As the first 2 lines of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" go:
Now, this is a story all about how, my life got flipped-turned upside down...
Greetings all and welcome to my space. On all of my platforms, I go by the name #EndoWarriorH, as a constant reminder that I'm a warrior. I'm a 34-year-old female living in South Africa, managing and battling endometriosis since my official diagnosis in September 2020. This is my story...
My First Symptoms
This is a bit of a different but tricky one. So, I don't have the common story like,
"I had painful periods from the age of 13..."
"School was a nightmare because of pain..."
"I was always in the emergency room from a young age ..."
"I was never active as a teen due to pain..."
None of that.
I did start to experience some symptoms very gradually from around 2013, starting with unexplained fatigue, really painful periods, then anxiety & depression that went through the roof.
My first symptom was fatigue. I didn't understand what was wrong with me. I had various tests run by my doctor - she checked my thyroid, iron levels and ran other blood tests. I just couldn't understand why I was getting more fatigued than ever, over small tasks and needing more sleep every night. I took various vitamins to beat the fatigue but it never seemed to help.
This was followed by random days of 24 hour pelvic pain, which was fast followed by period pains a day or 2 leading to my period, then during my period.
So, I never knew what period pains felt like until I was in my final year of high school, in 2005. I thought it was all a myth until that one day after our lunch break at school. Luckily I was the only one at our art centre when it happened because I screamed and cried like my abdomen had just been cut open very slowly with a scalpel from the inside. It was hell.
My Diagnosis Story
In October 2018, that's when the intense pelvic pain hit me and landed me in the emergency room. None of the doctors could figure out exactly what was wrong with me. The main guess was that my extreme pain had to do with my appendix. One doctor did however, figure it was a gynaecological issue, and requested the intervention of a resident gynae.
After staying in hospital for almost a week, having a number of tests run, I eventually went into surgery after the gynae discovered an ovarian cyst (can't recall the exact type of cyst) had burst. I had a laparoscopy and remained in hospital for another 2 days for observation. After I was discharged, I was so excited to return home, to my own bed and space. I was treated with utmost care during my stay and had a private ward, but let's be honest, home is where the heart is.
Around February 2019, I was back in hospital for another laparoscopy, performed by a different doctor. She diagnosed me with PCOS. I never went back to her as she was rather rude towards my husband, so that was a brief relationship.
After that experience, I eventually settled with another gynae. He was amazing, still is. When I had a laparoscopy performed by him in July 2020, he was able to identify and diagnose me with endometriosis. Diagnosis happened in September, as my follow-up appointment was delayed - that was a time of major COVID-19 restrictions.
Me, Outside of Endo
When I'm not in tears or curled up on my bed from pain, I'm generally a hard-worker, a great friend, good company & a real joy to be around, I promise.
As you may have seen from my "About Me" page, I loooove good food, a lovely glass of vino, a good book, some good ol' Netflix n' Chill time with my family, travel (thank goodness for no more travel restrictions), cars, playing tennis & a calming yoga session. Unfortunately, I can no longer drink as much wine as before (which was at least 2 glasses a week), as it gives me an endo flare up. Sometimes I go an entire month without a single glass. It's sad, I know. Sigh...
I've been married to my ray of Sunshine for 7 years and we have a beautiful furbaby, who is our pride our joy. We thought we would have had our very first human baby by now, but that journey is what initially led to me being hospitalised & also to my endo diagnosis.
I could go on and on, but you'll get to know more about me and my journey with endometriosis, as the days go by. I hope you'll enjoy the pieces of me that I'll be sharing with you, as well as the educational and humourous bits.
Signed
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