I went to the doctor’s office yesterday for my pre-op appointment. I have endometriosis, according to Dr. Chun. Unlike the appointment where he diagnosed it, it was more tense since I had to sign the consent form. His attitude the first time, was that this is a minor surgery with nothing to worry about. This time he had to mention risks, and said I could die… but also that I could die every time I get behind the wheel of a car. It felt scary to see risks on the consent form like: damage to nerves, bowel, bladder, uterus, and any adjacent organs…

Reading the risks on the form had me worried, and he examined me one more time and said since I seem to feel the pain from his examination, it’s probably bad. He couldn’t answer a lot of my questions exactly since he kept saying that it would depend on how bad it is when he goes in. So, last appointment I had the relief of hearing someone say it was endometriosis and not possibly cancer, and also say: “you scared? no need to be scared, minor surgers”… so I was surprised to hear it might be “bad” when he goes in.

I was training for my first marathon, but am not as sure it will happen this year since he wasn’t sure how long I won’t be able to run, and shin splints slowed down my training in the beginning. I only just recently started running up to 6 miles… and now I’ll have to take a break when the surgery happens. He can’t say how long cause it’ll depend on how the surgery goes and what they find.

I don’t experience any pain during my periods and didn’t realize anything was wrong with me, so I’m not super eager to have this procedure done – but I guess it has to be since he says it will only grow inside me. I hear he’s a good doctor, so I’ve got to believe in him and hope for the best.

On another tangent:
I can’t say I’ve had pleasant interactions with his nurse on the phone. Her bedside manner is not soothing in any way. I told her it felt like she cut me off on the phone when I started to ask any questions, and she said: “We never discourage questions.” Funny how that never comes across when speaking to her and she always comes across as rude. But maybe she doesn’t mean to be. I don’t know. I can’t say, but it’s bummed me out when dealing with the office that I always had to go through her directly, cause she has not been pleasant, but rather condescending each time I’ve had to speak to her. Even the other doctor’s offices they referred me out to both seemed to have a hard time since she never sent them any info about me. One surgeon who had to clear me asked: Are you here for me to do your surgery? And I had to explain to him that he was clearing me for Dr. Chun to do surgery. And my primary care physician’s office was like: they have to send us something, please call them and ask if they’ll send us some forms – but Dr. Chun’s nurse told me just to ask them to write a memo clearing me for surgery because i had asthma in my younger days and she wouldn’t send them anything. So I had to call the PCP nurse back and tell her and she was like: “What!? What’s her name? I’ll call her. We can’t just do stuff without some kind of form or something from their office.” But yeah, it’s been stressful managing the whole thing and dealing with people who don’t seem to like their job or working with patients.

Dr. Chun seems nice enough. And I wish I could switch to him from my current gyn since she is so far from town and seemed to make me have to deal with more than i needed to instead of referring me out earlier. But when I asked him he said he couldn’t become my doctor since she referred me, that she was my doctor

No matter what happens, I need to switch doctors cause I want one in town and one who has better exam hours so I don’t have to miss so much work.

Will 2008 be the year I finally run a marathon? Perhaps.

I’ve never run the marathon before and am not the greatest runner. This year was the first time I ever participated in any kind of run or stuck to running 3 times a week on a regular basis. I started with the Great Aloha Run, and the Ford Island Bridge Run. Next up is the 2008 Pineapple Run happening on May 10th. I was trying to run last year, but my mom was in the hospital for a couple of months, and between work and visiting her I had no time for it.

The marathon has always intrigued me since running was always a super difficult task for me. When I was in Basic training, it was the toughest part. Running kicked my ass. It still does. What kind of sucks is, i might have to have surgery this year even though… for the first time in my life… I finally started getting serious about running. I found this out in march. I have an appointment for a second opinion, but I think they’re going to tell me to get surgery.

In any event, I’ve been training, so hopefully I can still do it. I am a beginner runner, however. The farthest I ever ran is 8 miles so far. So, I’m not even 100% sure I can do the marathon but I asked my boss if I could have that date off, and am pretty determined to do it if possible. It’s just bad timing. I might have a condition called endometriosis, where the endometrium lining found in the womb, also starts growing outside of the womb. I don’t feel any pain, but catscans and ultrasounds don’t show the affected area, so no one knows for sure what it is that my current gynecologist is feeling when she does the pelvic exam. My mom had chemo last year for Ovarian cancer, so… they can’t rule out cancer in my case. She was in the hospital in April 2007, and had treatments through October 2007.

I have to go see Dr. Benton Chun in May for a second opinion. My current gynecologist doesn’t know what else to do since she doesn’t do surgery anymore and she can’t see it from catscan, ultrasound, and MRI. She can’t do anything more for me, she said, so she’s referring me to him.

I’m really impressed and proud of my mom who held up so well through all the treatments, and having her hair fall out – then start to grow back, and everything. She is a tough lady, and had another setback this year by having to have surgery on her shoulder for arthritis. She’s recovering now, and anxious to heal so she can finally feel like she’s free from medical setbacks.

Hopefully she has beaten the cancer, and I can still run my first marathon in 2008…