Dealing with a disease is a lot harder than you might think. And one without a cure can be even worse. For those that don’t know I have something called endometriosis. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically when the tissue that is supposed to grow on the inside of your uterus begins to grow on other places in the pelvic area. It can even spread up to your heart and lungs. So now that you know that, here is my surgery story. That one that shook me the most.
It all started about 6 or 7 years ago. I would horrible pain all the time. I always thought that it was super normal because the pain was mainly there when I would have my cycle.
Fast forward to a few years later the pain just continued to get worse and worse over the years. It was getting too hard to ignore. I kept going to the hospital and I was just always told that it was all in my head, that there was nothing wrong with me. So at some point you begin to believe it.
At one point my right side continued to become more and more painful every single day. So I went to the ER a few times and on my second or third visit they finally found something. I had a cyst rupture on each of my ovaries. So they referred me to a gynecologist. (The best one I might add.)
So when I went to see her after only five minutes talking to her about my pain and what it felt like she immediately looked at me and said, “I think you have something that is called endometriosis.” Those words have both helped me and hurt me since hearing them that day. The one thing with diagnosing endometriosis is that is can only be done through surgery.
So a few months later I had my first surgery where I was officially diagnosed with endometriosis and where they also took out my appendix at the same time due to too much tissue growth from the endo on it. And ever since that day my life has never been the same.
There are four stages with endo. And depending on what stage determines how many and when you need surgery. I am now at a stage four and have had three surgeries since 2014. And the last one that I had has been the hardest to deal with. One thing that was tough about this one was that on average the surgery lasts about 45 minutes to an hour. Mine lasted almost 3 hours. This is because I had way more tissue than the doctor expected. She had to go in and scrap and burn the lining of my uterus out as well as any other spot that had the tissue on there.
After the surgery was over it took me several hours to come to. I hurt to move, to talk and even breath at some points. But at this point I didn’t know yet just how bad it was. After Michael told me everything that the doctor had told him it began to fully sink in. I have something that is going to cause me to never have a a normal life.
These surgeries are what has become normal for Michael and I. A cabinet full of 8 different medications is now normal. Almost two doctor visits a month is now normal. Not being able to have children is normal. That was the point when I realized that this disease has taken over my life.
I don’t say all of this to get pity or attention. I say all of this because people need to be more aware of endometriosis. It effects 1 in 10 women yet no one knows about it until you or someone you know is diagnosed with it. There is no cure. There is medication and surgery. So can we all take a moment after we read this to pray for the ladies that have this? And the spouses of those that have it? Because it is a daily struggle and we need awareness.
