Thank you Lord

When I was 12 years old I started my monthly menstrual cycles. At first I was able to deal with it and still have a life. But then it got worse every year. For the last who knows how many years my menstrual cycles would put me in bed for a week or 2 every month. I would flood and have the most excruciatingly painful cramps ever! Caffeine was the only thing that worked for the pain. My cycles would last 14 days every month so my general practitioner put me on birth control pills in May to try and shorten it.. The birth control pill took it down to 5 days every month instead of 14. But I was still in bed for that 5 days, and that's such a long time. So my GP put me on the birth control pills continuously, so I wouldn't have a cycle. It helped for 4 months but after that the bleeding wouldn't stop even on the birth control pills. So in September my general practitioner referred me to a gynecologist. Mind you I had never been to a gynecologist before! I was really scared. I'm always really frightened to see a new doctor. She put me on 2 different birth control pills to stop the bleeding but they made me so sick! The birth control pills gave me very painful headaches and made me really nauseous.

I was in bed for 3 months starting in August due to the heavy bleeding and the birth control pills making me sick. After I went off the birth control pills my cycles wouldn't stop. So mom and I talked to the gynecologist about an ablation. The gynecologist said that since the birth control pills didn’t work for me and made me sick she would bring up the ablation surgery before the ethics committee. The ablation surgery would be to hopefully permanently stop my menstrual cycles. Saint Jude is a catholic hospital and doesn’t believe in birth control. But my case is different than most other women my age. Because of my developmental delay, severe anxiety and being on the autism spectrum, I don’t plan on ever getting married or having kids. The last week of September Mom, both my aunts (moms sisters), and my grandma, and I wrote letters to the ethics committee and explained my situation and the family history of menstrual problems. I think it was a week later, the first week in in October that the gynecologist called us at home and said that the ethics committee read all the letters and that it was an anonymous approval for me to have the ablation surgery!!! Thank you Lord!! 

That was an answer to prayer!! I had a lot of people praying that the ethics committee would approve the ablation surgery.  That week I had my pre-op appointment. We had to wait another week for the nurse to call us with the date for the surgery. It was not the news I wanted to hear. They couldn't fit me in for another month. I had to wait till the beginning of November. It was really hard to wait because I was so miserable and in so much pain.

On November 9th (1 month ago) I had the ablation surgery!!! life changing!! I can't tell you what a different person I am! I’m pain free!!! No more painful cramps!!! I’ve been sleeping like a baby ever since and I couldn’t do that before!!! Also my brain is functioning so much better than it has in years!!! I have energy for the first time in my life!!!

As I look back on that 3 months in bed this song was very relevant to me.

I knew God would make a way for me to have the life that I never had. I just had to wait patiently and that's something that I'm not good at doing.