So during the time that I was getting diagnosed with Celiac Disease I also had something else going on that I ended up at the doctors with. Whats that you ask? I was dealing with very heavy periods. For the past several years when I would go to the doctor I would ask about my periods because they were heavy and all over the bored as to when they would arrive. My primary doctor just chalked it up to the fact that I was probably going into perimenopause.
In 2018 I discussed options with my doctor as it was just getting very old and I wanted to know if I had any options. The tough scenario with me was I had a blood clot in my legs and lungs many years ago caused by birth control and breaking my leg (great combination). This then means I can’t do the easy way out and use birth control to level out my periods. Nope I have to take the hard road for everything. My doctor said we could do either an IUD or ablation and gave me information to review. I went home and after much review decided I wasn’t ready to do anything at that point in time.
Speed ahead to 2019, my periods are all over the board sometimes super light, sometimes heavy, sometimes non-existent, and sometimes never-ending. In the summer of 2019, they became so heavy I could barely go an hour without needing to change my pad. I was to the point of complete frustration and decided I couldn’t wait any longer. My doctor couldn’t see me until December so I went to talk to an OB/Gyn.
The OB/Gyn then proceeded to draw some blood and did an ultrasound. The blood test revealed everything except my iron was completely normal. My iron was extremely low 6.2. She said I was in the heart attack zone and immediately ordered me to get two iron infusions. This brought my iron up to 9 which was still low but better. The ultrasound detected that one of my Fallopian tubes was extremely enlarged. The doctor then told me it had to come out.
Now mind you in the middle of this I’m going through all the testing for Celiac Disease and determining that too. So let me say at this point I was a bit overwhelmed but glad to be getting answers.
In January 2020, we scheduled surgery to remove my Fallopian tubes and to do an ablation so that “hopefully” I won’t have periods again. My doctor did say its very possible they will come back but hopefully not so heavy. She recommended that versus hysterectomy at my age due to other complications that can arise.
During surgery they were able to remove my Fallopian tubes and discovered that I had the worst case of endometriosis that my doctor had ever seen. Yay for me! So she removed as much as she could and then did the ablation.
Since I had such severe endometriosis she said I had to get a Lupron injection for 3 months so stop my hormones from encouraging it to live. She warned me it would cause me to be very moody (told my husband to not piss me off 😉 ) and that I would go through multiple menopause symptoms (yay). She said I could go on ad back therapy after a month to offset some of the hormone fluctuations.
In the meantime I was getting a third diagnosis which caused me not to be able to do ad back therapy. On a good note though, so far no periods (hallelujah), moodiness sometimes but not as bad as my doctor made it out to be, and definite hot flashes sometimes but all completely livable. Now lets just pray my period stays away!!
Its been a doozy of a year let me tell you and the worst diagnosis was still to come!