I'm a stay at home mom to 3 teens. 19 year old daughter is starting her 3rd year at Towson University double majoring in Deaf Studies and Early Childhood Ed. 17 year old daughter is starting next week at UMBC, double majoring in Chemical Engineering and Oboe Performance. She will be living in a Living Learning Community where kids with the same focus live in the same area of the dorm. 16 year old son is starting 11th grade soon. He wants to be a Marine and plans to go to college first. I babysit my 2 yr old great niece everyday, she is my reason to get up in the morning. Couldn't do it w/o her

I had a hysterectomy in June of 2006 for endometriosis.  They had to call in another DR. to stop the bleeding. They told my husband they didn't think I was going to make it, not to go anywhere. Had 2 units of blood and was very sick and the pain never stopped.  GYN put me on Hydrocodone for 2 years along with 9 months of Lupron and the other hormone treatments.  I was very sick.  Would sweat for hours, soaking sweat.  Not menopause, 1 ovary still worked. Too weak to stand.  Was told to tough it out a few more months. 2 years later I was still toughing it out!  My new GYN tried to look in with a laparoscope and couldn't even see because the endo was wrapped around my bowels, omentum, ovary and appendix. So much scar tissue.  This meant it was all through my stomach, bowles everything,but they couldn't remove all that.  There was no way the first doctor finished the surgery because GYN's aren't certified to work on bowels.  From what my new GYN saw he and a general surgeon went in together and removed my appendix, my ovary, handfuls of omentum, and whatever else they could see.  At the lab, everything was full of endometriosis.  This meant it was best to stay off HRT as long as I could stand it.  I have not had one hot flash.  I don't know if it has anything to do with the fatigue or if that is just the fibro. I did see one GYN in between, he took me off all hormones cold turkey.  I went crazy, literally.  I was in pain after the first surgery but just like pain before.  I think what caused my fibro was the GYN taking me off all the hormones.  Even though my ovary was working, I was used to a higher level, and I lost my mind 4 days later with what I know now as severe fibro symptoms.  Everything hurt, I was amazingly weak, couldn't stop crying, didn't know why.  My new GYN, who did my surgery, got right on the phone and talked me down.  Had me come in, told me I wasn't crazy, my ovary was swollen, told me not to ever let a doctor take me off of hormones like that again, and called my GP to get me on cymbalta and valium immediately until he could figure what exactly was  causing the abdominal pain.  So, I'm better now then I was then, lol.  Seriously, you would have thought I was an ax murderer or something.  The best thing was my pain management Dr. switched me from Lyrica to Topamax.  The pain is worse in my legs and feet but better everywhere else.  And I gained 60 lbs on Lyrica 128-188.  I've lost 14 in 2 months on Topamax.  And the best medicine is watching my great niece while my niece works.  So I won't take any narcotics, but she is about a year and a half and the light of my life.  She keeps me busy and she gives me purpose and I have to work through the pain.  Sometimes it is really hard, but my niece is a young mom, Bella's dad is in Iraq and there is no way they can afford daycare.  I know this is lengthy but I wanted to share how I ended up with my diagnosis and how my doctors think it was caused.