Endometri......what?I remember when I was told that there was a chance that I could have Endometriosis I had never even heard of this word that I could not even pronounce. Even though there is a shocking 176 million women and girls suffering every day from this debilitating disease. Approximately 1.5 million women in the United Kingdom and 6 million in the United States of America. Since being diagnosed I have got to know this community of 'Endo Sisters' and talking to them many were in the same situation as I was when diagnoses. They did not have a clue what it was just that it was causing them a lot of pain. It is hard to describe that moment when you are sat in the doctors surgery being told that there is a chance that you have this disease that you can barely pronounce. How could you say I have this thing that I can not even say. It took me several months to learn how to say it properly 'End-O-Me-Tree-O-Sis'.
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The Questions. |
Then there was the questions that came flooding into my head all in one go. What is it? What can we do about it? How did I get it? on top of these questions there was relief. I was relieved that I knew that this was not all in my head which I was starting to believe. Relief that I was being taken seriously and I had a name to the mystery pain that I was constantly having.
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What did I do after I was told I could have Endometriosis? |
Although my GP gave me some useful information about Endometriosis I still went straight home, turned on the computer, opened up Google and typed in 'Endometriosis'. The search came up with about 3,110,000 results and if that was not enough Yahoo came up with 6,380,000 results. I came across many websites and forums that had so many horror stories about this disease that I was told that I could have. And then I done the image search which did not settle my mind at all. 'Surely I could not have this disease that so many people are describing' and 'that picture could not possibly be what my insides look like' were just a few things that went through my mind. I did find some good informative websites and forums that did help and give me great information not just the horror stories. Ignoring the horror stories I looked at the information that my GP had given me and on the good websites (see useful links) I soon realised that there were so many likenesses in my symptoms and those listed. .
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