Health Update: The After Effects of Barbie Butt & Endometriosis

For those of you who have been reading my blog posts, you might remember that last year I was admitted for an intra-abdominal abscess that had gone septic with some rather funny goings on with my urine, I was passing blood clots and debris. This has always been written off as a by-product of suffering with endo. 

I had the abscess drained and a 10 day stay at the hospital. I know that I am my own worst enemy. I do not always follow the advice that I give to my followers…. I hate hospital and I hate going to the GP because about 95 % of those visits ends up with finding something else wrong with me. I also like to bury my head in the sand. 

After my discharge I had a few weeks to recover and then got back to work. 

Another diagnosis 

Over the last year I have had worsening symptoms; the debris, blood clots and general erghhh from my urinary tract. I have also been bleeding after sex and having to take that easy because it has been causing pain. Then add the crippling pelvic pain and cramps during that time of the month and you have a rather short sharp Louise. 

The pain got too much in July and I went to the GP. I have to admit swabbing my own vagina when things like that freak me out was a novelty… (not). I am unsure as to why every time I have an issue downstairs that I am automatically given a chlamydia swab and a BV one (bacterial vaginosis). I can confirm that they are not overly unpleasant, just rather disconcerting that you’re entering these swabs into your nether regions in the GP patient toilet. There’s me praying that I don’t drop them because doing them again would not be fun. 

Returned them to the GP, made a wise crack that if the chlamydia swab comes back positive my husband will be in big trouble, and booked for my internal examination the following week. I had my internal and the scar tissue has now impeached down past my cervix into my vaginal canal. Thankfully my smear test that day came back negative for HPV, so managed to flush that in the last year. 

All swabs came back negative so an emergency ultrasound was booked. I had this carried out late on the 4th of August and was immediately booked for an emergency gynea appointment on the 8th of August. During my ultrasound she mapped a cyst that was 13 cm by 16 cm with an 8 cm depth, to put that into context that’s basically the size of a honey dew melon sitting in my reproductive space. The nice lady sonographer asked how I was still walking and not crying in pain, my response was I have had pain worse than this.

Monday morning rolls around and I head to my emergency appointment. I can confirm I was upset and incredibly frustrated when I left the appointment. The gynea consultant I saw was a lovely man and he was also incredibly blunt and understood my history. The reason for my frustration was because the GI team knew that cyst was there last year and were meant to do an emergency gynea consult and that never happened. So my surgeon wasn’t notified and neither was my GI team or GP. The cyst has grown in size since last year and doubled so it really does need to be sorted sooner rather than later. The local hospital are not equipped to deal with complex surgical history as well as the damage that the surgery and endometriosis has caused. The cyst is going to require surgical intervention but its a case of how its tackled as its complex, a high infection risk and due to all my adhesions it could cause yet further damage to my already damage internals. 

I have had another emergency referral to Dr Kunde up at St Thomas’s to try and sort a game plan to tackle said cyst. I am also awaiting an emergency MRI as the debris and blood clots in my urine could either be a fistula that’s attached to said cyst and my bladder or it could be that the scar tissue is damaging my bladder and the connecting kidneys. It was explained that my bladder and urethra might be kinking up due to the scar tissue damage and that may also be causing the blood clots and debris. 

If you got this far down I commend you…  you may be wondering what an inclusion cyst is? An inclusion cyst is a by product of my scar tissue, recurring surgeries and my endo. The cyst is basically encased in scar tissue and has pockets of fluid that’s causing the swelling. 

The inside of my nether regions feels like jelly and I get sharp shooting pains. It has also caused issues with my bladder and I am constantly going for a wee as I can’t hold it in without it causing a great amount of pain, as well as making me feel nausea and break out in a cold sweat. 

What is an inclusion cyst? 

A Peritoneal inclusion cysts are complex cystic adnexal masses consisting of a normal ovary entrapped in multiple fluid-filled adhesions. The cysts usually develop in women of reproductive age who have a history of previous pelvic surgery or pelvic infection. In layman’s terms these cysts are caused by endometriosis, extensive pelvic or abdominal surgery, they can also be caused by pelvic inflammatory disease.

Are they painful? I can confirm that they cause increasing pelvic and abdominal pain, hence my trip to the GP. 

Symptoms

• Increased abdominal pain or pelvic pain
• Pain worsens around time of the month
• Increased pressure on the bladder and peeing a lot

How are they treated? 

They can be treated one of four ways 

• Observation
• Hormonal management
• Image guided aspiration
• Surgical incision

As previously discussed with one gynea it is most likely surgical for me as I can’t tolerate hormones and surgical aspiration may not be an option due to the amount of scar tissue encasing the cyst. 

At this moment in time I am awaiting my next appointment & MRI before working out how to approach this. It could have come at a better time as I have my next set of exams in October. 

I also managed to pass my last set at 83% after next to no sleep the night before.

If you should be experiencing any symptoms, please head to your GP and get them checked out. I have had an extensive amount of history with ovarian cysts due to damage caused by sepsis and my right fallopian tube giving up the ghost. 

It’s always better to be safe and get checked rather than leave it. 

As always 

Many thanks for reading 

Louise Xx

@crohnsfighting