Thoracic endo – just a theory?

Hi ladies

I apologize for not blogging in the last little while but it appears my body may have given up on me recently. Last month, during mid-cycle I was experiencing odd sternum pain. I was able to ‘crack’ it which doesn’t make sense because its not a joint. In any case, this cycle has been even more bizarre. It started with menses during mid-cycle followed by chronic thoracic pain that took me to the hospital as it was becoming harder to breathe. I was sent home with inconclusive results and was told to come back if it got worse. After 5 days of pain, I got my period again, two days earlier than expected but luckily the thoracic pain subsided. Unfortunately the period lasted a day and a half, with the thoracic pain coming back with a vengeance.

While at the hospital I felt, like so many of you have experienced, like a theorist. Maybe its this? Maybe its that? Maybe the dots don’t connect. I don’t know. I’m not a doctor. I’m a patient with odd symptoms and I just want someone to listen.

I was amazed at the doctor there. The first doctor (the second doctor was worse than the devil so I wont tell you about her. Dr. Chen from St Paul’s emerg. I wont tell you about her). In any case this angel of a doctor said ‘lets take endo out of the equation right now, and see what we can rule out’. I had an x-ray of the chest, blood and urine test, ECG, and an abdo-pelvic ultrasound. All came back negative. At the same time that dang right shoulder pain kept coming in and out, which led us to believe the pain was in fact originating from the pancreatic area and not referred pain to the abdomen. We were getting somewhere. I was scheduled next to see a gynecologist who would then take me to the next round of inspections and perhaps accelerate my referral into the Women’s Pain and Endo clinic here in BC. But during shift change the devil showed up, stopped my morphine and told me to go home; that there was nothing emerg could do. That was that.

So now I am in a fury of emails trying to be seen by someone, somewhere, who will take this seriously. I have a high pain tolerance and have pushed through an office job with tons of travel for the last 10 years. But this, this is horrible!

Feel free to email me your stories and I can share them here. Im in a sharing mood. Otherwise, wish me luck and I will try to amuse you with more endo health related stories soon.