Ultra sounds - are they helpful?

 Let’s talk about ultra sounds.

By this point in time I have had at least 300 done. It’s a great tool often used by doctors to see inside their patients. It’s a very handy tool that takes practice and schooling to achieve the level of skill required. 

Your doctor will inform you of getting one and either give you a requisition or send one out. Once the appointment is made, depending on the ultra sound, you have to prepare.

Sometimes you just need to have an empty stomach. So no eating 6-12 hours before hand. Depends on what they need. Other times you have to have a full bladder. Those are the worst. You are always sitting in the waiting room, your appointment is always running late. Your bladder feels like it will explode or should of exploded 20 minutes ago. At some point in time you highly consider peeing yourself, just a little, for some relief.

The technician will call you in and have you change, normally into a gown. You go in and lay down on a table. Some weird lubricant is squirted on your stomach and it’s ICE cold! Every time! For some reason they refuse to make it room temperature. The technician will pull out a tube with a weird head on it. That’s the camera. And they smear it around in the goo on your stomach. Clicking away on their laptop as they take images. If your really lucky, they push down on your bladder with the camera. You swear Niagara Falls is about to bust through a damn. 

I’m going to warn you all about internal ones. If you are here reading this, it’s because you have or suspect you have Endometriosis. I can promise, you’ll have to do one of these at some point in time.

My technician always requires me to read through a document and sign it. Where it explains what they will be doing. You can always ask the technician to talk you through it. They are very helpful and understanding to how uncomfortable this can be.

You lay on the table on your back, you get a little pillow under your pelvis. A blanket draped over your lap for some form of decency. Yup, you have to sit with your legs apart, as if giving birth. The technician has a “wand”. That is the camera. They lube it up with some lubricant and when your ready, insert it into your vagina. They don’t see you while doing this, because you’re covered by a blanket and they are off to the side with the computer. It is uncomfortable. I will not lie. They have to move it around for different imagining and it feels like a ball being smashed against a wall. On more than one occasion I’ve been tempted to kick or slap the technician. But I remind myself they are just doing their job and it’s for my health. This is a very invasive procedure and can be uncomfortable for many. Ask questions. Take a minute. It’s okay. Do what you need to do to understand what is going on and feel comfortable. 

Personally, I see my lab technician so often, I am now very comfortable with them.

After an ultra sound you get to clean up the sticky goo, change and go home. Now you wait for your doctor to call with the results. You wait some more.

Now here’s the problem, you’ll be asked to do soooo many of these. By sooooo many difference doctors. Yet Endometriosis more often than not, does not show up on an ultra sound! Yes some cases are seen in the imaging. Often stage 4 or very very very severe cases. But sadly, 8/10 times, it does not appear in ultra sounds. 

So is an ultra sound helpful? Yes and no. Yes and is it can detect many other health concerns. No if you are searching for Endometriosis. It’s just another step in the process that has to be completed. To try and rule everything out. But when the doctors don’t see anything, you get shoved aside and seen as dramatic. Giving doctors another reason to dismiss the pain. They don’t see anything.

Endometriosis can only be 100% diagnosed through Laparoscopic Surgery/Laparoscopy.