My Biopsy

So I did it. I got talked into an unmedicated biopsy. It hurt. At first it hurt like getting a shot, then it hurt like bad cramps. Now it hurts like mild cramps.

Still, it was deeply unpleasant. I bought myself a bunch of chocolate truffles. If I didn't have to go to a committee meeting, take a kid to the eye doctor, and then be nice to a social worker I probably would have bought alcohol.

So, anyway. OB/GYN Guy said that there were a several different things we could do to respond to my bleeding, but we needed to do the biopsy and get an ultrasound just to be sure. I told him I had had the biopsy utrasound already and he pulled up the record, reading out loud, well, mumbling out loud, and commenting.

"Okay....ovary...mumble, mumble cyst"

"I think that is gone because it doesn't ache anymore."

"You're probably right. Let's see....8mm...mumble, mumble, fibroid. You've probably had that for ages."

Then he gets down to the part where there are big medical words that roughly translate to: there's some thing here and we don't have a clue what it is. He said, "Oh! Yes. We definitely need to do a biopsy."

Anyway, then he talked me into a non-medicated biopsy. I am apparently a whimp when it comes to standing up to kindly authority figures who have convincing arguments like, "Oh, you'll be fine." After that he tried to continue the conversation about options for treatment, but my anxiety level was way too high for that.

So I get results in about two weeks, which gives me plenty of time for the trip.

I am going to start Hormone Replacement Therapy*. It would take several months to see if it would really work, but by the time we get the biopsy results we will at least know if I tolerate it.

For a while he seemed to be wanting to encourage me to consider options other than hysterectomy, which is after all major surgery. When I told him that I was an academic and scheduled surgery in the summer would be okay and any surgery during the school year would be very, very bad, he seemed much more positive about it. I don't know if that is because he thinks there is a decent chance I would end up needing it anyway, or just that he realized that I had thought about it.

Anyway, that's the news. Now we wait for 2 weeks.

And think about shiny things.

Although I need to read these brochures and may feel compelled to write about them.

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Though Family Doctor Guy uses "Hormone Replacement Therapy" and "Birth Control Pills" pretty much interchangably, OB/GYN Guy means something specific by HRT. It is a lower dosage of the hormones. He thinks that there is a good chance that it will control my bleeding. That would be nice.