Surgery is scary.
Whether you are getting your wisdom teeth taken out or having a heart replacement, the anxiety surrounding surgery is still apparent and valid.
Therefore, excision surgery for endometriosis generates a million questions and thoughts:
“What if they do not find anything, where do I go from there?”
“What if I do have endometriosis, how do I learn to live with a chronic illness?”
“How is the recovery process going to go?”
Every nerve-wracking idea that enters your mind is completely justifiable. It is not easy to undergo surgery, nevertheless when you come to the realization that the surgery will not cure your pain, it will just subside it for the time being.
When I was going through my own surgery experience, my surgeon had connected me with a support group that her office runs. It consisted of stories from real patients and mental health professionals to walk you through the surgery process, including the mental factors that are apparent pre- and post-operation. After my excision surgery and diagnosis with stage four endometriosis, my surgeon gave me the opportunity to share my story in support groups, especially since I was able to give the perspective of a teenager with a chronic illness.
So, I will tell all of you what I told the extraordinary women that I met in support group:
- Take your mental health seriously. It is okay to miss school and/or work in order to mourn the loss of a healthy body. Do not force yourself to go back to your regular routine but adapt to the hardships of this disease and create a new routine for yourself.
- Buy yourself a comfortable pair of granny panties and extra wide pads. The hospital will try to give you an adult diaper and those are neither cute nor comfortable.
- Do not enter the hospital wearing lotion, deodorant, perfume, nor shaving yourself. It is a hospital, I promise that no one is noticing if you do not smell great or have shaved legs.
- BRING. A. PILLOW! The ride home from the hospital, especially since you leave the hospital the same day you receive the surgery, is brutal. I had my surgery right across the river from Manhattan in Jersey City and those New York drivers do not care if you personally got out and show them your surgery scars. Keep a pillow across your surgical incisions to slightly relieve the pain of breaking when driving.
- Your support system post-operation is everything. Without my parents, I probably wouldn’t have had as smooth of a recovery.
- Making sure someone is keeping track of your pain medication and ibuprofen intake. It is easy to get ahead of yourself and take medication just because you feel the pain getting worse.
- Rest. Take as much time as you need in order to regain your full strength. Your well-being is the most important aspect of your life, people are willing to pick up the slack or cater to certain needs if that means you can return to your regular self. You are not a bother. You are not a burden.
Being chronically sick is hard. Surgery is hard. Getting on a routine with medication is hard. Yet, many women conquer those challenges, and you can too.
I really appreciate you sharing your story with surgery, especially endometriosis excision surgery, because I would guess that most people in this class haven’t had that experience (aside from wisdom teeth). I think your advice is absolutely relevant and helpful. I don’t know how long your recovery took, but I am sure that anyone undergoing a gradual recovery will face discouraging hardships and self-doubt. I really like how you implied that, aside from the physical recovery, the mental part can be just as hard, if not harder, and it is important to support your healing in this way as well.