When Aunt Flo first came to visit me I was in the fourth grade. I went to Catholic school and had a male teacher home room teacher. I was in computer class and asked to go to the restroom, and that's where it happened. Thank goodness it was a female teacher too. Well, she sent me to the nurse, who then called my mom. I got to go home early that day, and little did I know I would be going home early for at least the next 25 years.....
It seemed like every month pain like a freight train was coming and all throughout my school years I knew I was going to be absent at least once a month because of my period. It was horrible. Just like any family, my Grandma and Mom forced me to go anyway. I mean, let's be honest, I was always feeling sick and trying to call in sick to school... Little did I know that would become a thing too later. 🤦♀️ Anyways, I was always forced to get up and at least try and go to school. They always thought I was just trying to get out of going to school. If they only knew then what I found out years later.
I vividly remember being in high school and blacking out and fainting multiple times because of the pain and blood loss. I remember my friends trying to carry me to the nurses office because I was so weak. And again, NO ONE BELIEVED ME. They just thought I was either over exaggerating, or trying to get out of school. My first visit to the GYN was when I was 15 years old, and after telling them about what I was going through, all they could do was prescribe me birth control pills to help shorten and regulate my cycle. Needless to say I hated Aunt Flo! This same "cycle" (No pun intended) followed me all the way through my marriage.
🚩= Trigger warning
Same thing, but now I was working a full time job and every month, when Aunt Flo would come and visit, I would have to call in sick. The pain was excruciating. I stayed in bed with my heating pad that was never hot enough and I had to be near a restroom at least for the first 3 days. I remember a specific moment where I wasn't feeling well. I hadn't started yet but I just wasn't feeling good. I remember my husband and I were getting ready to go to dinner with the family and I kept telling him I didn't feel well, but again I was told to just try. So I did. While we were at dinner, I felt horrible, the cold sweats, nausea, dizziness, faint. I had to get fresh air. So I ran out of the restaurant and fell to the floor. It eventually passed but I still didn't feel well. So we went to the doctor. And surprise...I was pregnant! WHAT! We had been married for only 2 months at this point. The doctor said the sickness was normal, but I didn't feel normal. I had been pregnant for about 2 weeks, with 1 of those weeks on full bed rest because I started cramping really bad. I remember being at my grandmothers house, laying on a blue sofa, when all of a sudden I had to use the restroom. When I went. I saw the blood. I don't know how my Aunt ended up there but I just remember crying and laying on the floor of her van. She drove me to the hospital where they confirmed I was having a miscarriage. Because I was bleeding so much, they sent me home and said it would happen naturally. So we went home.
Again, I still wasn't feeling good. So I had to go see my GYN. My husband was so cute and being the Disney lover that I am. I had this giant size Winnie the Pooh Bear that I kept in my room. My husband decided that Pooh needed to come with us to the appointment and sit with us in the waiting room. I needed it because I still hadn't stopped crying. This doctor (who I never saw again) ended up performing a live DNC on me, in the exam room and told me not to cry, I was young, and that I would have another. As he threw my baby in the trash, it was the worst pain I have ever felt.
While we were in the waiting room, this woman who was also waiting on the other side of the room came over to us and told us she just felt like she needed to come over and pray with us. She held our hands and prayed. Her name was Christy, I truly felt like she was an angel. I have 2 rambunctious teenage boys now and I believe with my whole heart that my first baby was a girl and her name was Christy.
Endometriosis. I was finally diagnosed after I had my children. They ended up sending me for an ultrasound and that's where they found cysts on my ovaries. I had surgery 3 different times after then. When it it came back again, that's when my doctor asked us the difficult question if we wanted more children. I was 31 years old. At this point we had already talked about it and I was very much done with all this. I was in love with my boys and extremely happy with my family. I finally agreed to have a partial hysterectomy. I chose to keep my ovaries, because this would allow me not to go through early menopause which I was happy about. During surgery, once he removed my uterus, he found endometriosis all on the back side of my uterus. He told me we never even saw that on the ultrasound.
While I understood that there still could have been a chance that the pain would return, I didn't regret my decision to have a partial hysterectomy. To have a chance to not have to live with that type of pain was life changing for me. I remember the night before my surgery I called my mom and I started crying. I asked her if this was the right decision? Am I going to be OK not being able to have children again? She just cried with me and said everything was going to be alright. I have been very blessed to have my boys and I know having the surgery was my best option; it was the right time for me.
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