Morphine stops you up. Fact. It’s great at first – you get the best sleep of your life – but then, the fun stops and you have to contend with the cannon ball working its way through your bowels and increasing the sensation of outward pressure on your brand new surgery scars. Today though, two days, several herbal teas, and loads of fruit and veg after acquiring those scars, I got shot of that cannon ball. It’s a small win, but I’m taking it.
In other (bigger) news, I was officially diagnosed with endometriosis two days ago. It’s a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand, you can finally put a name to what has been causing you months, even years, of constant pain. On the other hand, you have to face the brutal fact that you have a painful, incurable disease and that you will likely need surgery again. For 176 million people worldwide, almost all of whom are women, that is life. That’s 10% of women.*
10%! That figure certainly pulled me up short. So, 10% of my female friends, colleagues, classmates … 10% of any group of females I’ve ever been in. Any time I go anywhere, I could estimate the number of females around me and 10% of them could be in horrible pain, breezing around like everything’s ok, maybe not even realising that it’s not ok, the pain is not normal, and they need to get it checked out. How on earth is this still happening?!
Beyond that bittersweet feeling, I’m not sure how to feel at the moment. My shiny new diagnosis raises a lot of questions. My surgery scars hurt. Lying on my back helps, but it’s getting really boring. For now, I’m just glad I pooped.
*Source: endometriosis-uk.org
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