Hi everyone! Happy Tuesday! I hope your week is off to an awesome start! Today marks the 8 week point since my endometriosis excision surgery with Dr. Sinervo. I can’t believe how quickly time flies when you’re a mom to kids involved in everything under the summer sun! I wanted to take a minute and share a little about my experience with endometriosis excision and the healing process. I remember when I was researching my brains out the day I was released from the hospital and stumbled upon some really helpful blogs. I hope I can be that really helpful blog to someone else! If you haven’t read my story, you can find it here!
Let me just say that this has not been an easy recovery…and for reasons that probably sound ridiculous. You see, I felt like a million bucks post op! I was up and moving, running errands, attending baseball practices with my son, doing light house work, visiting family, and I even went back to work after 3 weeks! Sounds like a dream come true, right? Think again. I can’t honestly complain because I did feel so much better than most women I’ve met who have been through this same surgery. However, I overdid it. I was feeling so great emotionally and mentally that I was really hurting my body on the inside.
I received my post-op report once I was home and it listed 13 operations that were performed in my body during endometriosis excision surgery. Pathology showed that every area, out of 6 biopsied, had endometriosis. One of those operations performed during my excision was a bowel resection of the sigmoid colon. Let me just tell you that a resected colon is a pissed off colon! Especially when you’re doing whatever you want despite being told to rest! I will save the graphic details, but if you are reading this because you’re struggling with everything from spasms to blood to weird poop–drop me a line. We’ll talk. I went to my family doctor, called my endometriosis excision surgeon, called the GI who performed my resection and no one could really shed any light on why I was having so many issues. A friend of my husband’s is a GI doctor who has received more texts about my lower end than he ever should have to hear about anyone! (I want to write him a letter and say, “Hey! My name is Jessica! Here are some fun facts about me that DON’T deal with guts and butt!) He was also pretty stumped. I tried Imodium. I tried IBS meds. I tried fiber. I tried diets. Nothing helped me feel better.
Nothing until….last week. When I turned a corner. I stopped taking any medications, I upped my pelvic floor physical therapy (I also began doing this video on YouTube daily!), I started drinking water like I should have been, and I rested when I noticed I was sore. I’ve had one painful flare up day in almost 2 weeks now. These used to happen daily. In fact, two weeks ago, I was crying hysterically to my husband telling him how much I regretted the whole endometriosis excision surgery. I take that back!
I hate to jinx myself, but I think I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. This is just the start to the rest of my life, but it seems like a pretty good start! I am not having endo pain at all, my spasms are starting to be further and further apart, I’m able to incorporate more foods into my diet (my body still hates ice cream and milk so I’m going to have to say that’s just who I am!), and I have more energy than I’ve had in years. The bottom line here is, LISTEN to those smart people who tell you healing takes time. It is hard to do that when you feel great (especially when your prior days/years were spent feeling like you were in labor!), but take those 8 full weeks to let your body recover. You won’t regret it!
XoXo
Jessica
