look away

if you are of a sensitive nature dear reader, go read someone else's blog now.

I have had a huge range of weird symptoms for over 2 years now, they come and go but basically on a 3 month cycle, they range from pressure below my diapragm, to a numb hip, and frequent UTIs, I have steadily gained weight over the past 5 years despite tracking diet and exercise in journals (which are then shown to the various GPs when they say "eat less, exercise more...see I do!)I have severe period pain every third month, bleed for 2 days when I ovulate, and get this weird pressure/discomfort feeling in my back and abdomen a couple of days before my period...it is not pain, but distracts me so much that I can't concentrate.

I knew that I had endometriosis, it was diagnosed in 1999 when I had my tubes tied laparoscopically, but wasn't widespread, and I didn't want an operation for something that wasn't causing problems, also back then then I worked with a group of anaesthetists, who advised me that 1 in 5 of these operations resulted in bowel perforation, so I figured waiting a while for better techniques was fine. A couple of months ago I had an ultrasound which showed an endometrioma on one ovary, and 17 cysts in the other - I should have scanned the scan to show you all...but just imagine a lotus flower seed pod...thats what my cystic ovary looks like!
Apparently these are 2 different conditions, so I have to go back to my GP to find out where to go next with the cystic ovary, so we'll put that on the back burner for the time being, until the endometriosis is dealt with, thankfully my baby bearing years are over, so I do not have the spectre of infertility to deal with.

I went to see a Specialist today, I have heard that she is very good, she was kind and thorough, and answered my questions fully, I have a few books, and she gave me some literature, I will read, think and talk for the next few days, but I have basically made the decision to go ahead and have surgery to removed the endometriosis, we discussed drug therapy, but the main one is the contraceptive pill, and I got my tubes tied so that I could stop taking that! and all it does it supress the periods, the endometriosis is still there. She explained that all of my symptoms are within the orbit of endometriosis, which made me feel a lot better.
So, I go back to see her next week, and tell her my decision, I think I will go with surgery.

The best outcome will be that I no longer lose a week a month to weird, unexplainable symptoms.

On the knitting front: the baby cardi is coming along beautifully - I am still loving the Rowanspun DK.
On the website front: I have Frontpage (don't diss me...I am trying!) and am building a new website, so that I can escape the confines of the horrible mr site template that I am currently having to battle with.