Living with Endometriosis

  • Why February Is One Of My Favourite Months

    First February is my birthday month. Everyone likes the month they were born in. Because you get to celebrate the amazingness that is you and the people you love show you how much they love you. Sometimes it’s as simple as them just remembering your birthday, as people rely on Facebook to remind them of your birthday, which is a bit of a cheat. But that’s a story for another time. Maybe. But it always makes me happy for February because it’s an extra reason to spend time with my loved ones and this year was no exception even if it included going to a MacDonald’s drive through so I could get a double cheeseburger that I’d been craving for two months.

    Second February is the shortest month in the entire year. Even when it’s a leap year it is still the shortest month and after the fact that January just seems to go on and on and on I’m always grateful for February for not being such a Queen and taking up more days like a full month.

    Third, you get a freaking day dedicated to pancakes! How much better can you get? You can have them for breakfast or for tea and maybe even lunch too if you’re crazy for pancakes too. Personally, I’m not crazy for pancakes but I still have to have at least one with lemon and sugar because I like my pancakes traditional if I’m well enough to eat them.

    Fourth sometimes we get snow. Yeah yeah, I know most people don’t like snow but I’m a winter baby and to me for the longest time ever I’ve loved snow in February. When I was younger, snow in February used to be several inches if not at least a foot. Nowadays I’m lucky if it even lays and on the rare exception, it is generally the last month we really get snow.

    Fifth you get a day dedicated to love. I know it’s really an American holiday but whether you celebrate Valentine’s or Galantines Day it’s an extra day to show someone some love and while my hubby and I only exchange a card some people really go all out to treat their loved one and I think it’s so sweet to see how people treat their loved ones on Valentines or Galantines day.

    Sixth Easter chocolate comes out and seriously who doesn’t like some form of Easter chocolate?

    Seventh yes, I said seventh! But this one is a totally personal and selfish reason. It’s the first month I’ve not had to stay in the hospital and actually proves I’m on the road to recovery and am so pleased. I’m also back in Huddersfield with my hubby even if I have to go to bed early every night. There really is no place like home and it’s nice not having to share the bathroom with three other people and be able to eat whatever the hell I want.

    That’s why I love February and why it’s one of my favourite months.

    What’s your favourite month and why?

    (This post was originally published February 2017)

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  • When Surgery Doesn’t Go To Plan

    It’s been over seven months since I had surgery to remove all my endometriosis and while I’m still healing, today I’m going to share with you what happened and how my surgery didn’t go to plan and neither did my recovery because sometimes shit happens and you have to roll with the punches until they stop and then go your own way because as that saying goes, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

    I’ve learnt…

    Living with endometriosis, that you have to make something good out of something bad otherwise you just won’t survive the rest of it and I’ve been extremely lucky to have such an amazing support group of family and friends and there is no way I would have gotten through all of this without their help and support along with the amazing care from the Drs, Nurses and Health Care Assistant’s at Scarborough Hospital. So here’s my story of when surgery just doesn’t go to plan.

    On December 1st, 2016 I finally had surgery

    To remove the endometriosis that was attacking my internal organs. Before I went for surgery I already knew that my ovaries were in the wrong place. One ovary was sticking to my intestines and the other to my womb. I had also been sick for a year and a half by this point and was in pain daily even when I was on the prostrap injections. Which makes your body think it’s going through the menopause. This was the second time I had done the fake menopause so I was sort of aware what would happen but it was a different type compared to what I’d received before.

    To be honest whenever it was discussed about finally getting surgery to remove more of my endometriosis I always thought I’d at least get a colostomy bag and I always thought I might lose an ovary and/or my womb but it came as complete surprise when none of that happened and instead they removed my Fallopian tubes.

    They removed my appendix because, well you couldn’t really see it, buried under all my endometriosis, a cyst on my ovary, two inches of my bowel where your small intestine joins with your large intestine, both my Fallopian tubes, as one was twisted and one was taken over by the endo and if that weren’t enough they also happened to have nicked my womb. What my anesthesiologist thought would be a 45 minute to 3-hour procedure took 5 hours! All that surgery not to mention the fact I also had a reaction to something during the procedure and broke out in a rash and while all that wasn’t a walk in the park the ‘fun’ wasn’t over there.

    Oh, no siree.

