So I guess I'll start at the beginning, medically speaking.
When I was 24 I could no longer deal with the pain I was having. When I tell you it was horrible that is likely an understatement. There were times I literally could not move. When endo is at it's worst you feel as if something is tearing through you from your abdomen through your back. I live just south of Denver and kept switching OBGYN's because they never saw anything wrong with me. On top of hearing I am crazy or being told I just need to understand that cramps can be uncomfortable, every three weeks I would be completely debilitated and more often than not, end up in the hospital.
~~~Some comments on going to a hospital with abdominal pain~~~
Once they ensure your not having appendicitis, they will never believe you are in enough pain to actually be in the hospital. You will be viewed as either a wimp, an attention getter or worse yet a pain medicine addict. If you are in pain that keeps you from moving, you need to go to the hospital but if you find out that you have endometriosis, PCOS or general Fibroid/Cysts you can continue to go but by then, hopefully you would have found a good doctor who you can call and get further direction from for next steps. Hospitals (in my own opinion) are expensive, uncaring and will do nothing long term. There will be times your doctor will send you to the hospital anyway and you will more clearly be able to explain your situation which will add some credibility to you. All the hospital will ever do is temporarily relieve your pain. Unfortunately, they will never see you and investigate enough to actually tell you what is wrong.
Anyway, I knew that there was something wrong that was gynecological. My pain was clearly on a cycle (every three weeks, come on) and my actual periods were rediculous. Extremely heavy flow, severe cramping (that at times would immobilize me as well) and I would be bloated two or three sizes for about 4 days a month. To me it seemed logical but not to any of the doctors I went too. That year, I went to 9 different OBGYN's. Finally, I went to one at South Denver OBGYN and met Roy Bergstrom. He was very nice and listened but told me it did not appear to be gynecological and he referred me to a general internist.
I met with the internist Dr. B referred me to and after a non-thorough exam, he said he could do nothing for me, that it sounded gynecological. I cannot tell you my emotions at that point but I literally lost it, right there in his office in front of him. I just was so frustrated and mad. All these doctors told me I was wrong and stupid and this guy was telling me there is really nothing wrong with me. I could not believe it, I was actually crazy and my crazy was causing me pain I could not deal with. How do you get over that and tell yourself to stop feeling pain???????? I did not know what to do and I was crying so much that I actually could not talk. Oy vie! The dr. clearly was not used to this type of reaction and had no idea what to do. I finally stopped and he told me that if I got an OBGYN to do a surgery with him, he would cut me open but that if they could not find anything, I would need to start looking at other possibilities. I scheduled surgery before I even left and called Dr. B to tell him to be there, honestly I don't even think I asked. This poor OBGYN had the unfortunate luck of being my last OBGYN that year so he won the surgery lottery.
The day of the surgery, both doctors met with me and my mom and estimated a 20 minute surgery would be only for 'the other guy' neither of them were 'really needed'. I woke up from surgery and found out that the surgery had been 5.5 hours long. I was completely filled with endometriosis and I needed both doctors as the endo had been causing me chronic appendicitis. I had not even brought a toothbrush and was being admitted to the hospital. This was by no means what I expected but I could not help feeling relief. My family finally had to believe me and felt awful for not doing so before. OMG, I saw the pictures and it was crazy I was totally black. The first thing Dr. B said was that from now on, I'll be feeling much better. He was right but I was also totally naive, I thought that they cut it all out of me I would be actually better. Now I know how silly that was, Endo does not go away.
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