“Hi, my name is Jasmine and I am an #endowarrior. I was formally diagnosed with stage 1 in October 2020- but my journey started nearly 16 years before my surgery.
My first symptoms were heavy, painful- irregular periods - that were blamed on my age by my doctors. After it progressed to horrible stomach pains near my right ovary. After many hospitalizations and test and imaging- all my test were mostly normal - I was diagnosed with double kidney ureters at 14 and my healthy appendix out the same year. Still I was shipped from specialist to specialist with no answers. They told me I was depressed (everyone but my psychologist- who said I was experiencing physiological pain).
At 14 I was kicked out of school for being “too sick “ because there were no answers. At 19 I fell pregnant with my son @sebastianjamesc . It was a difficult pregnancy and he came at 37 weeks. In 2018, I graduated from UBC with a B.A. in Anthropology- many of courses focused on medical anthropology- a few months before, I gave birth to my little girl @elianabriellecg (another complicated pregnancy) .This degree taught me how to navigate our medical system and how to advocate for others and myself. 18m after Ellie’s birth, my pain was so bad with my periods I could walk, my pelvis felt as if it would break , I bled for months , constantly throwing up and to weak I couldn’t sit up- let alone bloat and be in so much pain with my guts twisting inside. I finally I asked for a new gyne (after 14 years with the same one)!
A year after retrying treatments, I was told she thought I had endo- something I heard of but didn’t really understand. Within 3 months (during covid) I had my excision.The lesions were so small and on my kidney ureters. I woke up expecting to be told everything was normal but I had a diagnosis: endometriosis. I had my Fallopian tubes removed as well. Since- I am waiting on a partial hysterectomy (uterus and cervix). It took 15 + years to find a dr that believed me and to diagnose this chronic illness. I believe I’m lucky that I have to healthy and beautiful kids but 15 years, with an avg. of 7.5 years, to diagnose is too long.”
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