I appreciate all of the flowers, reading material, gifts, drinks, help with my dogs, bringing and holding down the fort at school in my absence from my SLPeeps, OFE Peeps, Stephanie Pena, Cindy Piggott, Cindy Howlett, Jessica Sprague, Raquel Mendoza, Kimberly Ballenger, Allison Wilson and of course my parents for their continuous support through this journey.
I'm so ret (yes, I mean't to say that) to go!!!! But, you guys have made it a lot easier for me to focus on my health and getting better!....
Shout out to my awesome doctors, nurses, techs and healthcare professional here at Kingwood Medical Center: Dr. Qureshi, Dr, Khoiry and Dr, Gyorfi and my doctor Dr. Delhey who all have played a part and worked together for my care.
My nurses (even though I probably wasn't very pleasant waking up) every freaking hour of the night and turning on (what seemed like) every freaking light in the room. Sweet and gentle Molly, calm Vivian, on-the-run Johnette (who stayed running all 12 hours during her shift), but especially my favorite nurse, Tia, who kept it real made sure things were effective and efficient, takes her job very seriously and is very good at it. Also to the techs Rosie, Ramona, Tanya and Lindsey who were discreet as possible at night and cracking me up during the day when checking my vitals. Lastly, the cafeteria staff who made sure I had my food ready and warmed up all the times that I wasn't nauseous, in pain or fasting.....
I didn't really know how serious developing sepsis and phelonephritis was when admitting myself into the ER. Glad I trusted my instinct in knowing something wasn't right, thinking I had appendicitis (I was wrong). I am filled with gratitude for the people above and their quick, thoroughness, collaboration and genuine care in getting me healed.
Getting down to the root of all of these issues, is the Endo. It was the culprit that started these issues with my organs. My immune system is compromised from it and my kidney doesn't function because of it. This is why I advocate so much and am so passionate about making more people aware of this
debilitating disease. It's NOT just mentrual cramps, nor is it just during the time of your cycle. At my worst, it started a week before, continued the week of and didn't subside until the week after my cycle. That left 1 good week of feeling normal. Yet, it's almost impossible to claim disability. How can you focus on relationships, work, family, home? It's like knives stabbing you repeatedly in your pelvic region. When it sits on your nerves it affects your back, legs and ability to walk when you have what feels like an electric shock radiating down your legs. When it's fused to your bowels and urinary tract making it painful to urinate and impossible to have a movement, leading to fecal compaction or tears. It gives you aura migraines. Treatments can affect your bones and memory (concentration), sanity, or making you nauseous, depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue and a host of other things when you take medication. You are also more likely to have other auto immune disorders along side of it. It may also require invasive and multiple surgeries and cause infertility. It can fuse itself around reproductive and other organs causing them to not function properly or to lose function completely, which in my case, has lead to a serious infection in my blood stream. Lastly, there is the debt you accrue trying to get yourself healthy. Endometriosis is invisible on the outside, but a mess on the inside. It affects your life, daily!!! There is no known cause, though scientist have different theories, and there is no cure. AND it's more common than you think. 1 and 10 women have Endometriosis. Chances are you know someone diagnosed with it. Granted, there are different stages and some might not show any symptoms while others deal with the symptoms listed above. I think it deserves much more research! I also think when it comes to women's health ,in general, we should not have male law makers and politicians making decisions for "what's best for women" , but I digress.
Moral of the story: Trust your gut. Educate yourself and advocate for yourself.
I'm out! (Drops tha mic')
#endendo #endureendo #yellowforendo #marchisendometriosisawarenessmonth