Free of endometriosis and so greatful

by Carolina
(Caracas, Venezuela)

I promised myself my story here would be a "success story" and here I am! I don't have any special powers, I'm just a woman like all of you, but I understand now, after going through so much pain, sadness and anger how important it is to keep searching for a solution and not give up!

Whatever is wrong in our bodies can be solved. The key solutions to this demoralizing condition are FAITH and HOPE. Don't let anyone, specially a doctor tell you that you don't have a solution because you do, no matter how bad your Endometriosis is.

I am a 33 year-old married schoolteacher from Caracas, Venezuela. Here, Endometriosis is extremely rare, frequently misdiagnosed and misunderstood in general. In my twenties I took birth control, so I never worried about infertility and my trips to the gyno were fine, but sometimes I had pain in my abdomen after sex and my periods were always painful.

After I turned 31, I stopped the pill to try to concieve and noticed my periods were getting a lot more painful and my bloating was astonishing, I couldn't fit in my own pants, I looked 2 months pregnant. I would go to the dr. but everything looked "fine" to them.

This year, I was happily planning for my wedding in June, but in March I started noticing that for about 4 days after my period I would have sharp persistent pain on my left side. By May, the strong pain was 24 hours, so I visited my doctor and she told me I had a 7cm edometrioma on my left ovary and a smaller 3cm one on my right ovary. She explained that I would need surgery to remove the cysts, and that there were no clear guarantees that I would have children of my own.

Well, you all know in your hearts what it feels like to be told you have an incurable and incredibly painful disease AND that you may never bear a child. There aren't any words to describe the fear and hopelessness I felt after that. I came home and down on my knees begging God for a solution and asking him why? I was the only person I knew with this condition and I felt so alone and so misunderstood.

Afterwards, I went to 5 different doctors searching for a solution, and planning for a wedding at the same time. The last doctor I saw told me he could save my ovaries because the cysts were on top of them and didn't devastate the tissue as the 1st doctor thought, this gave me some hope, so we scheduled a laparoscopy in August.

By June, I was pretty desperate for surgery because now the endometriosis pain was unbearable. It would start on the cyst and radiate all the way to my lower back, it would wake me up at night literally as if somebody would stab me with a knife. To avoid those night crisis I would set up the alarm every 4 hours and take a pain medication beforehand, because if I waited for the pain to start it would take over an hour for the medication to settle me down.

I was taking 12 extra-stength Advils a day, I would cry desperately, I felt handicapped, I couldn't stand up straight, couldn't sleep and I couldn't have sex with my fiancée, this was specially frustrating. Even though he was always very supporting and understanding, I felt this disease was sabotaging my relationship, what a heartbreaking feeling..

So I go on and get married the last week of June, I was so busy, excited, and happy that week for some mysterious reason there was no pain?! But right after the wedding it came back with a vengeance and on the evening of July 15th my big left cyst ruptured. Again, no words to describe the agony. I pretty much almost died according to the surgeon. I had an emergency laparoscopy done, my abdominal cavity was full of blood (sort of like a peritonitis). They cleaned me out and extracted the cysts, leaving my ovaries alone.

After that difficult process, the pain disappeared completly and I was very satisfied thinking I was over the worst part. I would constantly visit my gyno, and he tells me I can start a round of clomid. As soon as I started clomid, the pain gradually started to return. In 5 days my pain was back. I go back to the doctor after taking clomid for 5 days and he tells me I was developing very quickly a new endometrioma and it's growing back fast. This was 2 months after my surgery.

This second blow was specially hard on me, I didn't tell anyone, not even my husband, mother, sister or best friend.. this all too familiar diagnosis, my worst nightmare repeating itself.. I left the dr's office crying again, and spent many days very depressed, very angry, and very resentful.

The word endometriosis never left my brain. But this time something changed inside me, I decided I was going to change my life, and swore to myself I would find a solution. I was determined I was NOT getting another emergency surgery. And I was NOT going to keep popping pills the rest of my life, and specially I was NOT going to give up on my hopes of having my children.

So, I started to research endometriosis online and came up with tons of information, and came up with this web site where I found tons of very insightful information.

"I found the success stories specially inspirational. I said to myself if they can do it, so can I"

So I took some herbs on and off, I wasn't very consistent with any of them so I can't really say if they worked for me or not. Then I started acupuncture... And wow I can't thank my acupuncturist enough. Also I never stopped praying. Having faith is very important no matter what your religion is, or if you are religious or not.

Another important factor is positive thought. I kept wondering why during my hectic wedding week I felt no pain, it didn't make any sense. Could my mind be working against me? Was I THAT distracted or excited about my wedding that my brain simply shut my pain out? And is it really possible to diminish such an acute impossible pain that way?

My diagnosis was very real, my pain was IMPOSSIBLY real, my surgery too, so why would the pain just spontaneously disappear like that for so many days straight? With this in mind, I started researching the health benefits of positive thinking, and it became one of the things that helped me the most, the power of positive thought.

I started to visualize my body regenerating, I imagined myself completely healed, and thought "Thank god I am perfectly healthy" day and night, but really believe it and dwelled in the happy emotions those positive thoughts brought. I erased the word endometriosis from my brian, I stopped talking about it, I stopped thinking about it...

Never again to this day I said I was sick, or that I have a condition or any of that. My thoughts gradually got more and more positive by the day, and with my expert acupuncture treatment guess what? I don't remember OR better yet, I forbid myself to remember what that pain was like. Guess what the gyno said after 10 sessions of acupuncture? Your endometriomas are gone!

They just vanished. My story is true and I have all the paperwork to prove it. The power to heal youself is INSIDE YOU, believe in yourself, have faith in yourself, never ever allow yourself to lose hope DO NOT give up, I know it's very hard to do specially when your hunched over in pain, specially when nobody understands, specially when you just can't even leave your house.

But you CAN come out of this and if you find a way you will come out of this. Do things that give you faith and hope no matter if they are herbs, diet changes, yoga, acupuncture whatever makes your brain think you are healing and your brain WILL heal you.

Gratitude is another key emotion, feel thankful for all that you have, and soon enough you'll have more... Also, this condition is an emotionally driven one, eliminate stress as much as possible the more you dwell and obsess on negative thoughts about this disease, guess what? The worse you are going to feel and it will manifest in your body.. I want to thank this website and all those who took their time to write their testimonials because I learned so much, you guys simply saved my life and today I am ENDOFREE... THANK YOU