I was too young for it so she was “appeasing us” with the needed surgery to diagnose it since there was no way that anything was truly wrong with me. As if I would have gone through all of the tests, the surgery and emotional stuff at the age of 15 if I just had painful periods. We both were more than mad, but unfortunately, my mom’s health insurance only let you change doctors once a year and we really wanted the surgery done so that we can find out if I truly had endometriosis

For those of you that are not sure what exactly endometriosis is, it is a condition were tissue that is similar to the tissue that lines the uterus grows on the outside of your uterus. The tissues can grow pretty much anywhere in the pelvic region and in some more severe cases causes some organs to fuse together. The pain from endometriosis usually occurs during a women’s period but in more severe cases it can last longer.

When I was 15 and had the laparoscope surgery for my diagnosis they found that I had a silver dollar sized growth on my uterus and some “spaghetti” looking inhesions that were attached to some of the surrounding organs. Needless to say my mom made the doctor apologize to me and her and she reported the doctor to whom ever she could for being so unprofessional. Needless to say as soon as we got the chance we switched doctors. After the surgery my periods were still painful but manageable. Probably similar to a regular painful period, but I’m still not sure what exactly that is.

After finding out that I did have Endometriosis, I was started on birth control to try and stop it from coming back. I was on pills at first then they decided it was better to stop my period all together so I was put on Depo prevera. I was on Depo for 4 shots (one year) and it was awful. It did not agree with me. I gained a lot of weight and was very very moody. My mom called me Cybil since she never knew who she was going to be talking to at the moment. Getting off it was bad too. I had a two month long period. I guess my body was making up for not having a period for so long. Then they switched me to regular birth control pills again except that I didn’t take the sugar pills for the last week. I would just take the 3 weeks of pills and go on to the next pack so that I still wouldn’t have my period. After a few years of that I was tired of taking the pills and dreaded the very long period that was enviably coming, so I stopped taking birth control when I was a 17. I liked not being on pills. They do weird things to me, but that also meant that the tissue started to come back since I was still having periods.

Years past and I got gradually worse again. They only things that would make any difference were Cramp Bark extract, Black Cohosh extract, and lots and lots of heat (heating pads and hot showers). I usually burned myself with the heat. Even to this day I can withstand lots of heat on my stomach without it hurting me. My naturopathic doctor would give me IV drips of B 12 and calcium along with other nutrients that he thought would help relax my muscles so I could handle the pain better. He also did acupuncture with a heat lamp that did wonders. When I was 23, it was so bad that for 2 days I had to stay home every month. I could not stand up to walk or really move at all. Blinking even made my stomach hurt worse! I had to do something! It was hurting my boyfriend at the time (now husband) to see me like that, I was missing too much work and getting in trouble for missing the days, plus, I could not handle the pain any more. So I shopped around for a new doctor since I did not have one at that time. I came across some very bad ones until I found my doctor and I still go to her. I had one guy say that he wouldn’t do the surgery because it was only temporary, but wanted to put me through menopause. When I told him that I wanted to have kids someday, he just told me that it won’t last forever it’s a short term thing. Apparently temporary and short term is two different things in his mind. He also said that I had to loose some weight and that I could not eat at fast food places since they didn’t serve vegetables and apparently I didn’t know what one was either. What a jerk right! I was over weight because I have Fibromyalgia and part of that caused my thyroid to not work properly, NOT because I was a glutton. I was so mad. I told the doctor that referred me to him what happened and he helped me set a complaint against him for that. It seems that you can’t be fat and go see him! I then found my current doctor and I love her. I told her my history and she saw my file and agreed that surgery was probably the best thing since it was so bad. They can’t make it better just try to prevent it and I was way beyond that point. January 2003 I had my second surgery and they found so much in there. My uterus was fused to my colon, some was attached to my abdomen wall, some more was attached to either my spleen or appendix (I can’t remember what she said it was), and then I just had lots of tissue growing everywhere. She actually showed me pictures. It was weird finally seeing what was causing all the pain. Soon after the surgery I became pregnant which was great. I never thought that I would be able to get pregnant or at least not easily. I ended up with an emergency c-section and they cleaned up anything that was missed before. Then after my first child my periods were getting painful again and I got pregnant with my second son. I had a planned c-section and again they cleaned up what tissue was growing then. Now my youngest is 2 years old and I am starting to get painful periods again. It’s really hard right now. I am still unsure if I want to have any more kids…I think I do though. Now I have to figure out how I want to combat the pain and the growing tissue. I am not a fan of stopping my period. I just think that it makes it grow faster when you finally get one again and Tylenol and Ibuprofen do not work on me anymore. If we do want another child I don’t want this to be the deciding factor. We are not ready for another right now, may be next summer but not now. I started to work with a company called Shaklee recently and they are a health and wellness company that is also eco-friendly. I saw that they had a product called GLA Complex that has GLA (gamma linolenic acid), Omega-6 fatty acid, sunflower seed oil, and Vitamin E. I am going to try this on my next period and see how it works. I will let you all know how it does next month! If you are interested in trying it for yourself or any of the other Shaklee supplements or products you can visit www.shaklee.net/greenjamie.

