Zoe, a brave EndoWarrior, shares her journey with us today…even while she has another surgery pending. We wish you all of the best of luck, Zoe!!!
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I started my period by having waterfalls for periods with no regularity from age 13 but was put on the pill to manage that at age 15 and that worked. I from my teen years thankfully had no interest in having children. I am not a career woman either, I just don’t get the clucky feeling other women get when they see kids – I get that feeling when I see animals instead so I have fur babies.
Peggy & Roy cutting their birthday cake – July 2015
You may have heard about Peggy Santa Maria on CBS-TV, LAor read about her in the Contra Costa Times or various online blogs. I bumped into the CBS-TV LA link, which was aired on their 5pm news on December 25, 2015, and just had to know more about her. The e-mail address on their site didn’t work, so I reached out to my friend, Margaret, at The Vital Health Institute, who got us in touch.
If you don’t know about Peggy and her husband Roy, they host The Endo Inn. The what? As Roy says, “Stay at the Endo Inn while you have your Endo taken out.” They have converted their guest bedroom into The Endo Inn, a room where a woman and her guest can stay while she recovers from surgery for her Endometriosis, free of charge and for several weeks, if needed. This includes access to all of the house for cooking, doing laundry, entailing everything that covers “living,” and The Endo Inn becomes “their home.” Roy and Peggy have been doing this since January 18, 2000.
More about The Endo Inn shortly…but right now I want to focus on the beautiful people behind it: Peggy and Roy. I had the pleasure of speaking with Peggy several days ago, spending over an hour on the phone with this purely delightful woman.
So, like a lot of other people with Endometriosis I’ve done a few things : 1) Lupron Depot injections, 2) NSAIDs, and 3) birth control pills. Each of these medications, and any type of hormone treatments, can make a person susceptible to sunburns or sun sensitivity. This past weekend I was out and burnt the tops of my hands, and man did it happen quick and did it itch!! Ugh. Which got me curious: why does it make me more sensitive? I remember reading in my Lupron and birth control packets about the sun sensitivity warning. But what’s going on with my body? Time for research!
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 →
Bloomin' Uterus 