I hate to admit when I need help. What I hate to admit more is when I'm not OK. I'm not OK. I try really really hard to be but it's an uphill battle. For so long I let my health go. My hands were full taking care of Liam. My kids will always come first, ALWAYS. Maybe that was just an excuse I used to not confront my own health. I seemed to run away from it every time something popped up. Well there's no more running.
The pain I'm in is too intense to ignore. It sent me to the ER twice last month. ER diagnosed my with a rare condition called epiploic appendagitis.
An Epiploic Appendage are these tiny fatty pockets along your colon. They serve no purpose whatsoever. Epiploic Appendagitis is when one or more of these swells, or gets twisted up and starts dying off. It's extremely painful and rare. Mine is extremely swollen to about the size of my pointer finger. The entire area around it is swollen as well, to the point you can see a lump on my abdomen. The ER doctor said these usually resolve themselves. Mine however is not resolving itself.
Because this isn't resolving itself my doctor referred me to a surgeon. I just saw the surgeon this past Monday. After asking me a ton of questions, he feels like the epiploic appendagitis was caused by Endometriosis. He feels like when I suffered the uterine rupture with Liam that it increased my chances of having endometriosis exponentially and that I have all the classic symptoms.
In fact my PCP also believes I have Endometriosis and when he referred me to the surgeon he was supposed to list laproscopic surgery but when the referral lady filled out the form she failed to add it. I've discussed with my doctor what we're going to do and since I can't have anymore kids we decided it's best to look into a hysterectomy. Now I need to find an OBGYN to follow through.
The surgeon also wants to do a colonoscopy because he thinks I have either Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis based on some other symptoms I've been having. He feels that it's more important to address the endometriosis first because of what it's affecting.
What I'm positive of is that my pain is getting worse as the weeks and days pass and that I can't handle it anymore. I'm currently taking Norco and 1,000 mg Naproxin twice a day as well as using essential oils and a heating pad. Some days it does nothing for my pain.
I know that my family needs me but I can't do for them what I normally would because of this pain. I'm not myself. I feel like a failure because I'm not even half my best. I'm not OK. I just want to do whatever I have to to get rid of this pain so I can go back to being the mom and wife they need me to be. I want to be able to get through a day without being in so much pain that I wish I'd just die already because dying would be less painful.
I'm praying that this horrible pain journey will be over, or better soon.
The pain I'm in is too intense to ignore. It sent me to the ER twice last month. ER diagnosed my with a rare condition called epiploic appendagitis.
Because this isn't resolving itself my doctor referred me to a surgeon. I just saw the surgeon this past Monday. After asking me a ton of questions, he feels like the epiploic appendagitis was caused by Endometriosis. He feels like when I suffered the uterine rupture with Liam that it increased my chances of having endometriosis exponentially and that I have all the classic symptoms.
In fact my PCP also believes I have Endometriosis and when he referred me to the surgeon he was supposed to list laproscopic surgery but when the referral lady filled out the form she failed to add it. I've discussed with my doctor what we're going to do and since I can't have anymore kids we decided it's best to look into a hysterectomy. Now I need to find an OBGYN to follow through.
The surgeon also wants to do a colonoscopy because he thinks I have either Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis based on some other symptoms I've been having. He feels that it's more important to address the endometriosis first because of what it's affecting.
What I'm positive of is that my pain is getting worse as the weeks and days pass and that I can't handle it anymore. I'm currently taking Norco and 1,000 mg Naproxin twice a day as well as using essential oils and a heating pad. Some days it does nothing for my pain.
I know that my family needs me but I can't do for them what I normally would because of this pain. I'm not myself. I feel like a failure because I'm not even half my best. I'm not OK. I just want to do whatever I have to to get rid of this pain so I can go back to being the mom and wife they need me to be. I want to be able to get through a day without being in so much pain that I wish I'd just die already because dying would be less painful.
I'm praying that this horrible pain journey will be over, or better soon.
Did your epiploic appendagitis resolve? I'm going through a bout of that now. Mine is clearly not as bad as yours was, but it isn't resolving in a week or two like they expected.
ReplyDeleteHi Shulamit, It started feeling better this past July but I still have "flare ups". The surgeon said that when you get one inflamed epiploc then odds are really good you'll get more. So the one in question either calmed down and flares back up or it died off and another one next to it is causing pain. I was told that I'm a rare case of it not resolving on it's own but I'm finding more and more people who have the same issues. I really hope yours clears up though!
Delete