Quiet? Who…? Me??? November 29, 2011

I’m never quiet. Not in print and not in reality. I’m a loud mouth and rarely shut up. It’s okay because I embrace who I am! It’s part of my charm…at least that’s what I tell myself.

I am a little bummed that I haven’t had much to blog about lately. How many times can you say the same thing over and over again? Everyone here knows I don’t feel well and that we don’t know where my pain is coming from, blah blah blah. Although, after recent flare ups, I believe my pain is reproductive in nature. I know I keep flip flopping on this, but now I am convinced. I began having pain with intercourse again, and then pain following was unbearable. I also seemed to be worse right up to and including my period. Lovely. So for now, I’m going to stick with “I think my pain is from my defective reproductive parts” theory.

I do have an appointment with a gastro doc. I wanted to cancel, but I might as well see what he has to say. Perhaps it is something else and he has a better clue. Or, my gut instincts are right. I’m not signing up for any colonoscopies or endoscopies because I don’t think they are going to show anything. And, with my hemorrhoid problem, the last thing I want to do is a bowel prep for a colonoscopy. No thank you!

What are my options? Well, my primary care doctor increased my Cymbalta dose. I’m now on 40 mg. 3 weeks in, I haven’t noticed a difference. She did say it would be a good month before we would know if it helped. The next option is to go up to 60 mg and see if that helps. Of course, that will also take another month. Lastly, I can go to the pain clinic. I don’t want pain meds to treat my problem. I want them available to me when I’m in really bad shape, but I don’t want to live on pain meds. So, hopefully they will have alternative therapies that will help. I’m guessing that I won’t be seeing them anytime before February because a) we need to see if the Cymbalta helps first and b) there is surely a wait to be seen. This just stinks…big time.

My husband is encouraging me to call my doctor after yesterday’s painful intercourse episode. I don’t see the point. We all know what causes that pain (endometriosis for those of you who aren’t aware). It could be some other condition, but I highly doubt it at this point. Oh well. Time will tell.

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! I did! I am officially done with cooking for a while though! I am beat!

What to do? November 2, 2011

I am completely conflicted this morning after speaking with my doctor.

Here are my options: 1. Increase Cymbalta dose to see if it helps with pain; 2. See a gastroenterologist; 3. Do nothing (that’s my option).

If I have IBS, then increasing the Cymbalta should help. However, I don’t really want to start taking more medication and treat something, until we have a good idea of what we’re treating. IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion and I just want to make sure we’ve excluded everything possible.

Given that I’ve had great test results thus far, I’m not sure there’s much more that the gastroenterologist can do. I guess there are more tests that can be run, but I don’t think they’re going to be very fruitful. The benefit to the gastro doc is that a) that person is a specialist so they may have more insight and b) perhaps a combination of drugs would help with IBS, if that is in fact what I do have.

Or, I could just ignore the pain and learn to live with it. I have had it for 1.5 years straight at this point. What’s the rest of my life? Plus, I have endo and have dealt with pain for years and years, so what’s more pain?

I’m completely frustrated and at a loss today. I’m going to mull it over a bit and see what’s the best route to go. But, I just suspect I’m going to be diagnosed as having pelvic pain with no known cause and that’s it. FML.