On my old diary I sort of took for granted the fact that a lot of people already knew the problems I had with my health so I never really bothered to explain them. But saying 'I'm not feeling well today' or 'I'm in pain today' without really saying why probably makes me sound like a hypochondriac, so I'm just going to outline what's wrong.
Since I was 16 years old I have suffered problems with my periods and all those malfunctioning female bits and pieces. I've been through years of repeated trips to the doctor, different pills which never worked, operations, you name it, but nothing has ever helped. Some of the problems have been diagnosed already, including endometriosis and cysts, but even when those have been removed I never receive any relief from the pain.
It's not 'cramps'. It's not 'period pains'. Those words come nowhere near it. For several days, whenever I bleed, I am in sheer agony. It defies words. I bleed so heavily that as soon as I change my pad it floods again. I lose large clots of blood, and can bleed for long periods of time. This in turn can lead to passing out, usually in puddles because that's just my luck! The painkillers I take don't actually touch the pain, but I end up taking them in hope anyway, and after a few days they wind up giving me headaches which kind of defy the purpose.
For some reason, most brands of the pill are not strong enough to stop me from getting breakthrough bleeding, and the only pill that was got withdrawn last year. Gee, thanks for that..... So whenever I talk about being in pain and bleeding, that's what's wrong. I don't tend to hold back on the graphic detail because I find it useful to have a record of what's been wrong each time for the next trip to the doctors, so if you're squeemish you can always skip entries when I'm not well.
Unfortunately I also have post-viral CFS. And how did I end up with that? Because I contracted Glandular Fever whilst I was in hospital, having an operation to remove adhesions that had formed from a previous overation to remove endometriosis. So just after recovering from surgery I ended up stuck in bed for weeks feeling the absolute worst I ever had done and I just never really got better. I started to, but every time I had a bleed I started to feel more unwell again. I've been left feeling absolutely drained and exhausted all the time, with an agonising sore throat, constant mouth ulcers, swollen glands and a mix of other symptoms that come and go as they please. My memory is especially crap at the moment, so please forgive me if I ever seem especially dim :)
So, yeah, I'm not a hypochondriac, I'm just a bit of an unlucky girl really. I suppose I do at least have an expert knowledge of brands of pill now - should that ever come in handy!
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