For as long as I can remember I have dealt with chronic pelvic pain. I always thought it was normal to be in pain around a woman’s cycle. I didn’t understand the pain I was feeling wasn’t normal until it got so bad I could barely move from my bed due to the horrible cramping that would radiate down my back to my legs making it hard to walk. When I was officially diagnosed with endometriosis in 2014, it was a relief to know that the pain I was experiencing wasn’t all in my head and wasn’t just a “bad menstrual cycle” like many doctors have told me in the past.

 Endometriosis (Endo) is a systematic disease that occurs when the lining of the uterus is found outside of the uterus attaching itself to other organs of the body. The tissue creates lesions that become inflamed, bleed and break down, causing pain, scar tissue and inflammation. This disease impacts one in ten women (theendo.co).

I get asked a lot what my symptoms feel like or what it means to have “bad days” or flare-ups. For me, this means, constant cramping in my lower stomach to the point of feeling full or feeling as though there is barbwire being twisted around my lower stomach. I live with a constant pain in my lower back and it radiates down my right leg. It’s as if someone were pushing on a strained nerve or muscle 24 hours a day 7 days a week until I can’t walk anymore. Most nights I lie in bed with this pain hoping it will go away so I can get a restful night’s sleep and trying to minimize the pain with my heating pad. Sometimes I cry myself to sleep because I’m so exhausted of living with pain on a daily basis. Chronic fatigue is also a symptom of endometriosis. When your body is constantly trying to fight a disease it doesn’t know how to fight, it wears you down to the point of complete exhaustion. I sleep for hours and wake up feeling like I haven’t slept in a week, never feeling refreshed.

Expressing and admitting my struggles is difficult for me. However, our health makes the biggest impact on our quality of life, so I have decided to ask for your help. After three failed ablation surgeries, I haven’t given up on finding a healthcare solution that works for me. After much research I have found a properly trained surgeon who does a surgery called Laparoscopic Excision. This procedure has been proven to be more effective than the typical Ablation surgery, especially in severe cases like mine that impacts other organs. Laparoscopic Excision cuts the entire disease out of the organ without damaging surrounding healthy tissue. If insurance won’t pay for any of the medical expenses, I am looking at a cost of $28,380 for surgery plus the cost of travel and accommodations. (Durango, Colorado)

Thank you for allowing me to be vulnerable during this stressful time. I appreciate your consideration and donations getting me closer to a healthy and pain-free life.