Chloes Endometriosis Surgery

“Endometriosis devastates the lives of women and their families” (Endometriosis UK ) this is certainly true in our family, Chloe is awaiting surgery for this disease and due to the NHS being slow in their response we have had to look at private surgery, you never expect to need health insurance for a teenager so due to this we are needing to self-fund. This is not a new thing this has gone on since she was 12 years old! In December 2015 Chloe was admitted to hospital with suspected appendicitis. Chloe had surgery but it was found that appendicitis was not the cause, over the last almost 4 years Chloe has got gradually worse, with little investigation in to why. This has affected her education, career prospects, social life and Mental Health with her contemplating suicide in the last 18 months due to not wanting to live like this anymore. She regularly needs to use a walking stick to get around, and at her worst is unable to even get to the toilet without being carried. GP are currently looking at a referral to wheelchair services to help her remain mobile at her worst points. At 16 you don’t want to have your Dad have to bed bath you or take you to the toilet you but right now that is Chloe’s reality. This condition has had a major impact on her emotionally, she misses out on lots of activities her peers are able to do like school trips that school refused to take her on due to the impact of her health condition, she has had to give up on hobbies she loved for example playing rugby the church youth club and cadets. She also misses out on social activities with her friends like going into town or parties because she must be thinking of the consequences the activity can have on her health. This in turn effects friendships and makes her feel very isolated. Friends often have to come to Chloe instead of Chloe being able to go visit them and she can never make plans due to not knowing if she will need to cancel last minute and worrying about letting others down. This social isolation due to the impacts of her condition impacts her mental health. Her education is also being impacted by this during her GCSE exams she spent a week in hospital and a further week recovery during her exam phase meaning she was unable to sit some of her exams, this was on top of collapsing during some of the exams she sat making her miss more valuable exam time. This is impacting on her career prospects and is currently impacting on her College course where we are looking at another year out of education due to the impacts of this disease. 2 months ago we took the decision to get a private second opinion. We went to see Mr Christopher Mann  a Leading specialist into Endometriosis. He advised surgery was the only option. With this recommendation we returned to the NHS but once again we were deferred and told to wait. In order to get Chloe the medical intervention she so desperately needs we are now looking at private surgery. The Surgery will cost over £7000 this includes 1 night in hospital post-surgery, any additional days in hospital will be extra, so we are aiming to raise funds for 2 additional days. As most of you can probably understand we don’t have £8k lying around. We have £3k in saving and are hoping you guys can help raise the rest.