An Unfinished Endo Story

I was one of those lucky people who never had issues with her periods.....until I had my second child. About a year after my son's birth, I began to have very heavy, painful periods. I remember being in absolute agony during my period. The heavy bleeding left me borderline anemic, but feeling crappy didn't just happen during my period. I felt generally unwell almost everyday.

Relief after two procedures

I knew I had fibroids and ovarian cysts when I was pregnant with my first child, but my OB-GYN thought I should have a laparoscopy to see what was up.

During the surgery, my doc found endometriosis. At that time (2008), he didn't perform an ablation, but scraped out as much endometriosis as he safely could. I had a bit of relief for less than a year. Then I was referred to an endometriosis specialist who performed a laser ablation. A surgery that was supposed to be about a 90-minute procedure turned into one that was almost four hours in duration. Endometriosis was everywhere -- bowel, bladder, urethra, small and large intestines and appendix, which he removed. The lining of my uterus was lasered out as well. I had six years of relief and then had a total abdominal hysterectomy in 2014. That was hell on earth, but worth it.

Has endometriosis returned?

Fast forward to last year or so. I've had almost constant acid reflux, bloating, abdominal swelling and discomfort daily. I've had a CT Scan, and two endoscopic procedures and my stomach, gallbladder, pancreas and liver are all in good shape. No H. pylori. No ulcers. I'm on three different meds for GERD and IBS. I'm tired of taking all these meds because they haven't helped in the least. The only thing I can think of that might make sense, is that the endo has come back. I remember this feeling of feeling terrible most days, the only difference now is that I have no periods and I'm older and in decent shape.

I'm hoping to see my doctor soon and I will ask to be referred to an endometriosis specialist to get to the bottom of this. It may not be the case, but I'm willing to have another surgery to either confirm it or rule it out. If anyone has had similar symptoms post hysterectomy, I'd love to know.