June 2014
It is June and on the 3rd we flew out to go on holiday to Cyprus. We are staying in a lovely villa in the foot hills just outside a little village called Vavla. We came out here with my Aunt and Uncle who booked it. It is so peaceful there is us and another couple and the owners of the place. The sun is out and I am laid here listening to the birds, watching the cats sleeping. I enjoyed going swimming on Wednesday and Thursday. I could easily swim every day. I would like to take up swimming because I think that it would be good exercise for my stomach but I am not a confident swimmer and do not like swimming in busy pools. Yesterday we drove to Kekkos Monastery in the Troodos Mountains. We went there on our honeymoon back in November 2011 but we were limited to a time as it was an excursion. This time we had a car so could spend a bit more time there and really take it all in.
Today I must look like a mad woman it is still morning and it is really really warm (about 29◦ and getting hotter) and there is me with Micro Mike, yep he has come on holiday with us as well. I came on my period yesterday and I am having a rough day today. Thankfully I am not heavy. I am so bloated though I have been forced to wear my husband’s shorts. It is a good job that he is not a big man. At one stage this morning I even had a mark where his shorts had dug in to me slightly. I have had to take Ibuprofen and Paracetamol and am taking it easy by the swimming pool today. Yes I am in pain (about a 6 ½) but luckily I am not as bad as what I could be. At least I can get out of bed. Please let this be the worst of it after all I am more relaxed and the food out here is so much fresher than it is back at home. The other morning I picked fresh cherries and apricots and had them with sheep’s yogurt. You cannot get better than that!!! Even the bread out here does not make me bloat out. We fly back late Friday night and land early Saturday morning. On Monday I am booked in for my Prostrap injection. My sister sent me a text today telling me that I have received a letter from the hospital telling me about how my appointment had gone last month. I had to phone them about it before we flew out as I had not received the letter neither had my GP surgery. I shall read that when we get home but in the mean time I am going to try and enjoy my holiday even with this Endometriosis flare up. I just wish I was not ill during the holiday but am thankful that it is not as bad as what it could be.
OH MY GOD I spoke too soon, I woke up this morning very uncomfortable due to me sleeping through a painkiller time. I took some Ibuprofen and Paracetamol straight away. I changed my sanitary towel about 6.45am baring in mind that it was a night one and should have lasted to at least lunchtime (about 6 hours) By 9.00am I had not only filled the sanitary towel I had actually leaked though. I knew that I would have had to buy some more tomorrow but now I am unsure on if I will have enough to last me though today. I am now wearing a heavy flow tampon and night sanitary towel. I hope that this will last until tomorrow as it is Sunday and all the shops are shut on Sunday’s out here. I feel so uncomfortable even with taking my painkillers and now on top of that I have the worry of seeping through again, and if that is not enough will I have enough sanitary bits to last me though until the shops are open tomorrow. I hate wearing tampons because even when they are in correctly because of the swelling inside it feels extremely uncomfortable. I only wear them whilst I am on holiday and I am coming to the end of my period (we never book a holiday where I am due on at the beginning or during the holiday but sometimes I am just in the last day or so, but we did not book this holiday) so I can use the swimming pool. I do not think that I shall be swimming today. Just sunbathing whilst sitting on a towel just in case. Such a shame because it is such another lovely hot day, even hotter than yesterday (about 32/33◦ at the moment). I have had heavy periods before but I have never had any like this, light at first (and I mean barely even there) and then like Niagara Falls today.
Well I managed to go through a heavy flow tampon and a night sanitary towel in the space of an hour and a half so I ended up doubling up my sanitary towels as well. Then there was the pain, it was so bad one night that I only got 1 hour and 45 minutes sleep and that was a very light sleep. In fact like I said the first day I had to wear a pair of my husband’s shorts (that are a little tighter on him, but fit me OK due to the bloating) but the next day I had to wear a bigger pair as the first pair of shorts were cutting into me. I am still bloated but at least I can now fit into my clothes (just), I am no longer as heavy as I was (it is day 5 and I am starting to slow down now), but I am still very sore. I am wondering if I would be this bad pain wise if we had a different hire car as it is very bouncy in the back. We went to Pafos yesterday which was a very long drive and this morning my lower back is very sore as is my abdominal area (even to the lightest of touches). Yesterday was a bank holiday out here in Cyprus, it is called Kataklysmos which is to celebrate the floods of Noah and the Arc. The locals throw water bombs at your car in the villages as you drive past. Luckily the supermarket was open so I could buy some more sanitary bits (I would have ran out otherwise, I was on my last one). Unfortunately the pharmacy was not open and I ran out of Paracetamol and I have just taken my last Ibuprofen so we will have to buy some more today.
