Really?

UPDATE BELOW Today I saw a gynecologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She had been in practice over 30 years. She was sort of that cold, hardened, brash type, well, you can picture her. (I do not mean any disrespect at all to our fine women serving in the US military.) But, with 30 years under her belt, I figured I was in good hands.

She, without even doing an exam wanted to tell me I should have my ovaries shut down (this due more in part, I suspect to my breast cancer history being positive for hormone stimulation), and I explained that my oncologist and I have discussed that and that was not the reason for my visit today.

I explained the pain I have been having since August and that it is on my side (rib area) and near my navel, and that my oncologist was able to find it precisely when palpating near the navel, and that
it is intermittent, but persistent, daily, and spontaneous. She did an exam and told me she believed that I may have adhesion's of the uterus but that the chances of them causing problems now 16 years after my last c-section was pretty slim, and that if that is the cause of this pain they would have to take the whole uterus and ovary anyway. Wait, but didn't she just say she didn't think that was the cause of this pain? I think she just wants my ovary! Maybe she keeps them in a jar on her shelf or something. Strange! Oh yeah, and then she proceeded to tell me to stop all coffee and diet cokes for a month and that may be the cause of this. Huh? Then she said that the pain on my side might be "gas". I said, "For 4 and a half MONTHS?" Really?

Never once did she palpate the area of my pain. Only the area of the uterus and ovary, which doesn't hurt at all. My oncologist had suggested an abdominal AND pelvic mri but this gynecologist only put in for the pelvic stating that gyn is her specialty. So I now have a message in to my oncologist to ask him if he might spare me a trip and put in for the abdominal mri along with the pelvic mri which is scheduled for the 12th of January. UPDATE*** My oncologist spoke with the MRI radiologist and said that the contrast given for each type of test is filmed in sequence and that he could not do them on the same day due to the length of time the contrast dissipates, so Pelvic MRI was performed Jan. 12th and abdominal will be the 26th of Jan. The oncologist also told me that he disagrees with my gyn's recommendation to shut down ovary and that this pain does not cycle with menstruation cycles, so he does not believe it to be the cause on on-going pain. So glad to have at least one doc on my side!

Round and round and round we go - where this stops, nobody knows!