Support Mary Wisdom's fight against Stage 4 Endometriosis

Hey! My name is Mary Wisdom, an almost 28 year old actress in Atlanta, GA.

So many of you know that last year I had a ton of medical surprises pop up in my life. In January of 2023 I had an umbilical hernia surgery. Didn't think anything of this, except that maybe it was caused from weight lifting or from possibly stress due to my mom recently passing away. After surgery, the lump in my belly button still hadn't gone away and was constantly hurting, I was told that this was just scar tissue. I couldn't wear tight clothing or do certain exercises due to how badly it hurt.

Exactly a month later, I noticed that I couldn't breath and my chest and shoulder were hurting, and laying down made it worse. I went to the ER and what I thought was possibly Covid or the flu turned out to be an almost completely collapsed right lung. They had to do an immediate emergency chest tube placement procedure. Talk about scary as hell! The procedure didn't hurt but the suction once it was placed was some of the worse pain I've ever experienced. That's when we thought something more might be wrong but it was never looked into. Usually when you place a chest tube due to a lung collapse, you feel relief, but instead I was screaming in pain. I spent 18 days in the hospital due to my lung never staying fully inflated after multiple test trials. At one point they took the tube out and almost sent me home because my lung had finally inflated. By the next morning it was starting to collapse again. They again had to reinsert the chest tube. they did every test they could think of, for cancer, autoimmune diseases, etc. This is when surgeons were brought in because usually a young non-smoker patient with a lung collapse is only in the hospital for 2-3 days before they get to go home. Long story short I ended up having a right lung mechanical pleurodesis surgery to keep my lung from collapsing. During the surgery, my surgeon found a small air blister in my middle lobe that was causing a tiny air leak. He removed it and it came back negative for cancer. Thank God! But it was tested for anything in pathology. Finally after 18 days in the hospital I was able to go home. My lung capacity was so bad and recovery was hard but I worked at it, trying to get back to the active person I am.

Fast forward to end of May 2023, I had intense abdominal pain that I've never had before. It reached all the way to my back and nothing made it better. I couldn't sleep, eat, etc. Went to the ER, they determined that I had a ruptured ovarian cyst. Nothing else was said about it. Except that it was normal and that I needed to rest. At my follow-up appt with my OBGYN all they did was prescribe me muscle relaxers for the back pain so that I could finally get some sleep. This did nothing because it wasn't muscle relaxers that I needed. The pain was so bad that I could barely sit up straight without hunching over. Time passes and after about 3 weeks it finally started to feel better. But there was this slight pain in the left side of my back that never went away. I went to a chiropractor and everything and nothing worked. Doctors didn't help either so I just dealt with it.

A few months later I had my annual visit with OBGYN and they did a full ultrasound. This is when something was finally said to me. The cyst on my left ovary that had ruptured had now doubled in size and had characteristics of an endometrioma. A what you ask!? It's not a regular ovarian cyst, it's a cyst caused by endometriosis. Usually stage 3-4. Also during the ultrasound things were not "moving" the way they should. My doctor said based off of how my pelvis and ovaries aren't moving easily and naturally, she thinks that I had endometriosis and a bad case of it. The only way to diagnose it is with a laparoscopic surgery. So we scheduled surgery.

YOU GUESSED IT! In December 2023 I was diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis. In all reality with all the symptoms that I've had over the years that are deemed "normal", I should of been diagnosed a long time ago. But we all know that women's health is not taken seriously.

My doctor was able to remove the cyst and save my ovaries and remove any lesions that she had the skill set to remove. But unfortunately because of how bad my case is, she didn't have the skill set to do a full excision of endometriosis lesions. You heard that right. Even though THERE IS NO CURE for endometriosis, the gold standard for treatment is a full excision surgery with an endo expert (NOT OBGYN). So because of how bad things were inside, she wasn't able to proceed further. Meaning that a lot of my organs are still stuck together and causing my quality of life to be stunted sometimes. She was even able to see some organs that should be easily seen because of how much scar tissue the endo has caused. If she did proceed, she could of caused more damage than help.

Y'all remember that lump in my belly button that never went away. Well in December of 2023 I went back to that same doctor because the lump hadn't gotten better and it had been almost since surgery. So we went in for another surgery to explore what it was. In surgery, the doctor said that it was a giant cyst that reached all the to my abdominal wall. Pathology checked this and determined that the cyst was endometriosis.

So long story short, everything that happened last year was related to stage 4 endometriosis growing on my lung, in my abdominal area, and in in my ovaries/pelvis area. I had 5 surgeries last year due to this. While it feels good to finally have a diagnosis for all the pain I've had over the years and an answer for all the surprises last year, I'm also feeling lost and scared because there isn't a cure. I also want to be able to have kids one day.

I did soooooooo much research after I had my diagnosis. Like a ton! I found the first founded endometriosis center in the world. Guess what! They're located in Atlanta. Dr. Kenny Sinervo is at The Center for Endometriosis and the center was founded in 1991. I sent over all my stuff and they feel good about being able to help me and doing a full excision surgery. I also got a second opinion from Dr. Vidali in NYC. I've mostly decided to go with the Atlanta doctor due to being close to home and not having to pay extra for travel. Anyways, my insurance does not cover any of this due to the common treatment for endometriosis being birth control. But Big pharma is a conversation for another time. The maximum cost is about $14,500 plus hospital cost. So roughly $16,000. Waiting to have surgery isn't something that's best for me because of how bad it is and me wanting to have children later. I'm hoping to have surgery by the end of this year within the next 6-7 months. For my birthday this month, I'm asking for donations towards this surgery. I would be so very thankful.