I thank you for visiting my blog. My name is Kristen and I live with Endometriosis. There are so many issues and complications that come with having endometriosis. With all the information that I have been given, over the 20 years of living with this illness, there are so many things I didn't know. I hope that this blog may help someone else that is living with and bearing through this illness.
I didn't know that endometriosis can cause a new and extremely painful illness called adenomyosis. What is adenomyosis? The way it has been described to me: it is when the endometriosis penetrates the uterine muscle and begins to grow within the muscle. There is no way to remove the illness from the uterine muscle. There are several treatments for the symptoms and only one way to get rid of it, a hysterectomy. I didn't know that it can cause complications with pregnancy. It can weaken your uterus to the point where your uterus can not support a pregnancy. Adenomyosis, adeno for short, causes severe pain before, during, and after your monthly period. I hurt for approximately 1 week before I start, for the 7 days of my period, and for a few days after. There is no relief from the pain other than taking pain medicine. The pain meds don't take care of it all, either. The pain meds are essentially a cheap bandaid that you can become reliant upon.
I didn't know that taking pain meds was going to be a way to have somewhat of a quality of life.
I didn't know that endo, adeno, and the complications of them both were going to prevent me from having children, doing laundry, washing dishes, going to the bathroom, and doing so many other things in life.
I didn't know that listening to my gynecologists was going to prolong my treatment, make things worse, and cause so much more pain. Who knew that my regular ob/gyn didn't know about an illness that is a female only medical condition? Who knew that my ob/gyn didn't know that giving me birth control was just masking the problem and not helping it in any way? Who knew that I needed to find a endo specialist to get the correct treatment to enable a better quality of life and have a fighting chance at having children?
I didn't know that I would be having a hysterectomy at age 32/33, and dealing with the fact that I will not ever be able to bare children. Menopause in my early 30's? Really? Yes, really.
I wish I would've known more.
I will write more about the symptoms, complications, and struggles that I, and others, go through while living with this incurable disease. I will do my best to find and accrue all the information that I can find about the facts and myths of this illness. I want so badly to prevent at least one other person from trusting the wrong information and missing out on life and losing the choice to have children or be an active participant in their life.
