June 16, 2010

It took me a while to think of ways in which I could thank a person who literally gave me my life back!  I could just thank you a million times but that I feel as though just would not be enough.  This is my testimonial of my journey and I hope to help women like me.  Just thinking back three months, I was in hell.   For ladies out there who know what hell is like, I would like to share my version of it.

Hell is when you have been physically drained and emotionally and mentally sucked dry for having tried to conceive for the last four years without knowing what is wrong with you.  Hell is going from Gyno to Gyno asking why why why yet you feel as though nobody cares enough to look further.  Hell is being in pain, rolling around on the floor and throwing up pain killers and paying another visit to the emergency room knowing all they could do is pump in more pain killers.  Hell is having multiple professional, well respected surgeons, Gynos, and fertility specialists all telling you different information and realizing that they cannot help or understand what you are going through.

That was my physical and mental state of being before surgery with Dr. Kanayama on March 4th, 2010.  In order to better describe my situation, let me provide a little more detail.  I am a happily married, successful 32 year old Contracts Specialist working for an IT consulting firm in the state of VA.  I was a good kid growing up, an excellent student, an even better employee, and a loving wife.  All of these which I realized I was taking for granted when I found out I had Stage IV Endometriosis when my world fell apart.  

In December of 2008, I started taking fertility drugs to help with ovulation.  This in some form or another triggered the underlying Endometriosis in my body which I didn’t find out until a surgeon opened me up the old fashion way and supposedly removed the Endo from my body.  This surgery lasted 6 hours while my family was told that it would only 2.  When I woke up, I found out that I had lost a fallopian tube on the left side from operating to detach my other organs from the cysts which had taken over.  My Gyno described that they could hardly recognize the organs as the Endo really deformed my other organs.  I had also lost a ton of blood from this surgery had to undergo a blood transfusion the very next morning.  It took me 3 weeks to recover and after the following week, my pain was back.  Yes, it came back.  That was what I was told from the surgeon whom I trusted with my second surgery.   In October of 2009, the excruciating, stabbing pain came back and the heaviest allowable doses of pain killers no longer helped.   The deathly stabbing pain did not give me a minute to breathe.  I prayed to God, please take away this pain for just five minutes, no just one minute even…please let me breathe.  I was immediately scheduled for the second surgery and when I woke up from anesthesia from that surgery, I was told that there were just too many cysts to operate on me and for immediate pain relief, he drained out the cysts.  This news, as I lay in the recovery room looking up at the most unsympathetic surgeon in the world, I did not take well.  Having been told I had no other choice, I went along with his advice and let him put me on medication called Lupron Depot which would somehow shrink the cysts and make it easier for him to operate months later.  In the following weeks, I grew weaker as the days went by having to deal with being on Lupron and dealing with the aftermaths of two surgeries.  I tried to laugh about the forced menopausal state that I was in by joking about putting up a sign on my office door saying “Please be aware: Woman heavily medicated.”    Having to work full time throughout my ordeal, Lupron was supposed to relieve the pain.  It did no such thing for me.  I was still taking Percocet (on top of maximum doses of Advil) while I was on Lupron just to make it through my day.  While I was at home, I lived with a heating pad or I was in the bathtub in hot boiling water to relieve the pain.  Not having been able to sleep for weeks and at my breaking point one night at 2AM in the morning, I began researching like a mad woman in tears asking for help.  One woman, whom I’ve separately thanked, responded to me with more knowledge than I had hoped to find.  Immediately, I booked an appointment with Dr. Kanayama and with Sabrina’s help had my third and only successful surgery in March.  Sabrina is great as she is a one stop shop for all of your questions.  She made scheduling the surgery as easy as can be even though I was an out of towner.  I appreciated her knowledge and experience quite a bit while I was struggling to make all the plans while being as sick as I was.  As many ladies have already expressed, the experience at Greenwich Hospital was a pleasure and I could not have asked for more.

It’s been more than 3 months and I feel wonderful!   Per my friends and family, I’ve got my sparkle back.  From my experience (wow cannot believe I can say this is my “experience” rather than my reality!)  I’ve learned that NOT all doctors can help.  If you have Endometriosis, and I had one of the worst cases as Dr. Kanayama has informed me, you have to be treated by someone who truly specializes in this field to just even recognize the issues you are having.  Avoid the mistakes I went through and go to him directly.  I have to also mention that I am left with several scars on my abdomen all of which were caused by my previous surgeries.  Dr. Kanayama is as master surgeon who left me with barely any visible scars from his laparoscopic procedure.  I cannot thank you enough for that.  My entire family and friends not having even met you, thank you and you will be our prayers forever.  My husband would also like to thank you, Dr. Kanayama, for giving him his life back as well.  He has been in as much stress and emotional pain as I have been in except he could never show it in front of me.  He couldn’t be more ecstatic to have his weekend fishing trips back now that he’s relieved enough to leave my side.  

I hope to help someone like me who may be reading this testimonial at 2AM in the morning struggling in pain…and I want to say …I was you and now, I’m free.  You could be too.  

Miji Chung