I Got Lucky

My female pediatrician wrote off my chronic lower abdominal pain as muscular or "in my head", and I walked around from ages 14-18 terrified that I had a tumor growing inside of me that would eventually kill me.

My doctor knew what to look for

I was lucky enough that on my first visit with my gynecologist at age 19, she recognized the symptoms of endo and suspected that's what I had. We tried a variety of non-surgical pain control options before I finally decided at 22 to take a chance on an exploratory laparoscopy.

Considering another surgery

My GYN was able to diagnose and excise a lot of my endo, but I still deal with flare-ups and chronic pain from the condition. I'll likely get a second lap. Surgery in the coming year or so to excise the remaining endo, and hopefully some adhesions from my uterus.

Having the right doctor changes everything

As horrible as this disease is, I feel so lucky and grateful to have a gynecologist that took my pain seriously and recognized the symptoms of endometriosis so early in me. I know many people suffer for much longer than I did before getting a diagnosis and often have to fight to get surgeries. I still have to take things day by day, some are worse than others and sometimes the pain is so debilitating, but knowing I have at least one doctor behind me and on my side is a huge sigh of relief, as is being able to connect with others who deal with endo.