    I ended up staying in hospital for 6 days, because first, they wanted me to pass gas then have a bowl movement and during that time the gas just didn’t seem to want to come out and I started vomiting, (btw Dr’s suck when you tell them your going to vomit and you need something to vomit in and they just walk away!) so they tried to stick a tube down my nose and throat which resulted in me vomiting for ages but it got rid of the gas, then for some unknown reason or they just didn’t tell me why, I ended up needing a blood transfusion and my whole left side of my body was one big massive bruise. By day 6 I was ready to go to my Mum’s to be looked after and recover.

    But the ‘fun’ doesn’t stop there.

    Oh no. I’m just not that lucky. Four days into my recovery at my Mum’s we’d, my Mum and I, thought I’d pulled my stitches because my appendix scare started bleeding, it was quite a lot of blood but we thought it had stopped until the next morning when it started again so after ringing 111 we went to A&E where I got prodded and poked and tests were done and I was asked at least a dozen times what had happened because I’d had my surgery in Hull and was currently in Scarborough. By 10pm even though we’d been on a ward since 2:30 pm I was finally admitted and spent the next four days in hospital having scans and antibiotics but otherwise feeling just fine but tired.

    Finally, it was announced that I had an infection and a ‘collection’ and that I needed antibiotics and after a massive crying jag, I was allowed to go home with more antibiotics and an appointment to come back on the 28th for a scan to make sure the infection and collection had shrunk or disappeared.

    Sadly on Christmas Day, I started vomiting again. Boxing Day was much the same and I hadn’t been able to keep anything down on either day’s. On Tuesday my Mum and Step-Dad came and got me and packed me back up to go back to A&E and what we were guessing would be a longer hospital stay because clearly I still had the infection.

    More than just infection

    Well, it turned out that I actually had sepsis and they were worried about my intestines. By this point I was really sick, I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in three days without vomiting and was in a lot of pain and I don’t really remember very much other than seeing a lovely Dr who had an awesome Scottish accent and told me I was very, very sick but I would be ok as they would look after me but I was going to be there for a while.

    Turns out sepsis is bad and I was lucky that it hadn’t gotten to my organs (this bit my Mum told me). I was on strong IV antibiotics five times a day and two days later, still not being allowed food I was in a theatre room getting a ‘wire’ put into my arm so I could be fed intravenously by a bag. Lovingly called TPN. Which, they hoped would give my intestines a break and give them time to heal and to figure out if they were leaking at all.

    I didn’t eat for 12 days!

    Including those days before I was readmitted. I spent the next two and a half weeks in the hospital. I formed a love/hate relationship with my TPN. I had a 24 hour TPN, IV antibiotics 5 times a day, IV painkillers and anti-nausea, daily blood tests, IV fluid’s for the first few days to replace fluids, constantly having to have cannulas changed every three to four days, ultrasounds and CT scans every 2-3 days. And because I had to have five rounds of IV antibiotics, they had to be spread apart throughout the day and my last round of antibiotics finished at 2am practically every time and I was closely monitored so that first week I did most of my sleeping during the day between tests, Dr visits and medications.

    Thankfully my collection and infection started shrinking. My collection was 6cms originally, eventually, it went down to 4cms. They wouldn’t operate on a collection unless it was 10cms or bigger I was informed. Like I wanted more surgery? It hadn’t gone so well the first time, no way did I want any more surgery. EVER. EVER. EVER.

    Finally

    My blood tests started to show good results and I went onto oral antibiotics and eventually got my TPN quantity reduced so I could start eating food and having bowel movements and then it got taken out and finally my blood came back clear! Even though I still had the collection at least the infection was gone. Huzzah!

    However, on my last night in the hospital, you know that night that the news went crazy about too many people being admitted and there not being enough beds. Yes, this was at the beginning of January 2017. I spent all New Years in Hospital. So as I was saying after an awful night where I was moved from my bed space to the side of the room because they were running out of space and received an awful apology from some woman who was just too rude, I was allowed to go home! With more antibiotics and medications and protein drinks than I thought possible, I thought that was that and the worst was behind me.

    A week later

    However, a week later I was in agonising pain and ended up being readmitted again for another six-night stay in the hospital and was happily reintroduced to strong painkillers and morphine. Hello, morphine my old chum. I’m not quite sure what caused the pain and neither are the Drs 100%, it could have been the collection being irritated by my bowels or things stretching and healing, either way, I was in a lot of pain and my blood showed that something was wrong as my count had dropped again. I was really lucky to get back in the same ward I was on before so I knew all the nurses and healthcare assistants. Who were lovely, wonderful and understanding.

