Do you remember that lovely female problem I've had going on for like five years. You can read about the past two years here and here. It should have come with no surprise when I got another letter in the mail saying that I should schedule another colposcopy...
I'm not sure exactly what I've covered in those past posts, and honestly I'm too lazy to go back and read them but up until recently I loved my doctor... didn't have a doubt about her in the world, but a friend of my mom's had a pretty big issue with her and convinced me that maybe I should be getting a second opinion on everything. I was leery at first, but when I received that letter my mom brought up a very good point - I haven't really received any new information about this condition in quite awhile from my current doctor - maybe someone else could provide me with more information.
So I decided that I would go ahead and make an appointment with a different practice to at least see what they had to say. I went to that appointment, but didn't really get a whole lot of information... mostly because they had to wait for my current doctor to fax over all the test results and such...
But, a week or so later I finally did get some answers. She basically said that with my specific condition my current doctor was doing everything right - monitoring it. A lot of people have said to me recently they just didn't understand why they weren't giving me the surgery to correct things. My current doctor always said that it was because I wasn't past my 'baby making stage' yet. That they could do the surgery, but recommends to wait b/c that surgery may cause pre-term labor or miscarriages. And if it was doing ok, then we could just monitor it. That was fine and dandy and all... but I'm kinda sick of going in for biopsies/colposcopies each year. They are painful and gross... really gross... for like a week afterwards...
Ok... feel like I got a bit off topic there... so, my current doctor was right about monitoring the condition and not just zapping it... however they saw no real reason why she keeps taking biopsies. She said my pap tests are reading abnormal, but only slightly, which means things are getting better down there. Plus, every time my current doctor has taken biopsies they have been in different spots of the cervix, which indicates it's not just one spot that's bad... wait, that didn't come out right... all of those biopsies just showed normal inflammation that ANY women could have... in other words, showed nothing alarming!
I feel like I'm not explaining this super well, but this new office feels confident that my condition can be monitored with routine pap tests and not biopsies... praise.the.lord!
Another great thing about this office was the amount of time they spent explaining everything to me... I really felt like I just got more information there than I had gotten in the previous five years at my other doctor. While it was nice to know that my other doctor wasn't doing anything wrong per say... I did like this other office's attention.
They also gave me a blood test while I was in the office... which we all know I hate... BUT she ran more tests than I've ever had... or at least gave me more results. They did a cholesterol test (which I have had before and showed high cholesterol) but she gave me my specific numbers. Explained that while my bad cholesterol was high, it was barely over the marker and that my good cholesterol was high too - which is good. They also realized that I have low vitamin D... they like to see that at a 30 and mine was at a 13.9. I will be taking some prescription vitamin D for 8 weeks and then getting another test. A vitamin D deficiency can cause sleepiness and irritability - which I do have on occasion... so I'm eager to see if taking a supplement will make either of those things better.
I've pretty much decided that I will be switching doctors... honestly part of it is I don't want to get another biopsy if I don't have to - and so far this office seems good.
I just wanted to follow up b/c I know everyone was just dying to know :)
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