Don't Read If Health Stuff Bores You To Tears

So if you know me, you may already know that I am not the healthiest person you know. Sure, I'm a fairly active person. I eat several small meals a day. I drink water like a fish. I don't smoke. I rarely have alcohol (it's not a matter of religion or morals: I just have the weakest alcohol tolerance of anyone I have ever met. I'm sure infants could drink me under the table!). I keep my house fairly clean. I have never had the flu and I didn't start suffering from allergies until the last couple of years (but that goes for anyone who lives in Virginia!).

I just tend to get "sicky."

When I was four years old, I went to the doctor's for what looked like ear infections. The doctor would just look at my ears and hand my parents a prescription for antibiotics. This happened several times and my "ear infections" kept coming back. Then my mom noticed that I started biting my nails and that I constantly had a stomach ache. In the fall of 1989, I had what looked like chicken pox all over my body, but the spots weren't itchy. My joints were sore and my mom described the color of my urine as "Coke-colored."

My bewildered parents took me to the hospital and I was diagnosed with Henoch-Schonlein purpura. I vaguely remember being in a huge hospital bed, needing my mom to turn my head for me when I wanted to lay on the cool side of the pillow. I remember choking down a horrible, chalky syrup and finally learning how to swallow whole pills. I remember getting a huge balloon bouquet and a vellum paperdoll kit for my birthday. I remember the battles when I had to use the bathroom -- I had the choices of using a diaper or being carried to use the toilet. The diaper idea did not appeal to me, but it hurt to be touched -- much less carried -- when it came to the toilet. I believe in the end I chose pain over Pampers.

Ever since then, I have always been this "sicky" person. It's not like "I-always-have-a-cold-and-I-just-feel-blah" kind of sicky. I will be fine for several months, then I will be doubled over in pain and taken to the hospital. And for years, it has always been brushed aside as, "It's girl problems" or "You're just stressed out" or "You need to learn to relax." I am a pretty spiritual, in-tone person. I know my body's kinks and strengths. I know what is normal for me and what isn't. When there is something wrong, I do not appreciate being brushed aside.

Now that I am an adult, I have the lady balls to confront health professionals when I feel I've been wronged. And I am finally getting some answers!

When I was 14, I found out I had small fallopian tubes, which meant I could feel when I was ovulating. Hence, pain. Hello, birth control pills! But I still had horrible periods. There were days I missed school because I was in so much pain. I even passed out at Pizza Hut one day from it!

When I was 20, I found out that I had an extra lobe in my liver. That full, pressing feeling I feel on my left side? Oh, it's not my spleen about to rupture. It's just my liver is weaved between said spleen and my stomach.

When I was 22, I was diagnosed with IBS when they couldn't find out why I always had abdominal pain (this is where the "high stress" diagnosis came into play). I continued to fight this battle for two more years. I was also diagnosed with ovarian cysts. They grow to four centimeters before they rupture. Yeah, those hurt.

At 24, I noticed my chest would get these random pains and I would feel short of breath. My joints also began hurting a lot more often. My migraine headaches made friends with cluster headaches and became room mates. I was in pain EVERYWHERE! I would cry not from the severity of the pain, but from the irritation from it. I was tested for everything that blood work could reveal: Lupus, Lyme disease, rheumatoid arthritis, all of the hepatitis diseases, etc etc etc. Nothing.

I just accepted the fact that I was an achy person. Healthy in all ways except I feel pain. I started taking vitamins and that really helped with the joint pain. I visit a chiropractor once a week to help with the headaches. A doctor told me he thinks I have fibromylagia. I accept it, but something just didn't click with me when I researched it more. No, there was something else.

I think I found the answer to many of my problems on New Years Day 2010.

The two days before New Years Eve, I didn't feel so well. A lot of co-workers were asking me if I felt okay. Even some patients asked me if I had just worked all day. The following day, nausea was the name of the game. I felt miserable, which SUCKED because Leigh, the BFFL, was in town and I wanted to enjoy my time with her. The next day, I noticed pain on my lower right side. It doesn't take a genius to determine that it could be appendicitis. I brushed it off, thinking it was a killer cyst. However, my in-tuned mind urged me to not ignore it.

To make a long story short, Derek took me to the hospital where I work and they admitted me for possible appendicitis. They decided to operate the next day when they saw that I was in more pain and I had started vomiting more frequently. The surgeon requested that an OB/GYN doctor step into the surgery and take a look at my "girl parts" to see if there was anything notable while I was cut open.

This was a blessing in disguise. After surgery (in which they had to use Narcan when my breathing rate slowed to almost zero!), the doctor came into the room to tell me that I had a very advanced state of endometriosis. I already had adhesions (scar tissue) on my abdominal wall and I would have to get the uterine tissue burned off in another surgery to be scheduled soon.

I am one of those people who truly believes that everything happens for a reason. All the bad stuff we go through will lead to something amazing. So, I went through pain to get to surgery to find out I had one of the worst cases of endometriosis that the doctor had ever seen. And I believe that having this endometriosis will lead to another revelation that will be a blessing. It will suck and I will hate life at times, but it will all be worth SOMETHING. If not for me, for someone else.

Oh, and upon doing some research on endometriosis, here are complications from severe cases of it: abdominal pain, painful periods, IBS-symptoms, back pain, chest pain, joint pain, and headaches.

Fibromyalgia my foot.