Thirteen Years, Almost to the Day
How long does it take to diagnosis a complex gynecologic issue? This is a question that our founder, Stephanie has been asking herself almost daily for the last thirteen years, almost to the day. Well, we’re pleased to tell you that she finally has an answer!
We shared with you last month about Stephanie’s third trip to Tulsa. The main purpose of that trip was to do a biopsy to see if that would reveal the source of Stephanie’s pain. She got the results yesterday, nearly thirteen years to the day that she started experiencing that particular gynecologic pain.
While we here at The Aziza Project believe there’s no such thing as too much information, please know that the rest of this post concerns Stephanie’s medical diagnosis, and if you know her in real life, you may not want to continue reading.
Stephanie’s diagnosis turned out to be atopic dermatitis, which is treatable with steroids, and does not cause cancer, like some other vulvar dermatoses can. When Dr. Babb told her, Stephanie started crying, because it was such a relief just to know what was wrong, that it wasn’t related to her nerve issue, and that it’s treatable. It’s still going to take some time to determine triggers. She’s tried to figure out triggers in the past, but hasn’t gotten very clear answers, possibly because her nervous system has been so overwhelmed by the pain. But, with the help of Dr. Babb’s pelvic floor Botox magic, and Stephanie’s wonderful pelvic floor physical therapist, Stephanie’s nervous system is a lot calmer now than it has been in the past, and treatment for the atopic dermatitis might actually work this time! Stephanie is also doing a lot of work with her primary care provider to work on other, seemingly unrelated (but maybe not!) issues. She’s curious to see how those other things will factor into healing her atopic dermatitis.
Finding answers for a condition like atopic dermatitis can take years, and cost a lot. A biopsy, like the one Stephanie had, costs $500. If you’d like to offer hope by contributing toward the cost of a biopsy, you can make a donation here.
