Official word from the RE is this: I had stage 4 (the most severe) endometriosis. I had lesions on my ovaries, my bladder, my bowel, and my uterus. My left ovary was fused to the back of my uterus, the broad ligament, meso salpinx, omentum, ovarian fossa and the utero sacral ligaments. I don't even know what half of those things are, but it sounds pretty messed up. The nurse explained that the left ovary was so distorted, that even though it was producing eggs, they were not going anywhere because the ovary was not connected to the fallopian tube. It would not have mattered how many times we babydanced, there would not have been a baby. There was so much work to be done to free that left ovary, that there may have been some damage to one of the nerves in my left leg. I have been experiencing numbness and pain in my left leg since the surgery. After meeting with her yesterday, she explained how fused that left ovary was and said that the work to free that may have done some damage to one of the nerves in my leg. She said if it was not improved in a week that I would need to go see a Neurologist. Great! Also, each month when the egg was released, there was toxic infection present from the lesions and the egg landed into the infection and was killed before fertilization was even possible. The RE was able to laser all endo areas away.
These are a few pictures of my insides. Cool huh? The top right shows a band of scarring going from top left to bottom right. My whole abdominal cavity was filled with these scar bands. In one of the pictures ( I didn't get that one), it looked like a large spiderweb with the scar bands going every which way. The RE lasered all of the scar tissue away.
The bottom left is one of my ovaries. You can see the dark spots on there, that is the endo that she lasered off. I'm guessing that this little ovary is my right one, because the left one was in bad shape.So part of yesterday's appointment was to talk about what the next step is. She wants us to take two cycles off. :-( She said that there was so much work done inside, that she wants my body to have plenty of time to heal. In December, she recommends doing our first IUI (inter uterine insemination). When she did the after intercourse test several months ago, the test indicated that there were few sperm present and the ones that were there were slow and sluggish. By doing the IUI, you give the sperm a head-start by placing it directly into the uterus. This eliminates the journey of the sperm to try to swim through the cervical fluid, through the cervix and through the uterus and to the egg. With the IUI, the sperm is inserted with a cathater directly into the uterus. Now the sperm's only job is to swim to the egg!
I was not expecting this diagnosis. I was very surprised that I had endo at all, especially stage 4! It took a few days to sink in. I can't believe that we waited so long to seek medical help. If we would have done this years ago, we would probably have our child by now. There was no way that we were going to conceive without medical intervention. I just wish I would have pursued this years ago! I am happy that we had the surgery done. I am still in a bit of disbelief about the results. I had not expected something so severe. I am thankful for friends that prayed with us about the decision to go ahead with the surgery and I am thankful for a God that guides us every step of the way.