    But by this point, I had lost December and January to hospital stays and wondered if I would ever be free. During that stay, I started having panic attacks. A few days in I had my first panic attack, I’m really not sure what caused it but that night I ended up having a total of eight panic attacks and the second night I had five!

    Thankfully I haven’t had another full panic attack since I have had a couple of mini ones and a few close brushes but have been lucky enough to be able to calm myself down but god if you go through them on a regular basis my heart goes out to you because they were just awful.

    After the last 6 night stay and everything looking as good as possible on my last CT scan, my collection was down to 2cms and I was allowed to go home with more drugs. Thankfully I haven’t had another hospital stay since or CT scan, or X-ray or Ultrasound and yes these were all scan’s that happened every three days more or less during my stay but my recovery process has been an extremely long one and while this post has topped in at over 2,000 words I have condescended this A LOT, I haven’t shared the tears, the vomiting, the lack of food, only being able to drink small amounts, the pain, the lack of life feeling, missing my husband, the lost hours of sleep, the noise, and other such fun things.

    I don’t want you to misunderstand my point. Because my point of this post isn’t to depress you. It’s to share that even with the best-laid plans nothing will go as you want and while everything can go tits up, you can get over it and recover. I want to say that I went through all of that and still maintained my positive outlook because honestly, I didn’t. I’m not going to lie. It was hard and tough and painful and some days all I did was sleep. But I was determined to get through it and I was lucky I was surrounded by such good nurses, Dr’s and healthcare assistants that made me smile and laugh, forced me to eat and make sure I drank enough. Because even though I was on the TPN I still lost a stone while I was in the hospital. It was a really hard time and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone but sometimes shit happens and you just have to roll with the punches until you can change things. Then fucking change them when you can because you are the ruler of your own fate.

    If you’ve read this far, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, I hope sharing my surgery story hasn’t depressed you because that wasn’t my intention I just wanted you to know that sometimes shit hits the fan and you have to still deal with it, no matter how much you don’t want too.

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  • Healing Hurts

    A pulled muscle hurts.

    But pulled scar tissue is even worse.

    Something simple such as bending at the waist to pick up the top of my hot water bottle then the pain that follows is excruciating. Lasts for days.

    Sitting on our front doorstep soaking up springs sun rays and being bounced on by next doors KitKat. Thinking nothing of bending forward to give her pats and scratches. Only days after already pulling scar tissue and dealing with several days of pain.

    Now dealing with a similar situation. But on a more painful level. Tears running down my face because the pain is too much to bear while waiting for drugs to kick in and hope, pray, and wish that they take away at least some part of the pain. Then exhaustion kicks in because the level of pain has taken most of my energy.

    How many days now will I lose until the pain recedes and I reach my ‘new level of normal’.

    Taken from my journal 9/3/17

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  • Meditation For Pain

    Back in August, my husband had an interview in Liverpool and he asked me to go with him so we could also catch up with some of his family who lived in Manchester and would meet us there for the day.

    Honestly I was unsure about being able to go because I was seven days late for my period but I’d been getting awful cramps, especially in the morning that left me in quite a bit of pain and I didn’t want to be in pain and not enjoy the day out but I’d also never been to Liverpool and if my husband didn’t get the job we were unsure when we’d get to go again.

    We set our alarm early just in case I was able to go and while I didn’t feel great and had under five hours sleep, I felt well enough to travel and really didn’t want to miss this opportunity.

    I didn’t even make it halfway through the journey before I had agonising cramps. However, the previous month I’d spent quite a bit of time using the Calm app. Particularly listening to the water sounds on the app as it helped me to sleep when I was in excruciating pain on my last period, so I decided to visualise the sea and created a very simple but easy to say mantra in my head, because we were on the train and while it wasn’t very busy I didn’t want to look any crazier than I did squeezing my husbands hand and grimacing in pain with tears in my eyes.

    My simple, easy mantra that I repeated in my head over and over again while visualising the sea was:

    I am relaxed, calm and safe.

    And do you know what?

    It worked.

    It wasn’t instantaneous I repeated it for quite a while, sometimes the cramps distracted me but once the contractions lessened and I could focus a bit more I kept repeating my mantra.

