Hope for Healing: Endometriosis Excision
Donation protected
I have endometriosis. It's a disease that not many people understand. Endometriosis is not a bad period. It is lesions that grow outside of the uterus on other body structures and cause bleeding, pain, and inflammation.
These lesions can also cause organs to stick together or to stick to your pelvic wall. The inflammation can cause fatigue. The constant and unpredictable pain can cause depression and complex PTSD. The disease can take over your life.
I started having symptoms at age 11. I was not formally diagnosed until last year at the age of 27 with a diagnostic laparoscopy. I saw countless doctors over those 16 years for the acute issue of pelvic pain, as well a myriad of related symptoms.
Traditional Western doctors, naturopaths, massage therapists, counselors, and acupuncturists worked with me. I had many tests that showed nothing (I didn't know that an ultrasound or MRI wouldn't generally show endometriosis), I was given plenty of pills and vitamin protocols, and I was told a few times that the pain was normal (just a period) or that it was all in my head and if maybe I stopped thinking about it then it would get better.
When I was younger, I loved school. I couldn't get enough of it. Reading was my favorite subject and in 2nd grade I even convinced my teacher to let me help her grade papers instead of going to recess. In 6th grade, when my symptoms began I started missing school. I just couldn't go.
I missed school because I was in so much pain and also because I was bleeding so heavily that I couldn't make it through a class period without getting blood on my clothes. Waking up in the morning and trying to make it to the bathroom without getting blood on my bed, my pajamas, and the floor was impossible. Cleaning up large amounts of my own blood became normal. At 11 years old.
Having my surgery last year was exciting for me. I thought it would change my life. The idea that I could live without pain was thrilling. And for a couple months afterward I had very little pain. I attributed the pain that I did still have to "healing." But then it kept getting worse.
I was devastated. My dream to be able to live my life again was not coming true and I had spent over $6,600 to try and make it happen. And that was on the surgery alone, not all the appointments and treatments I had tried previously. I'm still paying on that failed surgery and will be for another year and a half.
Soon I will be having a second surgery with one of the best specialists in the country. I am confident in her ability to actually give me my quality of life back. I will be having excision of my endometriosis, which is where the endometriosis lesions are cut out instead of just having the surface burned off like in my previous ablation surgery. I will also be having a presacral neurectomy, which is the severing of some of the nerves leading to my uterus.
I can't wait to feel less pain and fatigue. I can't wait to be less alienated by my peers because they just can't understand chronic illness and why I'm not "better yet." I can't to have hope that I will be able to have a family of my own in the future.
I appreciate everyone who is able to donate towards my second surgery. It will hopefully be my last. Endometriosis isn't a well known disease, but it affects one in 10 women. When I am able, I want to help educate others about endometriosis. Thank you for helping give me that chance.
These lesions can also cause organs to stick together or to stick to your pelvic wall. The inflammation can cause fatigue. The constant and unpredictable pain can cause depression and complex PTSD. The disease can take over your life.
I started having symptoms at age 11. I was not formally diagnosed until last year at the age of 27 with a diagnostic laparoscopy. I saw countless doctors over those 16 years for the acute issue of pelvic pain, as well a myriad of related symptoms.
Traditional Western doctors, naturopaths, massage therapists, counselors, and acupuncturists worked with me. I had many tests that showed nothing (I didn't know that an ultrasound or MRI wouldn't generally show endometriosis), I was given plenty of pills and vitamin protocols, and I was told a few times that the pain was normal (just a period) or that it was all in my head and if maybe I stopped thinking about it then it would get better.
When I was younger, I loved school. I couldn't get enough of it. Reading was my favorite subject and in 2nd grade I even convinced my teacher to let me help her grade papers instead of going to recess. In 6th grade, when my symptoms began I started missing school. I just couldn't go.
I missed school because I was in so much pain and also because I was bleeding so heavily that I couldn't make it through a class period without getting blood on my clothes. Waking up in the morning and trying to make it to the bathroom without getting blood on my bed, my pajamas, and the floor was impossible. Cleaning up large amounts of my own blood became normal. At 11 years old.
Having my surgery last year was exciting for me. I thought it would change my life. The idea that I could live without pain was thrilling. And for a couple months afterward I had very little pain. I attributed the pain that I did still have to "healing." But then it kept getting worse.
I was devastated. My dream to be able to live my life again was not coming true and I had spent over $6,600 to try and make it happen. And that was on the surgery alone, not all the appointments and treatments I had tried previously. I'm still paying on that failed surgery and will be for another year and a half.
Soon I will be having a second surgery with one of the best specialists in the country. I am confident in her ability to actually give me my quality of life back. I will be having excision of my endometriosis, which is where the endometriosis lesions are cut out instead of just having the surface burned off like in my previous ablation surgery. I will also be having a presacral neurectomy, which is the severing of some of the nerves leading to my uterus.
I can't wait to feel less pain and fatigue. I can't wait to be less alienated by my peers because they just can't understand chronic illness and why I'm not "better yet." I can't to have hope that I will be able to have a family of my own in the future.
I appreciate everyone who is able to donate towards my second surgery. It will hopefully be my last. Endometriosis isn't a well known disease, but it affects one in 10 women. When I am able, I want to help educate others about endometriosis. Thank you for helping give me that chance.
Organizer
Alisha Lynn
Organizer
Belfair, WA
