In the year 2002, I was in my second year in law school. I was active in curricular and extra-curricular activities. It was a fateful day in July of that year when I experienced extreme abdominal pains. At first, I thought it was just period pains but it was getting worse as the day progressed. I was attending a youth symposium and I had to go home early because of the pain, which started from my abdomen and ran down to my thighs. I could hardly walk.
The truth is I was experiencing period pains for almost a year but I thought it was just normal. Older folks would usually tell young women that period pains are normal, and that you could just take painkillers for it or even do hot compress on your lower abdomen.
The pain persisted for two days, and so I went to an internist thinking that I had ulcers or there was something wrong with my appendix. I could feel the pain in my entire abdominal area. It was a throbbing pain. It felt as if something was moving inside my stomach. It was like an alien struggling to burst through. The internist ordered me to have an abdominal ultrasound (which focused on the upper abdominal area) but she couldn't find anything wrong. However, she suggested that I go to an Ob-Gyn because the pain might be connected to my period.
I went to the Ob-Gyn, and this time, the ultrasound was focused only on my lower abdomen. That was when the Ob-Gyn informed me that I had a chocolate cyst and that I was suffering from endometriosis. The doctor advised me to have surgery right away because the cyst was so big - it was the size of a tennis ball - that it could rupture at any time. I was young and I wasn't aware that endometriosis is a serious condition or that having a ruptured cyst is actually dangerous. I asked the doctor to schedule my surgery during the semestral break, which was still in October.
I learned two things from this experience that I wish I knew before. First, extreme period pains are not normal. Period cramps are normal. Period headaches are normal. But extreme pain where you can hardly get out of bed or you can hardly walk is not normal. If I had known about this, I should have visited the doctor earlier. Second, always ask your doctor about your condition thoroughly, or if you can't ask your doctor, do your own research. When my Ob-Gyn said that I have endometriosis, I did not ask any follow-up questions nor did I make my own research. I was young and reckless with the thought that everything would be okay. Well, years later, it wouldn't be okay anymore.
I was 22 years old when I was diagnosed with endometriosis.
