Trust me, you know your body better than anyone else.
I have struggled with endometriosis since I first began my journey with womanhood in 7th grade. Since then I have seen various doctors and let me emphasis this.. MANY MANY doctors! I was first told I was to young to have this disease, yet suffered with severe pain at such a young age. My mother was not one to give up on me, she believed my pain and suffering as some doctors did not. My sophomore of high school I finally was in so much pain, the doctors put me on birth control. It wasn't long after when my immune system crashed, and I suffered every illness in the book (it felt like). Illness after illness, I finally struck mono.. worst thing ever. It was then when I went to the emergency room and was given a CAT scan on my lower stomach and blood tests. With the blood tests I found out I had mono, with the CAT scan, cysts. I was given medication for the mono but was still sick and unable to walk. I ended up back in the emergency room, a friday, where they preformed immediate surgery. Monday morning I was worse and they had to operate again. The doctors removed everything and I returned to school about a week later and was wheeled around embarrassed. High school being high school of course many thought I was faking. I had close friends that I knew thought I was being dramatic.. due to attending such a small school rumors went around quick. I soon healed and only time to time had lower stomach pain but was managable throughout the rest of high school.
It wasn't until my freshman year of college when I began to suffer from the pain again. It worsed when I worked out, and I was on the cross country team. Therefore suffered everyday after practice.. though I very seldemly complained I felt I was in a constant fight to get through the pain. I then began to get sick all the time again.. this kept going unti my junior year... At this time it was almost every night I would wake up and roll up into a ball on the floor... living with many roommates and then Tyler I never wanted to wake them. I would wake up in the night & LITERALLY, silently crawl into the bathroom to start the bath and run it as hot as it would go to sit with my lower back underneath, this went on for months. Tyler and I moved in together that next summer going into senior year. That's when he noticed me getting up every night and he would walk me to the bathroom, & check in on me every few minutes. After about 15 minutes sometimes longer the pain would disappear and I would be fine and able to make it back to bed. I FINALLY shared with Tyler how bad my pain was; I realized because of my high school experiences I never wanted to share my story or pain because of the fear of being told I would be fine, or I was being dramatic. That fall, the first week of November I experienced the usual every night pain but with every step I felt as if I'd fall. After my time under the hot water didn't work I rolled into bed. At this point Tyler was waking up every night with me, this night he layed a hot towel on my back. At 5am my alarm went off to get ready for work at Texas Children's Hospital. I stepped out of bed, cringed.. and walked my way to the bathroom to get ready. I made it all the way to work where I then had to take two flights of stairs to get to my office. I fell to my knees at the third step unable to make it any further. One of the doctors saw me and took me to her exam room. She lifted my shirt asking me if I had my apendex out or suffered from cysts.. I answered endometriosis she looked down and said, "wow." My stomach was swollen, I hadn't even noticed through the pain, she immediately sent me to the ER where I had a CAT scan. I was told I had one cyst that showed fairly easy through the images about the size of quarter, and was told to get follow ups throughout the next few days to see if it would dispearse on it's own.. or need surgery. I received a CAT scan the next day, Day 2, it was now the size of a baby orange, cutie size. Day 3, I went in, in more pain, it was the size of a softball and noticeably inside of my right ovary. Day 3 is when we scheduled surgery.
After surgery a few days later my surgeon and doctor showed me images of my ovaries and uterus... I had millions on endometriosis cysts growing EVERYWHERE and my doctor was thankfully able to burn every single one of them off. This Including cutting open, & removing my cyst and SAVING my right ovary. (Before surgery he had told me my cyst had most likely grown and it would be hard to save my ovary unless it stopped bleeding and he could seal it). I got lucky that I had a dang good doctor and a cooperative ovary, Thank GOD!
After my second surgery and having an extremely slow metabolism I put on a good 30+ pounds. I spoke with my doctor and was approved to begin working out again. Not knowing how to loose so much weight I found a trainer! My trainer taught me that having lower abdominal surgery is similar to giving birth or having a C-section.. in a way. The muscles are kind of lost and need that muscle memory on how to work again. She showed and taught me certain exercises in order to help re-gain the muscle memory back. To be honest a little over a year later and I am still working on it. I have since lost the 30+ I gained and am leaning out into an even better body than I had in high school. I have learned to live a healthier lifestyle as well am hopeful that if I keep it up I won't suffer with my endometriosis for a long time.
Now please understand, this is not a curable disease and cysts will grow back.. but if there is any way to lengthen that process you better believe I'll take it. Living a fit & nutritious lifestyle can benefit us in so many ways that we aren't aware of, so I'm not selling it short this time. I am taking full advantage and am living the best and healthiest life I can. And if you OR ANYONE you know suffers from pain, I know it's hard.. but you got to speak up. If you need support, I am here and you can ALWAYS email me. Because of the knowledge I have gained from all my experiences & things I still experience today I've decided to make a post pregnancy/lower abdominal muscle re-activation SAFE program. This program is for all the ladies out there struggling to get back in shape. It is often mistaken that after giving birth you can begin your normal workout routines.. but in truth you need to reactivate your muscles FIRST.. one to help move your weight loss journey along a little quicker and TWO to avoid injury.
I hope you enjoyed my story and can check out my program! God Bless, Sarah Mckenzie Brotzman.
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