“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Audre Lorde
Mar 11 2025, 11:57 AM
#9
@ExitStageLeft: 💜💜 Thank you for the useful advice! I'll make sure to keep the heating pad handy. And yeah, it's kinda crazy that it might take that long before I start feeling results (if any), but I guess that's what happens when your whole body is wracked with chronic pain from constant low-grade inflammation... 🥲
Post-surgery update, for anyone who might find it useful in the future! The biopsy came back and they did confirm it was endometriosis. Doc said my case is comparatively mild, so it wasn't plastered all over my organs or anything. She did also find that my small intestines were stuck to my pelvis, so they separated those. Apparently that sort of thing is common after abdominal surgery, but since I've never had surgery before, it was probably a past infection or maybe also because of the endo.
In terms of recovery, it's been pretty okay. Very sore and tired for the first five days, but I'm starting to come out the other side of that. They warned me about back and shoulder pain due to the gas they use during the operation working its way up and out of your body, and they weren't kidding. Worst shoulder and back ache I've ever had; it was literally worse than the incision pain LOL. I also sometimes felt gas working its way up through my chest...? It felt like other parts of me were burping. Very weird and kind of disturbing. 😂
Two side effects they didn't talk about before the surgery:
- I struggled with terrible bloating—on Sunday, my whole lower body down to my ankles was so swollen I looked five months pregnant. If that tends to happen to you, ask your doctor if you can take an OTC diuretic; that helped me a ton. Lying down with legs elevated also helped, though be careful about doing this (make sure the swelling is even; if it's uneven you might have a clot or something, in which case do NOT lie down with your legs elevated).
- The vaginal bleeding. Like...apparently it's just normal to bleed from the vagina. A lot. They told me to call them if it was soaking through one pad an hour. Meaning anything less than that was apparently not cause for concern...? 🙃 I was bleeding through one pad every couple of hours, which was quite alarming. Monitoring my blood pressure every couple of hours reassured me that I wasn't like bleeding out or something, lol.
Overall, the first week of recovery wasn't fun, but I'm glad I did it just to finally have an answer. I hope someone finds this information useful in the future!
Anyway, was just wondering if anyone else has endo or suspected endo. I'm pretty nervous about the procedure so I'd love to hear from others if you've had it done.
And if you ever want advice to help cope with and/or need to rant about your painful periods with someone who (somewhat) gets you, I'm here for you!