It is funny how you get so used to things, back at home supermarkets are open 24 hours 7 days a week (shutting 4.00/5.00pm on a Sunday or bank holidays) and the pharmacies are also open every day (there is even the emergency pharmacies open to very late if not all night). Yet out here everything shuts down Wednesday afternoons, nothing is open on a Sunday and very little (only the bit supermarkets) on a bank holiday and if you were to ask about 24 hour opening they would probably take you away straight to the funny farm. It is very refreshing though to go back to the way it used to be with the shops. It does work very well as well, just a shame that I ran out of painkillers and sanitary bits. But then with the sanitary bits I would have had enough if I was not as heavy as what I have been this month. And it is my fault about the painkillers after all I should have packed more than a pack of 16 Ibuprofen and Paracetamol, knowing how many I go through during a normal flare up.
I still cannot get over how peaceful it is out here, being in the middle of nowhere. One thing that I have found that is helping the pain is jumping (not literally, more like a gentle walk into) into the swimming pool once it has warmed up. If that’s not a reason to get your own private heated swimming pool then I do not know what is. Just a shame that money is an option, I was definitely born into the wrong class, ha-ha even my body tells me so. Think I need a lottery win.
Oh great now I think I have a Urinary Tract Infection. About 3 or 4 days ago I could feel the pain going around my left kidney area and lower back but I just put it down to my period and the Endometriosis flare up. A Urinary Tract Infection never even crossed my mind after all I have been drinking so much to keep myself hydrated in the heat that if there was anything surely I would have flushed it out. Then 2 days ago I really felt it and then started to have my suspicions but even then I thought as I have been drinking a lot of water this past week or so it could not be, must just be my Endometriosis. Then yesterday I knew it must be an infection I have been downing the cranberry juice and water but I do not think that it is helping one bit. I honestly think that I left it too late. Only have Neurofen so I have been taking that to help control the pain, but it is still there. I am on day 7 of my cycle and still fairly heavy for the cycle day that I am on. I am normally ending today and I am still in full flow.
Day 8 and I have woken up and actually did not feel any pain in my abdominal area or my kidneys I took a single Neurofen just in case it does flare up again. I went all morning pain free and then lunch time I had a pain attack on both kidneys and my abdominal area. Not good when you are trying to pack to fly home. I have finally managed to get in control of the pain before we got on the plane home. I have a theory on why my period is heavier and longer than normal. Because I am off the Clomiphene. Even this morning it was still a deep red thick gloopiness. If you think on day 2 of my cycle I normally take the Clomiphene but this month I have not and on cycle day 3 is when my period became extremely heavy. Hopefully on Monday my Prostrap injection will stop it, that is if it has not finished before then. I have also been getting more hot flushes this time round. Again this could be due to the hormones. I am on the plane now as I write and can feel my kidneys and abdominal muscles tightening again. Please do not flare up now not on the plane. I am glad I have managed to get this Urinary Tract Infection under control naturally. I have had a great holiday event though I have had an Endometriosis flare up during it. At least it was not as bad as what it could have been and that it did not ruin my holiday. Most of the time I was able to still do something. There was one day that I had to choose to go out to see my mum and aunt’s cousin during the day or go out for a meal with the owners of the villa in the evening. I wanted to do both but could not, I chose the meal and am glad I made the decision not to try to do both. All in all I was lucky and had a lovely holiday in Cyprus. Now all I have to do is look forward to my prostrap injection then my operation in September.
I have just read the letter about how my appointment went, it is only a little letter stating that my gynaecologist reviewed myself and my husband with regard to our primary sub-fertility sand my history of Endometriosis.
