Stage 4 Endometriosis

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Endometriosis is a disease where the menstrual flow goes back up into the pelvic cavity causing scarring, adhesions and in some cases endometriomas, which are cysts filled with old blood. Doctor's classify this disease in 4 stages, 1 being mild to 4 being severe. I had stage 4 for over ten years. My menstrual flow didn't start until I was 14 years old and I was always in so much pain and couldn't do anything for the first few days. My first surgery was in 1998 for a Diagnostic Laparoscopy which showed 4 endometriomas, a twisted fallopian tube and scarring. I was diagnosed as a stage 4. The next surgery would be while I was in nursing school and had to have ER surgery to remove a 12cm endometrioma(size of a babies head) from my ovary which, was also damaged. 5 months later the same thing happened again and my other ovary was damaged and removed. I wanted children so bad I kept my uterus but, continued to have problems and was back in the operating room because the endometriosis caused an appendicitis and so they decided it was best to remove my uterus.
When you have so many surgeries, your bowel tends to adhese together and before long, I had a bowel obstruction. When they went in they found another endometrioma because of the hormones I was taking caused microscopic implants to grow. Only 0.01% of women with this disease have this happen and I was part of this tiny population.
This disease ruined my life for many years causing depression and addiction to pain killers because of continued use because doctor's didn't understand the disease and didn't know how to treat the disease. There is no cure for this disease except for a hysterectomy and even in some cases that doesn't even work.

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endometriosis

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ornursemb

1 Year, 3 months, 2 Weeks, 6 days, 12 hours, 42 minutes ago

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