Sunshine Journal

In the ongoing saga of my body’s quirks, I’ve got another diagnosis to share: May-Thurner Syndrome . If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone—it’s another rare one to add to the list. Essentially, it’s a condition where the left iliac vein is compressed by the right iliac artery, which can lead to poor blood flow and all sorts of fun (read: frustrating) symptoms. My vein is 83% compressed, though my body has created collateral veins to help bypass. You'd think this new highway system would be sufficient, but I guess it's not. I discovered I had May-Thurner Syndrome during a venogram I underwent at UW Health in August 2024. Going into my MALS surgery, I knew there was a potential that MTS would also need to be addressed. But I was optimistic, hoping that MALS would alleviate several of my symptoms. As it turns out, MALS was just one piece of a much bigger puzzle. The cramping, pain, fatigue, and dysautonomia have continued to wear me down, even post-surgery. Some days, I fe...

What day is it? I've been a bit MIA lately, so my blog is a tad behind. I'm going to try and incorporate some dates so we can all follow along better... myself included! Venogram/Ovarian Vein Embolization 4/5/2024 (a Friday!): We left off here. I wrote two whole blog posts about it. I'm a bit long-winded. We can't miss a detail though ;) Part 1 Part 2 X-ray of dye in my right ovarian vein X-ray of dye in my left ovarian vein X-ray of ovarian coils that were placed Post-Embolization 4/6-4/7 (the weekend): My main thought was, 'oh my word I'm in so much pain'. I think it hit me harder because I just had not anticipated the procedure and was still trying to wrap my head around it. What it meant going forward. How long would the pain last. Would I feel better than before. What will Dr. Warren think. Things like that. There was absolutely nothing I could do though, so I tried to stay in the moment and not dwell on it. I did find some FB groups on pelvic congestio...

I'm slowing coming out of my anesthesia fog from my venogram. The doctor comes in and tells me, "It was worse than I thought... " He then explains some of what he's done. Something about about embolizing and coiling. I'm thinking to myself, 'Oh NO!' So I ask, "What about my renal vein?" He tells me it isn't compressed and my iliac vein looks good too. He's called away for a moment and I turn to look at mom, "What is he talking about, can you have him draw a picture?" I just keep thinking that I hope whatever he's done was the right move, because it probably can't be undone. This is a good time for us all to take a moment to wonder, "Why did Ashlee not know all the possibilities going into this?" And this is a great question. I asked myself the same thing. He said he hadn't planned on doing anything while in there and I just went with that. I didn't take time to dwell on 'What Ifs' and ask more q...

I think it’s been established that things have been a bit chaotic in our household. Even with these challenges going on it’s so easy to see how blessed we still are! Our support system is incredible and not a day goes by that I don’t take a moment to look at my family/friends and see how fortunate I am.  I've been taking life one hour at a time as of late. It's been nothing short of challenging. I can finally say that tax deadline has past. At least the real big one. There's still plenty of work to do but it doesn't feel quite as intense. Which just means I feel less pressure to suck it up and keep going. To be clear, this pressure only comes from myself. Most people don't know or understand how much I struggle each day. And that's fair, because I try to put on a good face. I don't want to be a sick person. Thankfully I do have people that just get it and see me and I don't have to explain a thing. It's no longer unusual to disappear to the quiet roo...