Endometriosis, Thyroid Cancer, and Sunny Days

Seeing the Positive in Pain

Exactly around this time ten years ago, my life changed forever. It was both the beginning of something as well as its end thereof. I woke up with excruciating pain in my pelvic region as well as nausea that landed me in the ER and a few hours later, the OR for invasive surgery (laparotomy) to remove the tumors that had torsioned themselves on my right and left ovaries. My life had been “idyllic” before then. Except for some childhood interruptions, I was fairly healthy and was on track to make something of my life. But this surgery changed everything. And I would not have known how much until years after.

From that moment since the surgery, pain became a constant fixture in my life. As I am averse to taking medications (thank God my job doesn’t rely on convincing people to take their meds, haha), I have had to live with the pain and manage it conservatively. While the surgery saved my ovaries and reduced that excruciating pain, its invasive nature came with complications such as pelvic adhesions, scar tissues, and recurring fluid in my pelvic cavity that I have had to keep undergoing additional surgeries to correct (six in total between 2012 and 2016). Then came the diagnosis of Stage 4 endometriosis to top it all off — a disease that mimics an autoimmune condition that greatly impacts your quality of life as a…