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Friday, June 14, 2013

I'm Back....

So, it's been a while...

I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus. Things have been super busy and slightly unpleasant at work, so I have been completely exhausted at night. Between work, finding time to exercise, and taking care of the kids... I feel like I hardly have time for anything else. Squeeze a surgery in the middle of all this, and that pretty much sums up my break from blogging.

I won't go into details about my job here, but let's just say that the stress has far outweighed any enjoyment I was getting out of it before. The end of the school year is always the hardest for many reasons, but this year has been particularly difficult. I am anxious for testing to be over so I can have the office to myself for the summer and regroup. Hopefully there will be some change on the horizon for next year. In the meantime, at least I know I will have a quiet, stress free summer where I can complete my work in peace :)

Before I go into my surgery, let me give you the abbreviated back story. About 3 1/2 years ago I started having lower abdominal pain, mostly on my left side but occasionally on both, with spreading around to my back. At first it wasn't so bad, but when it started getting worse I asked my GP about it. He suggested I see a gastrointerologist, who sent me for a bunch of tests. He ultimately diagnosed me with IBS, and blamed the stress of buying our house, blending our families and planning our wedding. It seemed like a plausible explanation. I changed my diet and started taking supplements, and I was okay for a while. We got married, enjoyed life, and then I got pregnant. The pain hardly bothered me at all for a long time. After I delivered baby M the pain returned and was worse than ever. It went from being sporadic to being present almost half of every month. I went back to the gastro who reconfirmed his original diagnosis, but also suggested I follow up with my gynecologist. She checked for cysts, and said everything seemed fine there, but I wasn't satisfied. I know my own body, and something just didn't seem right to me. It was Jay who noticed the pain seemed to be worse whenever I had my period or should be ovulating. My mom had very bad endometriosis which resulted in a full hysterectomy when she was just 45 years old, so I started doing research on that. When I discovered that the pain was the same type and that this disease is commonly misdiagnosed as IBS, I went back to my GYN and asked her to look further. Since surgery is the only way to diagnose endometriosis, we tried some other drugs first. After 6 months with no luck I opted for the exploratory laporoscopy.

The surgery was minor and ambulatory. Thankfully I was home the same day. I have 2 small incisions, I'm pretty sure they won't be noticeable at all when they heal. The result was that my GYN did find endometriosis to be present, and had to burn off some lesions that she found. I had to take 3 days off from work, and rested up for a total of 5 days. It really took a full 2 weeks before I felt 100%. I had a lot of gas (they fill your abdomen with CO2), bloating and swelling. Since I couldn't exercise for 2 weeks I was really feeling crappy, but I feel much better now that I am back in my regular routine. The bad news is that I have to take medication, at least until I hit menopause. That's a major bummer. Anyway, I'm glad that is over with and that now I have answers. I was starting to worry that I was going crazy! At least now we can treat it and move forward, and now that I know what it is I am even more determined not to let the pain keep me down.

I've been doing well with the running. Almost done with week 6 of C25K, and I can't believe that I'm actually enjoying it! I can't wait to get out there and run most days, which is completely cray!!! I am feeling stronger and healthier than I have in a long time, and it feels great!

I'm looking forward to the summer, and spending lots of quality time with my family and friends. We've got a short anniversary trip in the works for July, and a BIG family vacation planned for August. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my kids smile, so I'm really looking forward to that! Also glad to have more time for the blog. There will be lots of adorable pics heading your way soon!!


Happy Friday!!!



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