Mel's Health

As some of you may know I've been having health issues lately.



A couple of days before I moved house, I went to the toilet and had a
completely unexpected episode of bleeding. It was non-menstrual,
but it was brackish and chunky. I went into shock - literally, I
could not stand up, I felt nauseous and thought I would faint
etc. Initial reaction was that I just had a miscarriage.



It was a one-off episode but the doc went looking for causes. I'm
35 and my periods have always been regular as clockwork - I have never
experienced mid-cycle bleeding etc.



It was 72 hours after the episode before I could get to see my
doctor. The pregnancy test came bank negative, but she could not
rule out that it was a miscarriage. She says that because I was taking
oral contraceptives (ie The Pill) and it was 72 hours later, the
effects of the pill could mask any hormonal changes in my body, and
therefore give a false negative to the test.



She decided to be on the safe side and send me for other tests. And then more tests, and then an ultrasound.



I do not have any STDs, tears or problems with my cervix or the lining
of my uterus. I do however have one non-developed ovary and one
enlarged ovary covered with growths.



The up shot of this is that I have either polycystic ovary syndrome
(PCOS), or tumors, or ovarian cancer. We are waiting on more
tests to come back.



One thing is for certain is that I cannot conceive. I cannot
produce eggs - which I guess means I didn't have a miscarriage :)



I found this out a couple of weeks ago and it affected me really
badly. I couldn't understand why because I've never wanted
children of my own, but then I had lunch with a friend yesterday who
spelt it out for me - I was grieving for the loss of choice.



I had chosen to not have children, but I have now had that choice taken
away from me. I no longer have the option to change my mind.



The good news is that although I haven't bothered telling management at
work, my co-workers know and they run all of the library pre-school
story times for me. I just can;t face doing them.



In amongst all of this a few weeks ago I started developing an ache in
my side, just inside the point of the hip. I thought it was the
enlarged ovary playing up. It aches all the time, day and night and
does not stop.



The doctor had a look and its not my ovary (its on the wrong side -
the pain is on the side of the undeveloped ovary) Its coming from just
inside my large colon.



More tests. I have either diverticulitis, an infection, a tumor,
an ulcer or bowel cancer. We ware waiting on these tests to
return.



The doc doubts it is diverticulitis because I have an extremely good
diet - I drink 2-3 litres of water a day, lots and lots of veggies and
small amounts of protein, very little processed foods. I'm gluten
intolerant so there are very few processed foods I can eat. I
also eat organic whenever feasible most of the time.



She is putting her money on an ulcer or a tumor. There is a very
very strong history of bowel cancer in my family. Normally she wouldn;t
even test for cancer at this stage, but because of my family history
she has. We are waiting on test results.



So current knowledge is that I cannot have children.



Worst case scenario I have two different forms of cancer, which means
they may have to look for more and I may have to really review my
stitching schedule for the next year, and the Secret Stitcher's
Mausoleum up and running.



Most probable case is that I have PCOS and a colonic ulcer.



I've been doing some personal research myself (sometimes there's a
benefit to working in a library :)) and I suspect we will find that I
have PCOS, I have too many of the other symptoms and usual
responses. We'll see when the tests come back, but for now, I'm
being very careful with what I eat, lots, of water, lots of fibre, low
carbohydrates and no processed junk.



And I'm being silly on lists and getting on with my stitching to keep my mind off it all :)



Hugs

Mel.