I’m so excited that my surgery date is getting closer! I know that sounds kind of funny, but I’ve been feeling really sick lately.

The surgery will hopefully make me feel better because one surgeon will be excising (cutting off) the endometriosis that is all over my organs. Endometriosis is the lining of the uterus growing outside of the uterus. It causes severe cramping, bleeding, muscle spasms.

(Image Description: 2 slides Illustrations of Excision Removal of Endometriosis Before and After marking areas of the Peritoneum, Ureter, Nerve and Rectum. Before slides illustrated 2 surgical tools exposing the Endometriosis, a white fleshy substance that is speckled with red and blue irregular shapes embedded in tissue.  Note the release of contracted organs printed on After slide.

I am also getting a partial hysterectomy (only removing the uterus and fallopian tubes not leaving the ovaries in order to not mess up my hormones too much) to stop the bleeding. It may or may not help the cramps, but getting rid of the endo should help that. If I have adenomyosis (lining of the uterus growing into the muscles of the uterus), a hysterectomy is the only way to fix that.

(ID: Illustration of Uterus and detail of Laparascopic Hysterectomy) identifying Laparoscope, Surgical Instrument, Abdomen inflated with gas to give surgeon room to work, catheter to drain bladder and inset marking Incision sites on torso.)

(ID: Illustration of Ovaries with lesions. Text: Lesions can appear on your ovaries, fallopian tubes and the lining of your pelvis.)

(ID: Another view of uterus (See above)

The second surgeon will be getting the endometriosis out of my colon. Having endo there has been more painful than I can even explain. If it’s too bad, I might need a colon resection (where they cut out some of the intestines and sew the ends back together).

 I will possibly  need a colostomy (where they cut out some of the intestines and have them re-routed to come out what we would call the “tummy” area. There is a stoma, basically a hole, where the waste comes out into a colostomy bag.

(ID: Colon Resections illustration of colon in 2 separate images depicting the removal of a section of colon and the reattaching of colon without removed section)

(ID: Illustration like above of Diseased section of colon removed)

You can get super cute bag covers and even make it a fashion and advocacy statement if you want.)

(ID: An assortment of colorful and patterened colostomy bags)

He is also going to take out my appendix because endometriosis likes to grow there. I’m trying to get “ahead of the curve.”

(ID: 2 slides Normal anatomy, illustrating large and small intestines, Umbillicus and Appendix and Laparoscopic appendectomy illustrating  Large & small intestine, laparoscopic instruments and Appendix.)

Endo will always grow back. It is a chronic condition. Which sucks! So I need to take birth control indefinitely because the hormones in birth control slow down the endo’s growth. This has been really hard for me because the hormones have also been making my mental health worse. Honestly, I haven’t been nice to people lately, which is not like me at all. Thankfully, I just switched types of birth control, and my psychiatrist gave me something to calm down a bit. I think it might be helping.

Prayers and encouraging comments would be really appreciated at this point!

Also, always feel free to comment on things you wish I would post about! I have an extremely rare combination of disorders/illnesses, so it is super interesting how they interact!