The letter then goes on about me taking 100mg Clomiphene since November 2013 which has been helping me ovulate. However, I am progressively getting severe pelvic pain and dysmenorrhea. The pain is currently being treated with Paracetamol and Ibuprofen +/- Codeine.
It then goes on about us trying to conceive since 2011. In February 2013 I had a laparoscopy which was complicated by a bowel perforation for which I underwent a laparotomy, adhesiolysis and sigmoid perforation repair. He goes on about my Hysterosalpinogram showing up a normal healthy right fallopian tube but a blocked left tube which is probably hydrosalpinx.
He then continues about how at the appointment we agreed to complete this month’s course of clomiphene as I had already started it. If I did not get pregnant, he would like me to start on a GnRH Analogue injection (either Zoldex or Prostrap). I am to have this for 3 months pre-operatively before I contemplate any further laparoscopy + treatment of endometriosis + left salpingectomy. He says about our next step in our fertility treatment will be to consider IVF. My chances of success will be enhanced if I have my hydrosalpinx removed prior to treatment. He plans to book my operation for 4 months’ time.
Well I have had it, my Prostrap injection, so hopefully this damn period will do one. Last night I could not keep my eyes open so went to bed at 8.20pm I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. At about 10.00pm I woke up in agony, the pain was an 8 maybe even an 8 ½. It took over 1 ½ hours for the painkillers to start to kick in. I felt so nauseous and it took all my energy out of me I could not move at all. Every part of my body from every hair strand on my head to the nail of my little toe felt like it had 100 ton weights on the. I finally fell asleep again but when I woke this morning the pain was still there at a level 5.
I had to drive down to the bank and then get my injection done. Whilst I was waiting in my GP surgery the pain made its way up to a level 7. The nurse finally called my name. She asked if I was ok because I looked like I was in a lot of pain. I told her that I was very uncomfortable with the pain, it was better than last night but still really bad. I told her that my period was going on longer than normal and that the pain also is not acting the way that it normally does. We had a chat about the Prostrap injection. Afterwards she went to the computer and on her way back she said “you are only 27” she then asked me about if I had any thoughts of having children. I told her that we had been trying since 2011. She seemed slightly shocked at this, I went on to tell her that this injection is to prepare me for my operation in September where I shall have my left fallopian tube removed which is in preparation for IVF. She told me to go straight home and rest for the rest of the day. Which I am doing now.
When I got home I phoned the hospital because I had a voicemail whilst I was on holiday asking me to call them back when I was able to, it was about my operation in September. When I called them back they said they have a date for my operation, the 16th September in the morning and my pre-op appointment is at 1.30pm on 5th September.
The pain is creeping up to an 8 again and I feel so weak please go away. The 16th September could not come round soon enough.
I am getting fed up this damn bleeding I have bled for 19 days straight now. From Friday 6th June to Monday 16th June. I had my period then I have been spotting a thick gloopy dark browny/reddish dollop of blood. Sometimes it would just be whilst I am sitting on the loo and when I wipe, other times it just happens and I am not so prepared. I am so fed up with this now. Oh well at least I am not in agony with it.
Well I done it I signed up for a swimming membership at our local recreation centre. After going swimming helped whilst I was in Cyprus I thought I would continue it. I am planning on going swimming at least twice a week. I only started this week. I am intending to go no matter how much of a bad flare up I am having. It helped whilst I was on holiday and I am sure that it will help now.
I am gutted today Friday 27th June 2014 I woke up in a very good mood but that was soon to be crushed. I left to go to work (I had a 9.00am to 8.00pm shift). Just like a normal morning I uncovered Jellybean my very much loved ferret. But I found that she had passed away peacefully in her sleep that night. I am heartbroken Jellybean was 11½ years old (which is very old for a ferret, they live to an average of 8 years normally). When I have a bad day with my endometriosis I would go and see her and loving face would look up at me as if to say “Don’t worry mum, everything will be OK. I love you”. Some days she would be the only reason why I would force myself out of bed when I am in complete agony and all I want to do is curl up and hide under my douvet. And now she is not here anymore.