    Now I’m not saying when you’re in dire agony this will work because sometimes you’re just in too much pain to do much of anything other than curl in a ball and cry but if you can, try.

    Obviously, pick words for your mantra that work for you.

    I picked relaxed because the pain was making me tense and I know that if I can relax it helps the pain. Calm because well, I was freaking out a bit, and I needed to calm the hell down and also because it helped me visualise a calm sea and I picked safe because I was out of my safe environment and in pain and when I’m in pain intend to want to be home, preferably in bed, with a hot water bottle.

    I’d love to know if you ever meditate to help with pain and if you do what your mantra is or if you don’t have one.
    Leave me a comment and let me know!

    Meditation For Pain, Doe It Work?

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  • This year has been hard.

    This year has been hard.

    Every time I’ve thought. God this year is hard or life is hard, this year and life seem to think that’s a challenge and go aha challenge accepted, this is how we can make it worse for you.

    I’m lucky, ridiculously lucky in the grand scheme of things.

    I work for myself and can earn as much as I would part time when I’m sick.
    I have an amazing support group with my husband, mum, and bff with a different chronic illness. That will answer my woe is me texts no matter the time of day and support me through my bad mental health days and my shit unwell days.

    I still try my hardest to see life through rose coloured glasses but as 2016 has gone on I’ve really struggled with it and December has definitely been the icing on the cake while everyone was gearing up for Christmas, I was gearing myself up for Marjory surgery that not only didn’t turn out like planned, didn’t follow my recovery plan at all and involved a blood transfusion and a trip to a&e with an infection and two collections.

    With six days to Christmas as I write this I’m still 90 odd miles away from my husband who I’ve only seen in the flesh once since this whole ordeal started 20 days ago and all I seem to do is feel tired and nap and taking some kind of pill (antibiotics, iron, painkiller) nap again and I’ve finally started being able to eat again.

    Somebody really needs to point out how slow recovery can be from surgery and how not only can things knock it back but that you end up feeling weak and vulnerable and hating how that makes you feel which leads to a completely different kind of spiral but god does it suck.

    My recovery has not been all fairytales and roses this time around and in all honesty, makes me dread ever having surgery again and my upcoming scan in just two weeks time because it will be over my dead body if I need to go back into hospital anytime soon.

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  • Living With Endometriosis: Wellness Before Fertility

    I read this really interesting article on Facebook that’s from the Guardian.
    With endometriosis, shouldn’t ‘let’s get you well’ come before ‘let’s get you pregnant’? by Sylvia Freedman
    It’s a really great article, that I recommend you read because it’s not only something I’ve had to deal with but seems like a lot of other endometriosis sufferers have too. Which is really disheartening to be honest.

    The main part of the article is that endometriosis patients are often being told that:

     “[t]he only way to cure endometriosis is to get pregnant or have a hysterectomy.” 

    Personally I started getting told at 19 by nurses to get pregnant, that it was the only way to ‘cure’ my endometriosis.
    Isn’t it enough what we have to deal with already? The chronic pain and fatigue, the inability to work, go to school or socialise, the financial burdens this can cause, debilitating effects on mood, heavy bleeding, severe digestive disorders and other issues that prevent women with endometriosis from achieving their full potential, fertility is only a small part of the picture.

    In the article Ms Freemen states:

     On our EndoActive Facebook page we asked our 7,000 followers if their doctors had ever suggested pregnancy or hysterectomy as a cure for endometriosis. Out of 136 responses:
    124 were urged to have a baby as a cure
    48 had between 1-5 babies. All 48 report their pain is worse
    34 were told to have a hysterectomy as a cure
    13 had a hysterectomy
    Only 14 were told that having a baby or a hysterectomy is not a cure for endo. Only four reported their doctors gave great support and didn’t push fertility issues. One young girl commented: “My doctor told me having a baby would help my pain. I’m only 11.” And another: “My GP told me to go to the pub and have a one night stand and try to get pregnant before I missed the boat.”

    There shouldn’t be so much pressure on getting pregnant to ‘cure’ endometriosis. Especially when it’s not a guaranteed cure. Yes some might find relief but shouldn’t we first be supported on managing our pain, fatigue and being able to regain parts of our lives back?

    If and when we decide to get pregnant, shouldn’t it be because it’s our decision to get pregnant?

