Still here?
OK.
I had my follow-up with the women's health nurse practitioner (unrelated note: I can never spell the word "practitioner" correctly for the life of me. I suppose I better learn to do so, especially if I'm going to become one.
She was an older woman, grey hair with purple stripes. What's not to like there?
It's also different from having a female gynecologist/practitioner. I usually have males...again, not because I prefer male practitioners, but because I have no preference and usually get scheduled with males. So I'm not used to someone who could personally relate to things that I am experiencing instead of finding ways to explain them. Such as my trying to explain to my male physical therapist what ovarian cyst pain felt like.
We discuss my history and ultrasound results at length. She brings up various treatment options. One option is hormones, as in an intrauterine device releasing them. As I finally have been able to get my melasma under control (read: it's not getting any worse), I pass, and I don't want it to flare up.
The next step up is fibroid removal. This can go one of two ways: remove the fibroids themselves, or just remove it all, i.e., hysterectomy.
Well, I've had fibroids removed in the past, and they've always come back. I've had all the kids I'm having. I've already been surgically out of the gene pool for several years. And I'm no spring chicken, seeing as my 50th is only a couple of years away. So why not just take it all and be done with it? I tell her that these fibroids have been giving me grief for many years, and I would like to propose a trade: they can take my uterus and put it in a jar and give me a box of hormone replacement therapy patches.
She doesn't blame me for that decision. However, it's beyond her scope to go much further in this discussion, so she has to refer me to a doctor. But there is one test that she would like to do first. Apparently, my endometrium is, in her words, on the "high-end" of normal thickness. It's 1.1cm. So she would like to do an endometrial biopsy just to be on the safe side.
Fair enough. I agree. I didn't realize that it would happen then and there. It HURT. And yes, that was with numbing cream. Following that, I decided that I deserved the night off of work. So I asked her to write a medical excuse note for me so I could stay home.
I can get my follow-up with the doctor the following week. A male doctor, but I don't particularly care. What I am amazed by is how fast things have been getting accomplished during this whole time. My medical plan isn't always known for its speediness in its referrals. So the fact that I went from zero to a second specialist appointment within three weeks is mind-boggling. It also makes me wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something...
Nah, I'm probably just being paranoid.
I go home, fill in the family, and go camp out on the couch. I then make the mistake of looking up information about endometrial biopsies.
NOW I'm paranoid. And am going to be a bit of a wreck until these results come back.
