A Medical Scare

So I had posted on facebook last week about how I was having a medical scare.  I had an emergency appointment with my brand new General Practictioner Friday, who ordered tests this morning.  This is a sensitive and rather explicit woman issue, so I am placing the rest behind a cut to save anyone any discomfort from reading 😛

10 days ago from today I started having my period.  I’ve had spotting once or twice over the last few years, but in general I have not had a full blown period in over a decade due to obesity.  This is common for over-weight people.  It is also common during massive weight-loss to have your period return.

This past Wednesday I started seeing abnormal menstrual clotting at work.  I noticed one in the shower that morning, but at work the blood clots started coming out every hour, and were the size of golf balls.  Luckily I had bought myself a Diva Cup the night before so I wasn’t going through a tampon an hour trying to keep up with this.

Wednesday was the worst day, I probably passed around 15 to 20 clots that day.  I have done about 2 or 3 a day since then, but am still clotting even as I write this.  Being someone who has not had to deal with menstration in so long, it was pretty scary to deal with.

From what I’ve researched online, and what my doctor had told me, this could be a variety of issues:

• Hormones are out of whack due to massive weight-loss
• Fibroids
• Ovarian Cysts
• Cancer
• Potentially endometriosis

My guess is very much towards the first one, since that is the one big thing I am going through right now, massive weight-loss and likely hormone imbalance.  I do not have any cancer on either side of my family, so I am less concerned about that one, but considering it is a possibility, it is still very scary.

So.  I had a pelvic ultrasound and some other thing I forget this morning.  The technician said the lining of my uterus was pretty thick, which also lends to the idea of #1 being a hormonal imbalance.  They seem to treat this by either putting me on birth control, or scraping the lining of my uterus to get the excess off of there.  At least those are the two viable options for me because I don’t want a hysterectomy or an endometrial ablation.

I actually originally set up an appointment this week with my doctor to get on birth control for my upcoming trip to see the sweetheart.  She was against putting me on birth control because she said it could worsen the situation, but from what I’m reading that is a normal treatment to -lessen- the situation.  I will talk to her more about it on Thursday when I go back to see her.

I am not in any pain, mild cramps maybe twice in the last 10 days, but otherwise no pain.  I suppose one of my appointments this morning was painful when the technician stuck one of those probe things inside me and the pressure got to be somewhat painful.

The sweetheart has been very supportive about this, and we are discussing alternative birth control methods for my trip, because sex is definitely in consideration for this trip.

A side note.  I did a lot of research on local doctors as to who I wanted to be my new General Practitioner, after the nightmare that was my original GP from last year.  I had decided I wanted a woman doctor, and one without a heavy accent that I would have difficulty understanding.  So I was paying attention to sex and nationality.  Not that I have a problem with any particular race or nationality, mind you, but I can’t understand most middle-eastern or asian doctors.  I have to be very clear on my health right now.

I found a french woman about 15 minutes from my house, so she is who I chose.

However when I went in for my emergency appointment on Friday, I guess she was busy so I saw a male student doctor from Africa.  Oh well, so much for trying to be particular :/  She did come in later to assess the information he had gathered.  Both of them were amazed at how healthy I was despite my weight.  No cholesterol problems, no blood sugar problems, etc.  They are doing checks on them again this week to be sure, since it’s been a year since I’ve had any of my blood levels tested.  They did check my sugar while i was there and it was at 117, and my blood pressure was fine.

What amuses me most about having a male doctor from Africa do my initial vitals about menstruation problems, is I assume many of the male population from Africa are not as knowledgeable about menstruation, simply because of the spiritual superstition about women on their periods over there.  Obviously it’s depending on location and the local society of where you are from in Africa, but the thought amused me none the less.

Anyway, I go back Thursday to see my GP, so hopefully she will have some answers/ideas.  I do know that my pulse is a little low right now due to all the blood loss, so I am trying to avoid becoming anemic and taking extra iron and vitamin c (to help slow the blood loss).  I will post updates as I have them.