Jellybean was truly one in a trillion, really she was after all how many ferrets do you know that would choose not to eat meat but would go crazy over tomatoes, strawberries, milk and a cup of tea left unattended would soon have a Jellybean shaped head in it stealing your tea.
Jellybean you were the best ferret anyone could ever ask for.
Rest In Peace
I love you
Xxx
Jellybean the worlds best ferret
Today I must look like a mad woman it is still morning and it is really really warm (about 29◦ and getting hotter) and there is me with Micro Mike, yep he has come on holiday with us as well. I came on my period yesterday and I am having a rough day today. Thankfully I am not heavy. I am so bloated though I have been forced to wear my husband’s shorts. It is a good job that he is not a big man. At one stage this morning I even had a mark where his shorts had dug in to me slightly. I have had to take Ibuprofen and Paracetamol and am taking it easy by the swimming pool today. Yes I am in pain (about a 6 ½) but luckily I am not as bad as what I could be. At least I can get out of bed. Please let this be the worst of it after all I am more relaxed and the food out here is so much fresher than it is back at home. The other morning I picked fresh cherries and apricots and had them with sheep’s yogurt. You cannot get better than that!!! Even the bread out here does not make me bloat out. We fly back late Friday night and land early Saturday morning. On Monday I am booked in for my Prostrap injection. My sister sent me a text today telling me that I have received a letter from the hospital telling me about how my appointment had gone last month. I had to phone them about it before we flew out as I had not received the letter neither had my GP surgery. I shall read that when we get home but in the mean time I am going to try and enjoy my holiday even with this Endometriosis flare up. I just wish I was not ill during the holiday but am thankful that it is not as bad as what it could be.
OH MY GOD I spoke too soon, I woke up this morning very uncomfortable due to me sleeping through a painkiller time. I took some Ibuprofen and Paracetamol straight away. I changed my sanitary towel about 6.45am baring in mind that it was a night one and should have lasted to at least lunchtime (about 6 hours) By 9.00am I had not only filled the sanitary towel I had actually leaked though. I knew that I would have had to buy some more tomorrow but now I am unsure on if I will have enough to last me though today. I am now wearing a heavy flow tampon and night sanitary towel. I hope that this will last until tomorrow as it is Sunday and all the shops are shut on Sunday’s out here. I feel so uncomfortable even with taking my painkillers and now on top of that I have the worry of seeping through again, and if that is not enough will I have enough sanitary bits to last me though until the shops are open tomorrow. I hate wearing tampons because even when they are in correctly because of the swelling inside it feels extremely uncomfortable. I only wear them whilst I am on holiday and I am coming to the end of my period (we never book a holiday where I am due on at the beginning or during the holiday but sometimes I am just in the last day or so, but we did not book this holiday) so I can use the swimming pool. I do not think that I shall be swimming today. Just sunbathing whilst sitting on a towel just in case. Such a shame because it is such another lovely hot day, even hotter than yesterday (about 32/33◦ at the moment). I have had heavy periods before but I have never had any like this, light at first (and I mean barely even there) and then like Niagara Falls today.
Well I managed to go through a heavy flow tampon and a night sanitary towel in the space of an hour and a half so I ended up doubling up my sanitary towels as well. Then there was the pain, it was so bad one night that I only got 1 hour and 45 minutes sleep and that was a very light sleep. In fact like I said the first day I had to wear a pair of my husband’s shorts (that are a little tighter on him, but fit me OK due to the bloating) but the next day I had to wear a bigger pair as the first pair of shorts were cutting into me. I am still bloated but at least I can now fit into my clothes (just), I am no longer as heavy as I was (it is day 5 and I am starting to slow down now), but I am still very sore. I am wondering if I would be this bad pain wise if we had a different hire car as it is very bouncy in the back. We went to Pafos yesterday which was a very long drive and this morning my lower back is very sore as is my abdominal area (even to the lightest of touches). Yesterday was a bank holiday out here in Cyprus, it is called Kataklysmos which is to celebrate the floods of Noah and the Arc. The locals throw water bombs at your car in the villages as you drive past. Luckily the supermarket was open so I could buy some more sanitary bits (I would have ran out otherwise, I was on my last one). Unfortunately the pharmacy was not open and I ran out of Paracetamol and I have just taken my last Ibuprofen so we will have to buy some more today.
