I am 35 years old, living with stage IV Endometriosis, possibly adenomyosis and struggled with infertility for almost 4 years. I also struggled with PPD and now struggle with PMDD. I am a mother to a son that was born at 18 weeks and too precious for this earth; and now a mother to a son born in August 2011. By journaling here, I hope to benefit both for myself and for others that are dealing with this disease and fertility struggles. Thanks for visiting!





Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Where is this blog headed?

I've been thinking a lot lately about where I want this blog to "go".

Endometriosis is a part of me. It always will be. You always hear that pregnancy will make the endo "go away". I know with my extent of disease, I will never be endo free. Maybe it will help with symptoms, maybe it won't. But, no matter what, my life has been forever impacted by this disease.


I plan to continue to focus this blog on endometriosis, endo-related issues and awareness. I want to be sensitive to my readers as I am well aware of the emotional pain and frustration that go along with endometriosis and infertility from my own firsthand experience.

I realize that some readers, especially those struggling with infertility and miscarriage, may not wish to see frequent updates regarding pregnancy. Therefore, I am making such updates on my other blog at http://charlottedays.blogspot.com. If you wish to follow along on my pregnancy journey, please look for updates there.

There may be mention on here from time to time. That can't be helped. This is a part of my life now too. But, I will keep it to a minimum! I'd like to research more on pregnancy AND endometriosis and endometriosis AFTER pregnancy, so, I'll probably be making some posts on that. And, if I find that the endo is affecting my pregnancy, I may post that here as well as I feel that this kind of information would be helpful for present and future endo sufferers.

I appreciate your continued support. Posts may be few and far between at times as our house is now FOR SALE (whoa!) and other obvious changes going on. But, I'm here! Don't forget me! ;)

PS: Why does blogspot always want to fix "endometriosis"?!?! Random!!!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'll have to add your other blog to my list, obviously i want the pregnancy updates!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, I hope my recent post didn't cause you any blog-purpose-struggling. :(

Christa said...

I went through this struggle once I got pregnant too....I chose to keep my blog, I hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings in the process.

I'll have to add your other blog to my updates:)

zengirl said...

I just started following your blog, and like you, I am suffering from endo and have difficulties getting pregnant. I do hope to be as fortunate as you one day, but in the mean time, I am taking a path less beaten with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Western Medicine offers no cure, but endo sufferers respond very well to TCM. I conceived naturally 4 months after treatment, which is miraculous to me, but unfortunately I lost the baby. I am optimistic I will get pregnant again with continued treatment, but I often wonder how pregnancy will effect my endo and what will become of it after I've had the baby. Trying to care for a baby when I can't even care for myself during those intense bouts of endo pain is a scary thought! I will definitely continue to follow your blog and learn from your experiences and knowledge. Thanks for sharing, and please drop by my blog if you're interested in seeing how successfully TCM treats endo. I am a real life case study!

J said...

My thoughts exactly. I actually just posted about the same thing. It's hard not to feel guilty. Hope it's ok if I follow your new blog. I would love to hear updates on how everything is going.

My Endo Journey said...

No yaya. I just have thought about this long before this happened. I just couldn't decide and I just needed to make a call. :)

Christa, if people are following your blog, I know they aren't offended. I thought about that too and said to myself, if they don't want to read, then they won't. :) I read; I'm not! Haha!

It wasn't an easy decision, and, now I'm feeling wavered now that everyone is being so supportive. Haha!

Ill put my link in the sidebar.

Nadine said...

Great to keep on reading of your journey - I'm so happy for your success.
I was told that pregnancy can significantly help endo (and bfing afterwards) and it was the one thing I was told would really truely help me (other than a total hyst).

look forward to reading new blog.

AshPash said...

I don't know why doctors think pregnancy cures endo. It does NOT. I have several friends who ended up with hysterectomies due to endo pain AFTER two or three pregnancies. The research I have done says there is NO cure for endo. Of course, I hope you find much less pain after the baby...my pain is substantially controlled with BCP's. Will head over to check out the updates.

Jeanne said...

Allison,

My Internet access crashed with my comment to this 99% done... so I'm going to try this again. I'm too tired to be quite as detailed this time (not to mention I have forgotten what I said).

Sorry for the delay in popping over here. I did get your email back and I'm glad our conversation about the future of this blog was helpful to you.

As you said, endo has had a significant impact on your life. As AshPash said, pregnancy is not a cure for endo and there is no cure for endo.

I hope that you are one of the fortunate endo patients who finds that pregnancy provides some relief of symptoms. Sadly, I have met (in my local endo support group and online) women that were not so fortunate.

I say this not to be negative in any way (obviously I hope you get symptom relief!) but because I think it's important for people to understand the reality in a world with too many endo myths... including pregnancy-related endo myths.

I think you made a great decision regarding how to blog from here on out!

Jeanne

P.S. Blogger never had spell-check when I was on it (though my Wordpress has it). Is Blogger trying to correct the spelling of endometriosis??

Christa said...

As the previous posters has said and as you know, there is no "cure" for endo, BUT I felt 1000 times better after about 4 months of pregnancy. It did, however, come back very strong after pregnancy. I was exclusively breastfeeding and did for 6 months and it's supposed to keep the endo at bay. I still felt the pain of my right ovary. I had a lap 5 months into breastfeeding and they said the endo looked great!!! That was awesome, but I still had pain on my right ovary, but have now come to accept the fact that my right ovary will never feel good again. But I digress.
The point of this comment, no there is no cure for endo, but during pregnancy I've heard most women say that they feel a lot better!!! Hopefully you are one of those women!