The Journey Part 3

I don’t really remember when the problems began. Sometimes I would have horrific cramping during my cycles and sometimes not. I’m not sure I ever really thought too much about it at first. I guess I was never sure what the pain level of cramping should be. I had also been battling stomach issues for a while and couldn’t really remember when they began either. I thought that I was just really sensitive to getting the stomach flu or maybe I just had a delicate constitution but during our “break” from infertility treatments I suddenly started becoming very ill. After some testing was completed it was discovered that my intestine was inflamed. I was sent to GI doctor number 1 who prescribed a handful of various medications, but I wasn’t getting better. I could barely eat or drink anything without it coming back up and what I could keep down caused me intense pain. I also couldn’t keep any of the medications down. After several weeks I ended up back at the GI doctor’s office. Frightened by how thin and pale I looked, she sent me across the street to the emergency room. My intestine was still inflamed and my potassium, iron and other nutrients were very low. They decided to admit me. In the end they treated me for diverticulitis because it “seemed” like that was what it was. I started to feel better and so after four days they sent me home. A few days after I was sent home the horrible stomach issues flared up again just after they had started to get better and then that day my period came and it clicked for the first time…the stomach issues always seemed to start with my period. I called my GI doctor to let her know that I started having issues again and explained that I thought the issues were related to my period. She thought that although possible, it was still more likely that I had diverticulitis, though I hadn’t had any conclusive tests to confirm it. She suggested I talk with my ob/gyn.

I visited my ob/gyn who, although thought it might be possible felt it was unlikely that my stomach issues had anything to do with my period and wished me luck in my endeavors to have a baby.

I continued to have stomach issues related to my period throughout that year and they appeared to be getting worse. The GI doctor seemed to not believe that they were related and didn’t seem enthusiastic about testing me for anything so I switched to a new GI doctor who ordered a complete round of tests including a colonoscopy. The colonoscopy revealed that I had never had diverticulitis. I did have what looked like chronic inflammation in my intestine and GI doctor number 2 stated that something was pushing/growing into my intestine on my left side. He thought that it was something reproductively related and advised me to go see the ob/gyn.
The ob/gyn thought it very unlikely that my digestive issues were reproductively related but sent me for an ultrasound just to be sure. The ultrasound showed nothing on my left (where my intestine was effected) side but did show a cyst on my right ovary. Though the ob/gyn was unconcerned about the cyst my primary physician was worried and wanted me to go to have an MRI just to be sure the cyst was benign. I had the MRI which did show the cyst to be benign. My ob/gyn suggested that I go back to the fertility center as after much research I had decided that I was sure I had endometriosis. So after almost a year away I was back at fertility center 1.