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  • The Weekly Post: The TMI Editon

    If you don’t want to hear about endometriosis, periods, diarrhoea and vomiting chocolate, don’t read this!

    First Happy Valentine’s Day! if you’re into that sort of thing, then I hope it’s the kind of day you want, but a lot of you do.
    Second this is going to a little bit different of a weekly post, I’ve given it a warning at the top stating why you might not want to read it, to be kind. But normally I wouldn’t write about this week or I would gloss over how bad it’s been but I’m not one to mince words and quite honestly I’m sick of not talking about how I really am and feel.
    This week has sucked balls. I knew it would because my period was due and as I’ve stated before one of my ovaries is stuck to my intestines and this basically means my ovary irritates my intestines and I have super awful diarrhoea and vomiting episodes and honestly I dread the pain. The pain is excruciating, sometimes it’s the pain that makes me vomit.
    I woke up on Tuesday at 2:45am with killer intestinal pains and 30 minutes later diarrhoea had kicked in. The pain was excruciating, like it always is but this time it felt so much worse because I was going every 5 minutes when normally there’s a gap or a break, if you will, and I can breathe and wrap my sleep fogged head around the fact that I have to deal with this when there’s a ‘break’ but not this time. It was just bam, bam, bam, oh shit I’m going to vomit and bam, bam, bam. For 45 minutes, it was awful. But I was happy, that it was over fast.
    Even though I vomited chocolate, which is another thing to add to my, I don’t like to vomit list which also contains rice, noodles and tuna.
    By 6:40 I was back in bed ready to get more than 3.5 hours sleep. You see once the ‘main’ part has past it slows down and takes a while to tapper off. I woke back up before midday and managed to spend what was left of the day with my husband on his day off with my period having now ever so kindly kicked in.
    Wednesday was in some sense even worse because even though I only ate soup the day before my intestines are so irritated and unhappy I’m pooping blood. Which has become my new normal! 
    Don’t panic, this was one of the reasons I was in A&E in November and so long as it’s not frequent and not a large amount it’s ‘normal’ or to be expected because of my endometriosis. 
    By 2pm my period pain has really kicked in and I seriously want to dig my left ovary out with a spoon. 
    By 3:30 I can’t stand the pain any longer and dig out my painkillers (not my ovary, because that would be crazy and I’m not there yet!) and take half of one and run a bath to try and deal with the cramps and the fact that my bum is seriously fucking sore. 
    By about 4:15 I am absolutely fucked, I try really had not to take my stronger painkillers because they make me loopy. My husband rings me on his way home from work and mocks me because he says I’m high. I get super upset on the phone because today makes six years without my Dad in my life, since he lost his battle with cancer and while I want to grieve and cry and deal with the guilt I feel, I’m in too much pain which makes me feel even worse. Ryan decides to distract me and I decide I have to divorce him because he can’t remember who the author or Pride and Prejudice is! and I’m outraged because a) it’s one of my all time favourite books and b) he’d bought me a copy before and c) my Mum just bought the entire Jane Austen set for my birthday which was just last week!
    He eventually talks me down and changes the subject and I can’t remember much of the evening because I continued to stay drugged up because THE PAIN WAS REALLY BAD!
    Friday things are still downhill. I want to Google if you can live without your intestines and if you can remove them at home. I don’t. I spend most of the day in bed, curled up in the fetal position because I have the worst trapped gas in a long, long time and oh my god it hurts! I can’t get comfy, I was determined not to take any painkillers today but by 2pm I can’t take it any more and I take one and all it does is make me dizzy. I manage to do some work for a client then force myself to nap while I play The Mummy in the background. 
    At 5:30 my intestines decided that I haven’t had enough pain and I’m just sat on the toilet for ages hoping for the gas to come out and the pain to just fucking stop. It doesn’t.
    By 7pm I’ve had a bit of diarrhoea again, at least there was no blood. I find the weirdest things to stay positive about. I manage to go downstairs and say hello to my husband, he forces me to eat something now I seem to have less pain.
    Saturday is back to diarrhoea land again. But now my period has gone missing! Why does it do this? I have zero clue, but all I can speculate is that my intestines have overridden my ovary and my period should be back tomorrow. That’s usually how it works. I spend two hours on the toilet and then desperately need to go back to bed because I’m exhausted from the pain and diarrhoea.
    I manage to put Chicken Run on via Netfilx and collapse in bed in a big shivery mess and sleep until 1pm when my body tells me it’s diarrhoea time again and then I freak out because the stupid toilet won’t flush!
    I ring my husband who very patiently tells me how to fix it. While I can tell he’s annoyed, not at me but the toilet, because it does this a lot. 
    By 2:30 I’m super cold and I’m refusing to put the heating on because a) I’m in bed and b) being ill in the bathroom with the heating on is just awful. I make a hot water bottle and make myself a cup of hot water because I haven’t drunk, eaten or taken anything all day as there’s still the chance I could throw up. I find Bed Knobs and Broomsticks on Netfilx to watch and make some tweaks to my blog and write this blog post.
    By 4:30pm my diarrhoea seems to have slowed down, finally and my husband has finished work and rings to see how I am. We agree I’m back on soup for tea and he pops to the supermarket to get me some tomato soup and Evie some veggies.
    The rest of the evening is pretty low key, we curl up on the sofa, I finish re-reading a book and Ryan watches Eureka. 
    Today’s plans are few and far between. My husband is off and we don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day but we still have to get our film date night in and it’s my pick this week and I’ve picked Pixels!
    Hope you had a great week! xo

