Pelvic pain you say? What is this pelvic pain you speak of? Part 1

So many people have no idea about pelvic pain.   So many DOCTORS have no idea about pelvic pain.  I had no idea about pelvic pain.  There are many different ways it can manifest, many different types of pelvic pain and many different things that can cause it.  All I can tell you about is my own personal experience.

I would like to start out by saying that I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.  No one--fucking no one--wants to go and tell the doctor their vagina hurts.

So in 2007 I started having this odd sensation in my vag.  I thought I had an infection so I used OTC yeast stuff.  I kept feeling like it was gone, then not gone.  It was weird.  Finally I gave in and went to a clinic (I had moved to a new area about a year beforehand and didn't have a new gyno yet).  The doctor didn't find anything but said I should go to a specialist if I still didn't feel good.  So I did.  Mind you at this point it's been about five months or so (and now 2008) since the symptoms first started.  The specialist told me it was likely psychological because she found nothing.  Obviously I was furious.  I was trying to decided what my next step should be when the specialist called me a couple of days later and told me the lab came back positive for gardnerella.  That's right bitch, I thought.  I KNOW my own body; I knew something was wrong.  She gave me antibiotics.  They didn't work.  So she gave me somthing stronger.  Well, the stronger antibiotics she gave me?  They gave me a massive yeast infection.  So I was back to OTC yeast stuff.  Not working.  I was so frustrated at this point.  I had just gotten together with my boyfriend (now my husband) and wanted to jump his bones so bad!!!  I decided to step it up and made an appointment at the OBGYN office of a nearby reknown hospital.  They gave me boric acid (horrible, evil stuff; stay AWAY!!!!)  It felt like it might have worked, but I finally had sex with my boyfriend and it came back immediately and with a vengeance (even though we used protection).  They gave me another round of boric acid which left me--dry.  Dry and in so much pain.  But I mean dry as in no cervical fluid no nothing.  I went back to the doctor and they told me they couldn't find anything; said everything looked good and they didn't see why I should have pain.  They tried to refer me to a doctor in the city.  I called and they didn't take my insurance.  So I called back, hysterical at this point.  I told them they needed to give me another referral.  They put me on hold and came back saying the head doctor wanted to see me and could I come in right away.  YES OF COURSE.

Enter Dr. K.  He swabbed me, looked at the slides and told me I had absolutely no lactobacillus at all in my vagina--"atrophic vagnitis"-- because of the boric acid and gave me estrogen suppositories.  Atrophic vaginitis is when the walls of the vagina thin out and get dry from lack of estrogen, usually after menopause.  Anyway, I took the suppositories and it didn't help.  I went back to him.  He said I still had a little bit of yeast and gave me Diflucan.  I took that.  Cleared up the yeast, but I was still all dry and in pain.  I kept going back thinking it was still yeast.  He kept sending me away saying there was nothing wrong.  I was taking probiotics like crazy and had this long line of supplements that I was taking--anything to feel better.  But nothing was helping.

This went on all summer long, until finally I went to see him and he took me into his office.  He told me I had to convince myself psychologically that there was nothing wrong with me.  Basically, he told me I was crazy.  And the worst part was, I believed him.  I left and threw my hands up, deciding it would somehow take care of itself.  It had been 9 months.  I was done.

Anyway, eventually it did resolve about three months later, after one year.  Sort of.  See, I would have these flareups, like maybe three or four times a year.  They would last for about 3-5 days where I would start with feeling itchy and then feel dry and then get pain.  I would take a bunch of probiotics and it would resolve.  I had no idea at the time, but that was likely just coincidental.  This continued for four years.

continued on in Part 2