another back/health update

Well, I'm officially back to square one with my back. It hurts like the devil again, and the only thing that seems to help is a lot of walking. So, I've been spending my evenings at the Legacy Center track. I think the hardest thing about all of this is that I can't pick up or play with Peter like I want to. I'm trying my best to stay away from the pain killers as well. The last thing I need is to end up an addict as well as a hunchback.

*Warning. This contains some graphic content.*

On another health-related topic. Most of my girlfriends know that I have always had "female" problems. I saw an endocrinologist for two years before I had Peter. I have very erratic menstrual cycles due to my polycystic ovarian disease. My body produces a lot of testosterone which for some unexplained reason elevates my blood sugar. I am basically a border-line diabetic. Anyways, enough explaining already; here's the point of this all.

In December I was having a menstrual cycle that lasted over three weeks. Towards the end of the cycle I started bleeding very heavily (no I wasn't pregnant). It was so bad that I was passing large blood clots every 30 minutes or so. I started to get pretty scared, so the day after Christmas, I had Mike take me to the emergency room. It was one of the worst experiences of my life, but luckily they didn't find any lesions, cysts or problems. Which left me back at the beginning. What was going on? The doctors said I was just having a heavy period, and that I needed to start on some birth control.

The next day I started on the birth control, and thankfully my bleeding stopped. 7 days later however, and my period came back (while I was still on the pill), and this time it was heavier than ever. The on-call doctor (why do these things always happen on the weekend?) suggested taking multiple birth-control pills each day until I could come in and see my regular physician. When I finally made it in to see my doctor, we discussed (and guessed) what the problem could possibly be. One of the big indicators of ovarian cancer is excessive menstrual bleeding, so as a precaution he asked that I go to the hospital for an ultra-sound, and see what the results would show us. Yeah, you can see where this is going.

My results came in a couple of days ago. Apparently I have a cyst on one of my ovaries (not surprising), but my endometrium looks "abnormal". The doctor asked that I come in A.S.A.P. and have a biopsy done to make sure there are no cancer cells growing in my uterus. Normally this information for me would be taken with a grain of salt, but with all of the stuff Sean has been going through lately, seems justifiably plausible. I am going in for my biopsy on Tuesday, and I am praying that it isn't endometrium cancer--which would mean a hysterectomy, which would mean no more kids. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Nothing has been determined, and I won't know a darn thing until I get my biopsy results. In the meantime, please keep me in your prayers, and hopefully I can find out what in the world is going on!

Love, Meg