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  • Living with Endometriosis Round 2

    Now this is where I have to explain things because I never wrote about them when they happened because I was too busy processing everything that was going on at the time. But I believe sometimes writing things out can give you some clarity and/or perspective. Sometimes writing things out is a good way of getting rid of what ever it is that’s clouding you. It doesn’t matter if it’s the day it happened or months or even years after. I believe it helps, so today I’m writing about living with endometriosis the second time round and what’s been going on.

    So here goes.

    Back in June when we were still living in Hull, I started to get sick, really sick. I was in horrible pain and had awful diarrhoea and vomiting bouts. That would last hours and hours and hours. I went to my Dr but he told me I had a bug, then the next month (July) at the exact same time in my cycle it happened again so I went back to my Dr and he started the ball rolling to see what it was.

    In August I had an ultra-sound to see what was going on with my ovaries and I left the room, to my Mum waiting for me, a little bit heartbroken and in shock. You see, my endometriosis had come back and the technician looking at the screen said it looked like my ovaries, womb and intestines were all stuck together aka a great big mess. One ovary was stuck to my womb and the other ovary was stuck to my intestines explaining why I was having awful diarrhoea as my ovary was irritating my intestines so when my period started and I was ovulating I became ill.

    Later on in August I saw a specialist who basically told us that my endometriosis had come back for sure. I had an internal exam where he made me bleed, and out of all the year’s I’ve had and been having internal exams I have never bled! He told me I couldn’t have any more surgery and that I had to get pregnant ASAP because if I couldn’t get pregnant within a year, year and a half tops I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant. He told me he would book me in for an MRI and refer me back to my original surgeon to discuss the condition of my fallopian tubes. I left the appointment with my Mum half super excited because we had to have a baby now and half upset because seriously could they stop telling me that the answer was to have a baby because they’d been telling me that since I was nineteen and that is not a cure and also because we still weren’t ready for a baby. But I really wanted one.

    In September I had the MRI, which was an awful experience because even though I’m not claustrophobic that machine nearly made me. It was so loud and vibrated so much! I just wanted out but was determined to stay and get it done. It was half an hour of pure discomfort for me that’s for sure.

    I spent ages waiting for the results of my MRI only to get a letter informing me of my next appointment in November. I continued to have bouts of diarrhoea and vomiting either before my period was about to start, during my period or when I was ovulating. I started to cut down the amount of food I ate which helped reduce the amounts of diarrhoea and vomiting I was having and the length of time I was stuck in the bathroom. I went from spending sometimes six to eight hours to four or six hours but I started losing weight at a more rapid rate.

    Through all of this I started to notice that every other month I would be much sicker. I thought this may be due to my ovaries taking turns to release an egg and one ovary was clearly much worse than the other one and it was effecting me.

    Come November I was ready for some clarity and help. Sadly it didn’t work the way I would have liked. I went to the appointment with my Mum and my husband to make sure I didn’t forget anything and so they could hear what he said and if they had any questions.

    By this point I should say we had been trying to get pregnant since September and had, had no luck.

