Surgery?

It looks like I'm going in for laparoscopic surgery on December 17th. I've had a stupid pain in my right side for about 4-5 weeks now, and it isn't going away despite 7 days of antibiotics for intestinal infection, and a LOT of blood tests and exams.

About 4 weeks ago, I was having pain around my belly-button, and in my right lower abdomen. I thought about going to the ER a few times when it was pretty bad, but who the heck wants to sit there for 3 hours and have somebody tell you you have a stomach virus? Well, after a week, I called the doctor, and he had me come in. He thought I had most of the symptoms of appendicitis and said it could be that, an intestinal infection, or endometriosis. He sent me down for a ct scan of my appendix. After a long wait to get in, then another long wait for the results, that came back fine and he sent me home with my antibiotics and told me to see my obgyn.

I went to see the physician's assistant the next day. She said that it could be a cyst, a few other gyno things, or endometriosis. So, she wrote me up some scripts for new tests. I went to have those done about a week later. The tests came back ok. According to her, if they came back ok, I should make an appointment with the head gynecologist, Dr. Gingrich, because she deals with the "problems" like endometriosis and that could be it. I made the appointment.

During that week and a half, I was still having lots of problems and had a couple of nights out sort of messed up by the fact that I was in pain. I feel full all of the time and try to eat, but when I do I end up with horrible lower abdominal pain in that same spot on the right about 1/2 hour later and diarrhea. That is what makes me think that the endo. diagnosis may be wrong, because that's very gastro-related. Although from what I've been researching about, people with endo. sometimes have it located in their intestines and end up with those sorts of pains, so who knows?
Besides the abdominal pain I do have some of the other symptoms that are listed. I'm not going in to all of those...

I went in to talk to Dr. Gingrich on Monday of this week. She listened to the whole story and asked some questions, and said she better take a look. She had her receptionist set me up for laparoscopy on the 17th, some pre-op on the 12th and the 15th. My regular doctor set me up for a consult with a gastro-enterologist on the 15th as well. He said if it is not endometriosis, he wants me to talk to him to look into other problems. My surgery isn't until the 17th, but they still want me to come in and discuss what's going on.

So, that's where I stand right now. I'm a bit worried about the surgery. I'm worried that they will find endometriosis because it is not a pleasant thing, it is something that can never be cured and it gets worse over time. It could end up with a small surgery or a huge surgery. I may end up with a hysterectomy if it is really bad. However, I'm scared that they won't find endometriosis, because then it's like we're back to square one again and we'll have to keep looking for why I'm having this stupid pain! Meanwhile, my side, belly button, and under my belly button are still hurting. Sometimes, it even hurts on my right side up closer to my ribs. WTF???

I think I take pain pretty well. I'm trying to carry on with life like I normally would. I'm still having fun with family and friends, I'm still teaching, etc. Most days it's kind of like a very annoying pain that gets worse as the day goes on. At night I'm going to bed when I walk in the door and just laying around unless I have some sort of pre-planned activity. I do feel pretty wiped out. It's sort of like having a migraine- I continue on until I just can't- only it's in my side. Hmmm.

Well, this certainly was a complaint session!