best doctor's appointment ever!

Once again, if you don't want to know about my gimpy lady bits, please stop reading now.

I had my appointment with the ob/gyn today and it was freakin' awesome! Up until today I was really frustrated and I felt like nobody was listening to me, so before the appointment I got myself all psyched up to speak up for myself and be my own advocate, and I was all ready to go and I wasn't going to take any crap, etc. It turns out the doctor was a sweet old man (I'm guessing 70's) and get this, he listened to every single thing I had to say. Upon the advice of several people, I had typed up a list of all of my "female issues" over the years. It was seriously a page long, and instead of taking it from me and glancing at it, he had me go over every single thing on my list. Every. Single. Thing. It was awesome. And I told him about this summer when I went to the doctor because of sudden, excruciating back pain and how the doctor just dismissed me and said it was because I'm fat and I needed to see a dietician, and this doctor, who is possibly my new hero, actually rolled his eyes and looked disgusted!!! And then . . . THEN . . . he said he was sorry that this hadn't been diagnosed ten years ago! So let's recap . . . he listened to my entire list AND apologized! How cool is that!

Before I get carried away with my enthusiasm, he said he's 98% sure that I have endometriosis, which happens to be his specialty. I'm going to see a doctor next week who, if he agrees with the diagnosis, will go in laparoscopically and remove the endometrial tissue. Do you know how great it is to have someone finally (after 15 years) figure out what the problem is (well, hopefully, at least) and know what to do about it!?! It's just nice to finally be able to say that all of this crap over the years is because of one specific thing and that it can be managed. Hooray!

Oh, and this was funny-I was standing at the nurse's desk, waiting for my referral, and another one of the doctor's patients called up and from what I could tell, it sounded like she was trying to get pregnant and was ovulating. That's not what's funny. He got on the phone with her and told her to have her husband (who's the student and would be on campus) come by the health center and get a specimen cup and then have him um . . . give a specimen. That's not what's funny either. What's funny is that he told her, and this is almost word for word, not to just send him to the bathroom with the cup, but to make a little love and help him get the specimen. I thought that was awesome.