signs and symptoms of adenomyosis

in an earlier post, i talked about the condition adenomyosis. just for a quick review, adenomyosis as defined in WebMD is a condition in which the inner lining of the uterus called the endometrium breaks through the muscle walls of the uterus (myometrium). in other words, the tissues (endometrial) that normally lines the uterus (you know that lining in preparation for pregnancy), EXISTS within and grows INTO the muscular wall of the uterus (Source: MayoClinic.com.
screen grabbed from Mayo Clinic's website

now that you've recalled what the condition means. let's proceed to knowing its signs and symptoms. below is the table of symptoms from two sites online.

signs and symptoms

mayo clinic	WebMD
heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding	heavy, prolonged menstrual bleeding
severe cramping or sharp, knife-like pelvic pain during menstruation(dysmenorrhia)	severe menstrual cramps
menstrual cramps that last throughout period and worsen as one gets older	abdominal pressure and bloating
pain during intercourse
bleeding between periods
passing blood clots during period

from the above list, i experienced all of the above except for one. the symptoms appear really serious, especially the severe pains, heavy and prolonged bleeding, and the passing of blood clots, but according to medical literature adenomyosis is not life threatening (yay!) no one dies because of adenomyosis. in fact, one will be totally cured of it once she hits menopause (woman stops forming lining to prep for pregnancy, so no more tissues possibly encroaching the uterine walls) while this is truly something to rejoice about, it actually isn't picture perfect at all. when the symptoms emerge, it can actually be disruptive to one's daily life.
every time i have bouts of heavy bleeding, i lose total confidence to get out of the house. i fear not having easy access to a toilet. obviously, i have to change every so often because the pads for heavy flow just won't suffice. at worst, i experienced having to change pads every 20 minutes because they're easily soaked. so, when i'm at home, i sometimes resort to just staying in the john for an hour or so just to wait out for the blood clots to come out or just allow myself to bleed. haha, i remember there were several incidents where i placed a stool with pillow on top in front of the toilet bowl and just let the time and the bleeding passed while reading chick lit.nope they weren't cozy at all because the cramping was equally nasty. the book serves as distraction, and reading sometimes don't work as effectively as crying. i also had an episode in the mall, where i got stucked at the cinema toilet for roughly an hour also. good thing i was with a friend then that she patiently waited and talked me through the whole ordeal. i guess part of the reason she understood my condition was because she also witnessed a time that i got so caught up with work that i didn't realize i was heavily bleeding until i got up from my seat and my chair was all covered in blood. in fact, i think i had to borrow from boss' househelp some change of clothes then. my worst episode i think happened while i was at sm north wing three years ago. i expected my period to be normal that day as it's been days since i've had my period and the flow wasn't really heavy. but it's probably because of the cold temperature at the mall that triggered the heavy bleeding and so i had to rush to the nearest toilet. i broke down that day because i felt the condition was unfair and demeaning. Demeaning because i had to clean up after myself and the toilet bowl to remove the splashes of blood all over. plus, the toilet's drain got clogged and the water overflowed from the bowl. at least i tried to clean it up, but the janitress in-charge stopped me. she explained that she's been having problem with that cubicle and that it wasn't my fault that water overflowed from it. prior to that some women around were already looking at me curiously. because there was too much blood in the toilet, they probably thought i was attempting abortion. for fear that the janitress would think the same way, i had to explain to her about my medical condition. after hearing my story, she was sympathetic to me. i cried not because of her sympathy, but two other women came in later and saw the janitress cleaning the cubicle i vacated and made comments about "other people not knowing where to throw tissue properly, thus causing the clogged toilet". i knew it was an innocent comment. however, it was hurtful. i knew what they said was partly true. but to my defense, they didn't have an iota of idea of what i had to endure. also, as a person i would never throw garbage carelessly. i usually end up with pocketful of trash in my jeans because i don't throw them unless i spy a garbage bin. at that time, i remembered thinking if only these women knew the condition i had, and that there are other women around them who have reproductive issues they have no control over, they probably wouldn't have made wrong assumptions. (again, i know the comment wasn't attributed to me, but in some way i also felt responsible for the clogged toilet as my beautiful uterus didn't stop spewing blood clots then.
as far as pain symptoms are concerned, pain level when cramping ranges from a better 5 to a worst 10. the way i'd described it and probably of how i am when the pain became bad, my mother compared the pain with labor pains. my vagina hurts from blood spewing marathon, my pelvic bones, the lower portion of my back gives me hell. no amount of omega pain ointment works and so i usually end up popping mefenamic acid pills every 4 or 3 hours. sometimes, i'd cheat and take two at a time. the worst part is i don't know which position to take. i couldn't lie down too long because then it'd be hard for me to get up to run to the toilet. i'd dance, walked around the house, or just stand before my bar stool and just let my upper body rest while my mother tries to massage my back. boy, there were so many incidents involving my pain symptoms. haha, if you read my earlier posts, a lot of them were ranting and were actually written while in tremendous pain. the pain and bleeding sometimes don't appear together though. i had also plenty of occasions where i would just bleed for like 5 days to 3 weeks, flow isn't heavy, and there's no pain at all.
at present, i haven't had the symptoms i've described here. things changed for me when i decided to just let my condition run its course without relying on depo provera shots or changing from one contraceptive pills to another. since then, my bouts of heavy bleeding had been far in between. in the last three months, i've only had my period for at most 5 days without pain symptoms. one or two of those days were heavy, but not heavy enough that i couldn't go to work. at work, i just have to go to the toilet every once in a while to change pads. i also haven't had my ultrasound this year. so, i'm not sure how my beautiful uterus is faring these days but as far as daily living is concerned, i feel a whole lot better. definitely, a big change because prior to the decision to quit relying on pharmacology, i had a health scare that i may have gotten endometrial hyperplasia as my ultrasound didn't look too go. to confirm if i have it, i had a DnC procedure and the tissues scraped from my beautiful uterus was biopsied. luckily, my biopsy report indicated that i got the kind that won't lead to uterine cancer. the 3 other kinds are precursor to cancer. so, yay as i don't fancy myself losing my precious locks.