I went to see Dr. H on Friday and had some bloodwork done. I was so certain that what I'm experiencing is early menopause, but the results we got back yesterday said all hormonal tests (including my thyroid), were normal. I am, however, extremely anemic. So much so that the nurse who called me asked if I had been experiencing more dizzy episodes and incidents of near fainting, because I should be. Nope. Sometimes my head feels a little silly if I stand up too fast, but only for a few seconds. I am just so damned tired, though. If I get still for a few minutes, that's pretty much it. It's the same way I felt when I was trying to avoid giving up the vegetarian diet but Dr. F refused to test me for anemia. I don't know; maybe I'm still having issues from that. I hung in there for three years, it makes sense that it would take more than a year to build my iron back up.

Of course, bleeding for over three weeks couldn't have been helpful. I have been having difficulty focusing on a lot of things, so I thought it had been going on for two weeks, but when I checked the calendar it had actually been three.

Dr. H faxed a prescription for Progesterone to CVS last Friday and by Monday the bleeding had completely stopped but I still feel like the rest of the world is going by at normal speed while I drift through in slow motion. After the results came back yesterday she also faxed an order for some iron pills, which I started taking last night.

The nurse also informed me that such bleeding isn't at all uncommon for a woman 'of my age'. In fact, it just seems to be part of getting older. A step toward perimenopause without actually being perimenopause. Fibroids develop in many women, which, while benign, cause extended heavy bleeding and intervention is often needed to stop it.

Dr. H also wrote me a referral to be picked up today for a trip to a gynecologist for a pelvic ultrasound. I can't think of anything I'd rather do than have my girly bits probed yet again. My last gyn exam was only five months ago. The ultrasound picks up things the standard pelvic exam does not, which I remember from when I was pregnant with Trent and Zoe and had my first ob-gyn visits. Ectopic pregnancies (which can not be saved as they are too small to remove from the fallopian tube to implant in the uterus, no matter what christians would like to believe about them being capable of ending in a viable pregnancy) can be detected early on using this method. It's not that I disagree with the use or the science, it's just that there's something a little disconcerting about seeing an instrument approximately the size of a microphone heading toward that most vulnerable and sensitive of areas. It's the creep factor, I guess.

I have to have the referral first, so I'm hoping that once I get it I'll be able to get an appointment with the gyn within the next week or so. My Progesterone prescription runs out in a few days and I'm concerned that once it's been out of my system for a couple of days the bleeding will start again and we won't be able to do the exam. Dr. H wanted to do one Friday but we couldn't because of the bleeding. Maybe the ultrasound will be able to work anyway. I don't know. At the risk of being completely and utterly gross, cleaning up the aftermath of such an exam would be epic.

Okay, 'nuff said about that.

Dr. H also mentioned the possibility (as in, near certainty) of a D & C.

Boy Howdy. Can't wait for that.