It is funny how you get so used to things, back at home supermarkets are open 24 hours 7 days a week (shutting 4.00/5.00pm on a Sunday or bank holidays) and the pharmacies are also open every day (there is even the emergency pharmacies open to very late if not all night). Yet out here everything shuts down Wednesday afternoons, nothing is open on a Sunday and very little (only the bit supermarkets) on a bank holiday and if you were to ask about 24 hour opening they would probably take you away straight to the funny farm. It is very refreshing though to go back to the way it used to be with the shops. It does work very well as well, just a shame that I ran out of painkillers and sanitary bits. But then with the sanitary bits I would have had enough if I was not as heavy as what I have been this month. And it is my fault about the painkillers after all I should have packed more than a pack of 16 Ibuprofen and Paracetamol, knowing how many I go through during a normal flare up.
I still cannot get over how peaceful it is out here, being in the middle of nowhere. One thing that I have found that is helping the pain is jumping (not literally, more like a gentle walk into) into the swimming pool once it has warmed up. If that’s not a reason to get your own private heated swimming pool then I do not know what is. Just a shame that money is an option, I was definitely born into the wrong class, ha-ha even my body tells me so. Think I need a lottery win.
Oh great now I think I have a Urinary Tract Infection. About 3 or 4 days ago I could feel the pain going around my left kidney area and lower back but I just put it down to my period and the Endometriosis flare up. A Urinary Tract Infection never even crossed my mind after all I have been drinking so much to keep myself hydrated in the heat that if there was anything surely I would have flushed it out. Then 2 days ago I really felt it and then started to have my suspicions but even then I thought as I have been drinking a lot of water this past week or so it could not be, must just be my Endometriosis. Then yesterday I knew it must be an infection I have been downing the cranberry juice and water but I do not think that it is helping one bit. I honestly think that I left it too late. Only have Neurofen so I have been taking that to help control the pain, but it is still there. I am on day 7 of my cycle and still fairly heavy for the cycle day that I am on. I am normally ending today and I am still in full flow.
Day 8 and I have woken up and actually did not feel any pain in my abdominal area or my kidneys I took a single Neurofen just in case it does flare up again. I went all morning pain free and then lunch time I had a pain attack on both kidneys and my abdominal area. Not good when you are trying to pack to fly home. I have finally managed to get in control of the pain before we got on the plane home. I have a theory on why my period is heavier and longer than normal. Because I am off the Clomiphene. Even this morning it was still a deep red thick gloopiness. If you think on day 2 of my cycle I normally take the Clomiphene but this month I have not and on cycle day 3 is when my period became extremely heavy. Hopefully on Monday my Prostrap injection will stop it, that is if it has not finished before then. I have also been getting more hot flushes this time round. Again this could be due to the hormones. I am on the plane now as I write and can feel my kidneys and abdominal muscles tightening again. Please do not flare up now not on the plane. I am glad I have managed to get this Urinary Tract Infection under control naturally. I have had a great holiday event though I have had an Endometriosis flare up during it. At least it was not as bad as what it could have been and that it did not ruin my holiday. Most of the time I was able to still do something. There was one day that I had to choose to go out to see my mum and aunt’s cousin during the day or go out for a meal with the owners of the villa in the evening. I wanted to do both but could not, I chose the meal and am glad I made the decision not to try to do both. All in all I was lucky and had a lovely holiday in Cyprus. Now all I have to do is look forward to my prostrap injection then my operation in September.
I have just read the letter about how my appointment went, it is only a little letter stating that my gynaecologist reviewed myself and my husband with regard to our primary sub-fertility sand my history of Endometriosis.
The letter then goes on about me taking 100mg Clomiphene since November 2013 which has been helping me ovulate. However, I am progressively getting severe pelvic pain and dysmenorrhea. The pain is currently being treated with Paracetamol and Ibuprofen +/- Codeine.