    We were in the cancer clinic at Castle Hill and the appointment was running forty-five minutes late and my left ovary was starting to kill me. The pain was getting to be unbearable and I just wanted answers. My surgeon who we saw seemed more confused that I’d changed my name (that happens when you get married!) than apologetic that he was running so late. He was kind and patient and answered all our questions though.

    I could have surgery and he highly thought if I didn’t have surgery before we had a baby I would need surgery afterwards, because he believed it was possible that my endometriosis had started attacking/sticking to my intestines and that I properly didn’t have IBS and it was my endometriosis but he wouldn’t know for sure until I had surgery and he was able to see my intestines. But I had to prepare myself because it could be as simple as scraping off the endometriosis or it could be more serious and I could end up with a colostomy bag.

    He did recommend that we try and get pregnant and that the change in hormones would help reduce my endometriosis when I pointed out that we had already been trying for a few months and had been unsuccessful he agreed to put my name down on the waiting list for surgery because a) if you have endometriosis and were unable to get pregnant within six months you would be refereed any way and b) the waiting list was at least four months.

    After leaving I was stuck with the conundrum of whether or not to continue trying to get pregnant or to wait until after having the surgery to try again.

    As of the end of December we were still trying for a baby and waiting for a surgery letter and still dealing with being ill.

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  • Endometriosis: The Facts

    Back in 2014 I wrote a ridiculously long post all about endometriosis and what I’d been though. It really was a ridiculously long post and while I loved every word I wrote I felt in hindsight that it was just too lengthy and contained too much information so I’ve decided to break it down and try and make it more relevant.

    Endometriosis really doesn’t receive the attention that it deserves and I wanted to put this out there for young girls and woman who suffer from heavy painful periods and other symptoms that could mean you have Endometriosis. To make people aware and for people to know they are not alone!

    “Endometriosis (pronounced end – oh – mee – tree – oh – sis) is the name given to the condition where cells like the ones in the lining of the womb (uterus) are found elsewhere in the body.

    Every month your body goes through hormonal changes. You naturally release hormones which cause the lining of the womb to increase in preparation for a fertilised egg. If pregnancy does not occur, this lining will break down and bleed. The blood is then released from your body as a period.

    Endometriosis cells react in the same way – except that they are located outside your womb. During your monthly cycle your hormones stimulate the endometriosis, causing it to grow, then break down and bleed. This internal bleeding, unlike a period, has no way of leaving the body. This leads to inflammation, pain, and the formation of scar tissue (adhesions). Endometrial tissue can also be found in the ovary, where it can form cysts, called ‘chocolate cysts’ because of their appearance.

    Endometriosis is not an infection.
    Endometriosis is not contagious.
    Endometriosis is not cancer.

    The actual cause of endometriosis is unknown. There are several theories, but none fully explains why the condition occurs. Some women experience symptoms while others do not. The symptoms of endometriosis can vary in intensity.

    Common symptoms:

    • Painful, heavy, or irregular periods 
    • Pain during or after sex 
    • Infertility 
    • Problems on opening bowels 
    • Fatigue 
    • The individual circumstances of the woman 
    • Her age 
    • The severity of her symptoms 
    • Her desire to have children 
    • The severity of the disease

    If you have any of these symptoms please see your Dr. I would also recommend you keeping a note of all your symptoms and the dates these symptoms occur.

    The amount of endometriosis does not always correspond to the amount of pain and discomfort. A small amount of endometriosis can be more painful than severe disease. It depends, largely, where the endometriosis is actually growing inside the body.

    All of the symptoms above may have other causes. It is important to seek medical advice to clarify the cause of any symptoms you may experience. If your symptoms change after diagnosis it is important to discuss these changes with a medical practitioner. It is easy to attribute all your problems to endometriosis but it may not always be the cause of your symptoms.

    Currently, there is no cure for endometriosis. The different treatments available aim to reduce the severity of symptoms and improve the quality of life for a woman living with the condition.
    The type of treatment should be decided in partnership between her and her healthcare professional.
    The decision about which treatment to choose should depend on several factors:

    The treatments currently available can help by relieving pain symptoms; shrinking or slowing endometriosis growth; preserving or restoring fertility; or preventing/delaying the recurrence of the disease.” (Information provided by Endometriosis UK)

    Treatments for Endometriosis can vary but the main treatments can be pain management, hormones, surgery and nutrition.

    If you have any of these symptoms, please don’t hesitate to contact you G.P and it’s always good to keep a note of your symptoms and the dates they occur.

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