rivrrat

Well, sex is generally somewhat painful for me most times too. But that's because I like it that way.

But anywho.. I guess if it were an issue like that, then I'd have it taken care of.

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1069

Some women have what is known as a "resistant hymen"; basically the skin of it is just thicker, tougher, or more rigid than normal, so it does not stretch or tear easily.
One of my favorite authors, Kathryn Harrison, had this hymenectomy procedure done at her mother's behest before she went off to college. She describes the procedure (which in her case involved not only incising the hymen but then stretching the vaginal opening with a graduated series of, basically, dildos) in her autobiographical book "The Kiss". So, if you want to read a description of the procedure from someone who's actually had it, get that book.
It is done on an outpatient basis with only local anesthetic- generally a topical anesthetic such as lidocaine.
If there is pain afterward, it is minor enough to require only over-the-counter analgesics such as Advil.
If sex hurts every time, I would definitely recommend seeing a doctor and demanding the procedure.
If you and your doctor don't see eye to eye on the need for such a procedure and he/she tells you to just deal with it, I would seek another doctor. That is what I had to do, with this situation I'm having.

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"I do love this idea that one can scream and scream and scream, with that utopia just one more scream away."
~ Scucca

FallingPianos

I actually have a BC appointment with planned parenthood tomarrow. I'm thinking I might ask the nurse about it. I was kind of surprised reading about your experience with them, I've never had anything but positive experiences. I guess I'll see what they say about it.

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1069

Well, I'm not knocking them.
They did everything correctly- performed a PAP, removed as much as they could of the polyp and sent it in for analysis, prescribed pills to control my irregular bleeding.
They certainly treated me better and did more for me than that first gyno I went to, after I got insurance, who suggested that all of my problems were trivial, and I should just live with them.
But there are limits to what a nurse-practitioner can do. She cannot perform surgery, and this polyp apparently will require minor surgery in order to remove it completely so that it will cease growing back and giving me problems.

1069

I forgot to mention the thing that endeared me to this new doctor right off the bat.
When she was taking my history, she asked me how many kids I had, and their ages.
When I told her, she didn't bat an eyelash.
She said, "Oh, you were young. Well, in some ways, that's best."

I can count on one hand the number of doctors- the number of people, period- who have ever responded positively or even neutrally to such a disclosure.
She is not American-born, so perhaps that explains her lack of censure. Such things are no doubt common in her country of origin.

I just know things are going to improve now. She seems like an awesome doctor.
And she doesn't keep a nurse in the room during the exam; another plus.
That sort of mutual paranoia really bothers me.
I trust this new doctor.

1069

Crap. My "procedure" is in 2 days. Hope I don't chicken out.
I won't, though. I want this thing taken care of. NOW!

Good luck to Missy whose surgery is in a couple of days also.
We're going to be a couple of hurtin' bitches around here next week.

talloulou

Hope all goes well for both of you.

1069

My procedure is all over.
I've got to get some guts about me when it comes to medical stuff; that was total hell.
In retrospect it didn't even hurt much (they gave me two pills about 20 minutes before, and that was it for painkillers; not even any topical lidocaine. I don't know what the pills were, but I assume they were just strong ibuprofin. They didn't make me drowsy, so I don't think they were opiate-based), but I got scared and was shaking so bad she had to get the nurse to hold my knees. It was almost like I was having a seizure. I bit my tongue really bad, too. It's still bleeding. This was the same thing that happened when I had my abortion.
Anyway, she cut this polyp out- or as much of it as she could get; it wasn't very big, from what i could see, maybe like a centimeter in diameter- and sent it off to the lab; she said it didn't look suspicious in any way, but it's routine to send them, so. I'm not too worried about that.
Then she put a bunch of silver nitrate on my cervix. That burned a bit, but not intolerably. This will cauterize the tissue and may stop the polyp from growing back. But it may not. She said they frequently grow back and have to be treated all over again.

This procedure was not the horror I was prepared for, but I also feel a little let down. This has been going on so long, and I finally got up my courage to go do this, I was prepared for any amount of pain, but I wanted to have it over. I wanted to have some finality to it.
I do not feel the sense of closure I had hoped for, since the doctor 1. wasn't even positive she got it all, 2. hoped that if she didn't, then the silver nitrate would burn off whatever was left, and 3. could not guarantee it wouldn't grow back and start causing symptoms all over again.

