Intro to Endo Backstory

Hello everyone, I’m not sure how this goes, but I wanted to write to a large community, specifically those who truly know what it's like and then some.

This wasn't a common discovery story

I had my menstrual cycle around the typical age of 15. I was on the pill birth control from 18-20 years old. I’ve had a normal period from what I remember. In some cases, it brought up “not normal symptoms.” I was then diagnosed with endometriosis. My personal experience and relationship with endometriosis were not the common “discovery” where everything you’ve been feeling made sense now.

The pain that sent me to the doctor

I am a Marine Veteran as of 21’ and during a 7-mile run at 6:40 in the morning, was when I felt an excruciating pain across my chest and abdominal, not my pelvic area. I was excused from the run and was taken to the hospital, where I had tests run. I had three stomach ulcers caused by H. Pylori, but that’s not what this is about. During my treatment, I had a follow-up where they performed an ultrasound. That moment was when they discovered a 6cm Dermoid Cyst on my right ovary. After the discovery, within two months, I had a laparoscopy to remove it. A dermoid cyst, mine, had blonde hair (I’m brunette), teeth, and other cells that made up different tissues on my body. Again, this is not about the dermoid cyst.

The recovery was not at all what I expected

After regaining consciousness from the Laparoscopy procedure, I waited for the doctor to follow up with me. She enters and tells me how everything went well, but that she also performed an endometrial ablation after discovering endometriosis. The only thing I regret at that moment was not remembering her response to “How bad was it?” Recovery was a bitch. Who would’ve thought that three small incisions would lead to me not being able to wipe my own ass after a shit or being able to shower my lower half? Luckily, my spouse was there “in sickness or in health” to that for me. I had two weeks of recovery time, my own time to recover away from the military world, or so I thought. Upon returning after my recovery, I was expected to perform physically to Marine Corps standards, I didn’t expect any less. Long and intense runs, lifting other marines during physical training, and high-intensity training were performed by me. I didn’t last long without going back to medical because I was unexpectedly bleeding vaginally constantly.

To Be Continued…