My Experience with Fibromyalgia

I was very young when I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, only 16, and I thought that it was the end of the world. I have to admit it is a lonely disease. Even today, many people still think that it isn’t a real disease and will just think that you are being lazy and not wanting to participate in your own life. I had most of my family and doctors believe that I was lying or faking. One doctor called it “High Schooler’s Disease”. As if I wanted to miss out on my high school days. If it wasn’t for my mother I don’t truly know what I would have done….

For those of you that don’t really know what Fibromyalgia is, it is a chronic condition with symptoms that include but are not limited to extensive pain in the muscles, tendons, & ligaments, fatigue, and tender points on the body. Other common indicators include Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), anxiety, depression, numbness or tingling in the hands and feet, poor concentration, un-refreshed sleep, sensitivity to lights, noises, and touch, painful periods, and restless leg syndrome. Doctors think that it is most likely an environmentally triggered disease. That means that most likely we have the predisposition for it but pollution and other environmental elements can trigger this disease. There is approximately 3-6 million people affected by this disease in the Untied States today and it is most common in women between 30-60 years of age.

With my personal experience, unfortunately I had most of the symptoms listed above and the most prominent was the painful muscles. After going from doctor to doctor and years of testing with no one finding anything actually wrong with me, I even started doubting myself. The way I was finally diagnosed was that my pediatrician had me write down all my symptoms, when they happened and what I ate for 2 weeks, then he sent it to the CDC to see if they would be able to find anything that matched up. A week later they came back with Fibromyalgia. I was so happy to have a name to go with my symptoms, but now what do we do? This was back in 1996 and there was not much research on fibromyalgia yet. Then after of months of still going from doctor to doctor I happen to stumble a cross a Naturopathic doctor at a book store of all places that suggested a few things to help out my endometriosis (yes I suffer from that too!) and they actually worked! We decided to give him a try and see what he had to offer. We had tried everything else so what did we have to loose? We let him do the tests…blood work, hair samples, saliva samples, etc. We did not tell him that I was already diagnosed; we just wanted to see what he would come up with. The next appointment came with all the results from the testing and he told me that I had fibromyalgia, that I was deficient in magnesium, I was gluten intolerant, and that I had too much estrogen, iron, and zinc in my system among a few other things that I can’t remember at the moment. I was amazed! He started me immediately on a strict gluten free diet that had at least 40 grams of protein a day, (very hard to do I must admit), plus a regiment of vitamins, IV pushes and IV drips of Magnesium, Calcium, B complex, herbs and other vitamins and minerals that I lacked. I started my new diet and herb, vitamin routine April of 1997 after missing my entire junior year of high school and was feeling well enough to go 3/4 day for my senior year just a few short months later. I have officially been in remission for 10 years now, and I have to admit that I still have my ups and downs. Magnesium, a multivitamin, and B complex are still part of my daily regiment and it makes my bad days less often and less painful. I strongly suggest at lease the magnesium, multivitamin and B complex to anyone who has fibromyalgia, but the need to have proper testing to find out what exactly your body needs more or less of is very important. Thankfully, fibromyalgia is more understood and accepted as a disease then it was 10 years ago.

Recently, I have found a great company that provides many of the things that you need to improve you health and the health of your home. They have products ranging from high quality multivitamins and supplements to chemical free eco-friendly house hold cleaners(since many cleaners are linked to some cancers, lung diseases, and other health issues like fibromyalgia) to weight loss products that are proven to help your metabolism so that you don’t keep doing the yo-yo diets, and other great personal care items. All the products are healthy, eco-friendly, and are guaranteed to work! To find out more, please visit my website at www.shaklee.net/greenjamie