I have been without medical care for a long, long time.
I guess I had a false and rather childish idea in my head that doctors pretty much know what they're doing. That they are like mechanics who work on cars: dx the problem, then fix it.
My perception of that is beginning to alter; I see now that it's a little more hit-or-miss than that. Try one thing, try another. No guarantees.
I feel like... if I could only see the thing, or feel it, I could remove it myself, and I'd make damn sure it didn't come back. I'd dig it out of there with a razor. But unfortunately, it's in a place where I can't get at it. Everybody else in the world would have a better shot at it than me, because I just can't get to it.

So, I'll just have to hope this doctor knew what she was doing. I'm just confused about why she "wasn't sure she got it all". I mean... you're a f'ing doctor. isn't it your job to make sure you get it all?
She had just, I guess, given me the impression on my first visit that this was something she had dealt with many times and was confident she could take care of.
I'll be very sad if I have to go through all of this all over again in a few months. I have a panic disorder, and it's very hard for me to go through this even once, let alone repeatedly.
If it comes back, I don't think I'll have it removed again. I'd rather just live with it.
I'm not scheduled for any follow-up visit or anything; she just said to come back in a year for my annual exam, and she'll look at it then and see if it's growing back.

Well. At least that's over with. There's probably nothing else i can do about it for now.

talloulou

You seem like you're like my husband. His expectations at drs. visits set him up to be disappointed. For example if he has a sore throat or a persistent cold or anything he doesn't just want antibiotics, he won't accept a drs. opinion that he has a flu, virus, or whatever. He wants to know exactly what he has, what strain he has, ect. He doesn't want to take any medication needlessly and he refuses to try something on the basis that, "This will probably work." He swims daily and lately he has this rash that he went to, no lie, over 3 different drs. for. They all think it's more than likely eczema or some contact dermatitis and they recommended things he could do to definitely discover which it is. They also weren't very excited about it, like he was. The rash is really hardly even noticeable most times. Basically to them it's no big deal so he can try this, that, or something else. He wants to know exactly what is ailing his skin and he's beyond pissed that no one can give him a definitive answer. They assured him that it definitely was NOT mersa or any other type of infection /virus and thus he should stop worrying. But in his mind he shouldn't have to pay because they didn't definitively tell him anything. In his mind, he can play guessing games all by himself and so why should he pay?

Anyway with something like polyps it's very hard to say what the future will bring. Some folks are prone towards getting them and once they do they will get them repeatedly throughout their lives. Others will get one and never deal with them again. Some peoples polyps cause them all kinds of symptoms despite the polyp being decidedly small and other people learn incidentally that they have a HUGE polyp that never gave off any signs or symptoms of existing at all. So it's all but impossible for drs. to give off any type of definitive answers. As for whether she got it all she more than likely did but it's common for her to be rather unsure. If she was dealing with cutting something malignant out of you she'd likely be more aggressive in attempting to get it all with clean margins all around. With something normally and usually benign like a polyp drs. aren't going to get very aggressive taking lots of healthy tissue out to be sure they got it all.

One thing you could do though is get a copy of your path report when it comes back in. It may discuss the margins and whether they were clean or not. It might say something along the lines of it being encapsulated or surrounded by clean healthy tissue. Don't call over the phone for the path report though because they'll likely just read you the IMPRESSION which will be the short pathologist summary and say something along the lines of simply "benign polyp." But if you physically go get a copy of your path report you can read all the boring stuff that comes above the impression and it is there that you can get a better idea on how "clean" a removal it was.

missypea

I haven't been on much....I've been working like a mad woman trying to get everything caught up and/or delegated by the end of the work day today.

Tomorrow is the surgery. I've been crying off and on for 3 days.......what a wimp, huh? I really hate general anesthesia. I wish they would just give me an epideral instead.

Hubby is already moving into "nurse" mode and being sweeter than his usual sweet self

Doc gave me some xanax to help relax me so I can sleep tonight. I took two but I think I'm going to take one or two more.....tears are still coming.

Crazy, isn't it? I want to have this done. I can't wait for it to be a memory, but I don't want to be put to sleep........not too wild about the staying the night at the hospital either.

I've resigned myself to spending the night in the hospital though. Doc really wanted me to and Gary was afraid that something might happen if I came home too early. Hard to use panic as a valid reason to leave the hospital when I've got them using logic as a reason for me to spend the night.

I have to be at the hospital at 6:15 tomorrow morning. Surgery is at 8:00.

I'm off to pop a couple more pills and lay down. I'll let you know I'm alive and well sometime this weekend....... (I hope!)

Wish me luck!

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Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek..........Obama