Pre-diagnosis

Last May I went to see my general practiioner for a check-up. I felt fine but, because I'm doing Atkins, I wanted to get everything checked out to make sure I was fine, which is what the Atkins folks tell you you're supposed to do. But the GP also asked me when my last gynecologist visit was. Because I was 43 at the time and my mother has had breast cancer, I was hesitant to admit that I hadn't been to the GYN in 3 years. My GP told me that he would schedule my mammogram but I had to make a GYN appointment because I was overdue for a PAP smear. He ordered some blood tests, too, then scheduled my next visit with him for August. Blood tests were fine. Mammogram was fine. I still hadn't made the GYN appointment. My GP asked if I'd been having any problems with my periods. I told him they were getting kind of irregular, I was having some clotting and the cramps and backaches were getting kind of bad. He told me I should really make an appointment with my GYN.

In early October I had one of the worst periods I'd ever had since I started having them when I was 12. The cramps were almost unbearable. My flow was extremely heavy. I was using "super" tampons and "overnight" pads at the same time and still have to change them at least every 2 hours. But I still didn't make the GYN appointment. I assumed it was all related to perimenopause and I was just going to have to live with it. Two weeks after that 10-day nightmare ennded, it started all over again. Still, I was thinking perimenopause.

After that, I was pretty much OK for a while. The cramps were still pretty bad and I was still seeing some clotting but, for the most part, it wasn't much of a problem. Then February rolled around and I started feeling like crap. My back and thighs hurt so much that I could even take my daily walk and any other kind of exercise was hell. And I like exercise. I had gained a little bit of weight, so I was sticking to my diet very strictly. Still, I went up a jeans size. Weird thing was, the jeans and my other pants fit fine everyplace but my stomach. I found myself waking up five or six times during the night to go to the bathroom. I assumed it was because I was drinking too much water to help my dieting. My period was pretty bad, too. So, was the one I got two weeks later, and two weeks after that.

I knew something was wrong. I called the gynecologist.