I had rec'd two emails from a woman named Joanne....
Hi. Just wanted to let you know, I read your story and cried all the way
through it. I didn't think I would ever come across someone who has been
through the same crap as myself. What a horrible disease. I don't know what
size I will wear when I wake up in the morning. I don't know if I will have
diarrhea or be constipated for three days. I don't know whether to sit on
the pot or kneel down before the pot. Seems to be two week intervals and all
of this without any FEMALE ANATOMY. Nothing more to take out. Like you,
they removed my appendix when they cut me wide open after both of my ovaries
ruptured from the endometriosis. This was 8 years after my hysterectomy.
And of course.. I was on hormone replacement therapy just make the stuff grow
and grow. I have had the Synarel twice now. Finished the Lupron injections
in Nov. of 99, and the paid is back already. What's next?
Tell me more about your symptoms etc.
Thanks,
Joanne (Sacramento, CA)
I just want to say "I LIKE YOU". I just finished reading your continuation
and read it aloud to my husband. (Second husband). He would like to know
where you are from? I definitley would like to stay in touch with you as I
have finally found someone with the same thought process as my own. I could
not of written my story any better than yours. The only difference.... I
have three children and have had a hysterectomy and still suffer from the
damn disease. You are right in everything you have said. I just can't
believe what I am reading. We have not had a computer very long (at home)
and I have felt so alone with this. Sometimes I thought maybe I was
imagining all the symptoms I was having. Or wondering if they were related
to the endo or did I have the flu on top of it. Was it something I ate that
made me constipated and then gave me diarrhea three days later. Was the pain
under my rib cage from the swelling in my abdomen or did I have indigestion.
I am also a coffee drinker and smoker and agree with you. These are the two
things that I derice pleasure from in my current condition and gosh darn it..
I'm not ready to give them up. I have also read that caffeine and chocolate
can make the endo symtpoms worse. Oh well! At this point in time.. what
can be worse?
I have found that soaking in my hot tub reduces alot of the internal pain.
However, I too look like I am four months pregnant when the endo strikes. I
am like two weeks of hell and two weeks off. Even without ALL of my female
anatomy, I still can feel the cycle. This, I presume, is from the hormone
replacement therapy that I have been on for 12 years (except for the times I
was on synarel and when I had the lupron injections). At the times of the
treatment, they took me off of all hormones. That was enough to make me have
a mental break down, nervous breakdown or whatever you want to call it. Hot
flashes, crying, memory loss and of course, since the age of 26 I have been
experiencing surgical menopause anyways.
I could go on and on.... but I won't. Just know that I'm with you and still
sticking it out even though there are times I just want to give up.
Write me,
Joanne
