Author: Bloomin' Uterus

Birth Control Pills & Endo

| Bloomin' Uterus
a round white pill that reads The Pill

I’ve been advised that once my Lupron Depot treatments are concluded in January, I will be starting a continuous birth control pill.  This is in the hopes to continue to suppress my monthly period, and theoretically my Endometriosis symptoms.  Endometriosis is “fed” by our Estrogen levels.  Doctors may not know what causes Endo, but they mostly agree that it feeds and reacts to our Estrogen levels, as well as the influence of xenoestrogens (environmental estrogens).

But How & Why is it expected to work?  I totally like to know the science behind things…

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EndoInvasion : Stages

| Bloomin' Uterus
A stage with the Bloomin' Uterus logo centered on it in a spotlight
Our Uterus : center stage!

So there are four “Stages” of Endometriosis.  It’s the doctors way of categorizing the depth of the EndoInvasion in our bodies.  It was developed by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.   Diagrams of the various stages can be in an article published in Fertility & Sterility back in 1997.

I didn’t know my Stage level and had to ask my doctor.  My Endometriosis was Stage 4, the most severe it can get. Probably because it was brewing inside me undetected for nearly 2 decades. Ugly disease. (Update: As of June 6, 2019, I’ve now had a total of four excision surgeries; each one classified my illness as Stage 4).

The interesting things about Stages: the Stage Level doesn’t necessarily dictate our symptom or pain levels.  Someone with Stage 1 can have severe pain, while someone with Stage 4 may not even realize it.  Just one more mystery o’Endo.

So what are these Stages?  Here ya go:

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Readers Choice : The Spoon Theory

| Bloomin' Uterus
A spoon in the dirt
A photo I took years ago finally has a purpose.

Christine Miserandino came up with The Spoon Theory.  It is gut-wrenching. The Spoon Theory was Christine’s way of explaining to her friend what life with Lupus is like. It’s a metaphor for our stamina and energy: any task you do during the day uses up one spoon.  You only have 12 spoons…so you must choose your tasks wisely, or else you run out of spoons…and steam.  For those of us with Endometriosis, the Spoon Theory still applies.  Any chronic illness, especially one that causes pain and fatigue, can use the spoon theory.  Continue reading →

Feel Good Friday

| Bloomin' Uterus
Broken tea bowl glued together with gold resin
Kintsugi

Well, it’s Friday! And that means : FEEL GOOD FRIDAYS! Today’s quote is by Connecticut author, Amy Bloom:

“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.”

The tea bowl in the image above was once broken, and repaired with a method called Kintsugi.  “Kintsugi is a Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer resin dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.  As a philosophy, it speaks to breakage and repair becoming part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.”

Just because our bodies may be flawed, and our insides may be incomplete and broken, doesn’t mean that we are broken as a whole.  Our Endo, and the suffering and pain it causes us, is part of our personal history (and our present).

Allow it to be a part of who we are : We are still beautiful.

Dry Body Brushing

| Bloomin' Uterus
dry brush
Dry body brush with massage nubs

So last night I read about this thing called “body brushing.”  I rolled my eyes, scoffed, and moved on.  Woke up this morning full of curiosity about it and asked my fellow EndoWarriors if any of them have heard about it.  99.9% of those that responded LOVE body brushing!

What is body brushing? It’s running a dry bristle brush lightly across the surface of your skin, in a particular order and direction.  Not only will it slough off old skin bits, but it’s *supposed* to increase circulation and help unclutter our lymphatic systems.  Which is all good for us. What’s a lymphatic system? Observe below:

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I <3 my Robot

| Bloomin' Uterus

In June of 2014, my surgeon opted to perform a robotic laparoscopic surgery to remove the cysts from my ovaries.  Little did we know, the surgery would progress into an excision surgery to remove Endometriosis implants that we didn’t know existed inside.  A traditional laparoscopic surgery is performed through a rather large incision in your abdomen, while robotic is done through small “ports” (incisions) where robotic tools are inserted and the doctor operates at a remote station, controlling the wee robotic arms. AND there’s pictures!

The surgeon’s plan was to go through my bellybutton, extending it a little bit with a small incision, remove the cysts, and close up my bellybutton (a single incision laparascopy). Voila: done.  However, it was discussed that he may need to open up multiple ports if things “weren’t as they seemed” once inside  (the middle image below).  Which is exactly what needed to be done.  The robotic surgery avoided the traditional, large incision (first image below).

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My favorite tea

| Bloomin' Uterus
honey jar shaped like a bear. A lemon, a piece of ginger, and vegetable peeler are next to the jar

Before my diagnosis, I was an avid coffee and soda drinker.  I rarely ever drank any water.  And since waking up from my surgery and being told I have Endo, I’ve done a complete 180 degree turn.

I stopped drinking caffeine and soda the second I learned caffeine is bad for us.  And went in the search for alternatives.  And decaffeinated tea was not an option after learning that it still has traces of caffeine… Now all I drink is water (allll day), one glass of white wine with dinner, followed by this tea before bed. Every day.

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Reader’s Choice : Endo made my life better

| Bloomin' Uterus
Quote: Endo is such a stupid disease, but your image symbol for endo gives it so much more meaning to me. I am a woman, I have an invisible illness, I still have value, and I am still beautiful! Anonymous

“Endo made my life better!” Now there’s words you don’t hear everyday…

I was 35 years old when I received the word after a routine cystectomy that I have Endometriosis.  Learning I had this disease, then coming to realize how many women have it, and how little is known about it; that there is no cure…I had to learn more!  I had to do something!   Granted, the peace of mind that all of the pain I’ve endured over the years wasn’t normal was a fantastic thing. But still…!

So I searched for San Diego area support groups.  Found none.  Then searched for San Diego, or even Southern California, walks for March 2015.  And found none.  So I became frustrated at the lack of concern for our illness.  Nobody seemed to care out here.  Nobody seemed to even know about it, other than my surgeon and his staff…So I started the gofundme campaign with the determination to walk in March 2015 without an organized event.  And to raise funds for an organization that DOES care and DOES do something for our Endo.

And on my bad days, I had to create art.  When I created the Bloomin’ Uterus graphic, it was just to make me feel good on a bad day; just to reassure myself that I am still as beautiful as I ever was.  But it exploded into a symbol for women all over suffering with Endometriosis.

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