It then goes on about us trying to conceive since 2011. In February 2013 I had a laparoscopy which was complicated by a bowel perforation for which I underwent a laparotomy, adhesiolysis and sigmoid perforation repair. He goes on about my Hysterosalpinogram showing up a normal healthy right fallopian tube but a blocked left tube which is probably hydrosalpinx.
He then continues about how at the appointment we agreed to complete this month’s course of clomiphene as I had already started it. If I did not get pregnant, he would like me to start on a GnRH Analogue injection (either Zoldex or Prostrap). I am to have this for 3 months pre-operatively before I contemplate any further laparoscopy + treatment of endometriosis + left salpingectomy. He says about our next step in our fertility treatment will be to consider IVF. My chances of success will be enhanced if I have my hydrosalpinx removed prior to treatment. He plans to book my operation for 4 months’ time.
Well I have had it, my Prostrap injection, so hopefully this damn period will do one. Last night I could not keep my eyes open so went to bed at 8.20pm I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. At about 10.00pm I woke up in agony, the pain was an 8 maybe even an 8 ½. It took over 1 ½ hours for the painkillers to start to kick in. I felt so nauseous and it took all my energy out of me I could not move at all. Every part of my body from every hair strand on my head to the nail of my little toe felt like it had 100 ton weights on the. I finally fell asleep again but when I woke this morning the pain was still there at a level 5.
I had to drive down to the bank and then get my injection done. Whilst I was waiting in my GP surgery the pain made its way up to a level 7. The nurse finally called my name. She asked if I was ok because I looked like I was in a lot of pain. I told her that I was very uncomfortable with the pain, it was better than last night but still really bad. I told her that my period was going on longer than normal and that the pain also is not acting the way that it normally does. We had a chat about the Prostrap injection. Afterwards she went to the computer and on her way back she said “you are only 27” she then asked me about if I had any thoughts of having children. I told her that we had been trying since 2011. She seemed slightly shocked at this, I went on to tell her that this injection is to prepare me for my operation in September where I shall have my left fallopian tube removed which is in preparation for IVF. She told me to go straight home and rest for the rest of the day. Which I am doing now.
When I got home I phoned the hospital because I had a voicemail whilst I was on holiday asking me to call them back when I was able to, it was about my operation in September. When I called them back they said they have a date for my operation, the 16th September in the morning and my pre-op appointment is at 1.30pm on 5th September.
The pain is creeping up to an 8 again and I feel so weak please go away. The 16th September could not come round soon enough.
I am getting fed up this damn bleeding I have bled for 19 days straight now. From Friday 6th June to Monday 16th June. I had my period then I have been spotting a thick gloopy dark browny/reddish dollop of blood. Sometimes it would just be whilst I am sitting on the loo and when I wipe, other times it just happens and I am not so prepared. I am so fed up with this now. Oh well at least I am not in agony with it.
Well I done it I signed up for a swimming membership at our local recreation centre. After going swimming helped whilst I was in Cyprus I thought I would continue it. I am planning on going swimming at least twice a week. I only started this week. I am intending to go no matter how much of a bad flare up I am having. It helped whilst I was on holiday and I am sure that it will help now.
I am gutted today Friday 27th June 2014 I woke up in a very good mood but that was soon to be crushed. I left to go to work (I had a 9.00am to 8.00pm shift). Just like a normal morning I uncovered Jellybean my very much loved ferret. But I found that she had passed away peacefully in her sleep that night. I am heartbroken Jellybean was 11½ years old (which is very old for a ferret, they live to an average of 8 years normally). When I have a bad day with my endometriosis I would go and see her and loving face would look up at me as if to say “Don’t worry mum, everything will be OK. I love you”. Some days she would be the only reason why I would force myself out of bed when I am in complete agony and all I want to do is curl up and hide under my douvet. And now she is not here anymore.
Jellybean was truly one in a trillion, really she was after all how many ferrets do you know that would choose not to eat meat but would go crazy over tomatoes, strawberries, milk and a cup of tea left unattended would soon have a Jellybean shaped head in it stealing your tea.
Jellybean you were the best ferret anyone could ever ask for.
Rest In Peace
I love you
Xxx
Jellybean the worlds best ferret