#TBT to the first time I published my #endostory

I recently had to clean out my desk and pack up 10 years of memories and collectibles (and, let’s be honest, papers and condiments and dusty old fortunes). Among my discoveries: the long-lost copies of H Magazine from 2009, in which I lay out my excruciating and embarrassing first emergency room visit for extreme pelvic pain and heavy bleeding, describe some of the more graphic details of life with endometriosis for all my coworkers to read, and required our senior Graphics Editor to make a graphic of what endometriosis and adhesions look like. (Sorry not sorry, Steve.)

The story took a big edit and you can’t even find it online any more, since the magazine is no longer in print, but I was still happy — and maybe a little strangely nostalgic — to find these copies and to know they haven’t been totally lost and forgotten. I’d love to take another crack at this and rewrite this article, to update the facts and improve the prose. Maybe now that my schedule has “opened up,” as they say, I’ll have both the time and resolve to do so.

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Happy Endo March all around the world!

Wishing everybody marching for endometriosis awareness a happy, productive, and pain-free weekend! I love seeing the photos from all around the world as I’m perched on my spot on the couch, heating pad on high and little dog laying bored next to me. Keep ’em coming — wish I was with you! (All of you — I attended the original Washington, D.C., march, and who wouldn’t want to march in Scotland or France or South Africa or Canada!)

We’d love to see your favorite photos from your local endo march. Post them to the new official Endo Sucks! Facebook page, and you could see them featured on the Endo Sucks! social media! Be sure to include where you’re from and who you’re marching for.

It’s Facebook official.

Took us long enough, right?

Help Endo Sucks! grow this month by liking and sharing our official Facebook page, and inviting your friends to really, really like us, too!

Doctor, I found out the source of my pain!

It’s because PRETTY HURTS.

Or at least menthol tingles.

Look at all the fun you’re missing out on! Come join Endo Sucks! on Snapchat; handle is endosucks (naturally).

Pretty much using it for filters and making terrifying faces at the gynecologist. That’s what it’s for, right?

The importance of medication planning

Originally posted on Instagram.

The importance of #medication planning cannot be overstressed.
My mom used to urge me to write down when I took meds, but it used to be that I didn’t need them so often, so it was easier to write down or even just remember if I took such-n-such today.
But when you are trying new programs, or have more than one #medicine to take, the routine itself can lead to confusion. What did you just take — an aspirin or an oxycodone? 
I resisted the pill planner for a long time. Looking at everything together is overwhelming. It’s a visual guide to being “a sick person.” I GET IT. The very act of parsing out meds, particularly as a young person, can make you feel sad or ashamed. For me, it also reminds me of being a tween and first being hit with an #immunedeficiency that — without a serious routine that included 30 pills a day, not including emergency meds — would have suffocated and killed me. (Idiopathic anaphylaxis, y’all!)
That may be in remission, but the need to stay on track with my #healthcare hasn’t stopped. It’s important to know what you’ve taken, how much, when. Then you can go back to your doctor and say “hey, I did great on this plan” or “this isn’t enough.” Brain fog from #pain or prescription isn’t doing anybody favors, either.
If nothing else, with the increasing limitation of access to controlled meds even for #chronicpain patients, making sure you are not taking “more meds” and being left in a lurch between refills is now critical self care. 
I may invest in a more detailed container later. ‘Til then, thanks for the free one, pharmacy! 
Take good care of yourself! #happyfriday 🙌
NOTE: That #doterra Deep Blue really does help when you take it regularly, and I’m doing well so far on #Lyrica, so here’s to hope! 💊
#endosucks #support #endometriosis #adenomyosis #migraine #chiari #breakfast #chronicillness #chronicallyfabulous #spoonie #spoonielife #endolife #selfcare #essentialoils #neurolife #painlife #planner #littlethings #medlife 
FYI: I admit it: I’m addicted to Instant Social Media. 😥 I find myself “blogging” a lot on the Endo Sucks! Instagram page (and not checking email often), linked above. I promise to start cross-posting a lot more here, but if you (like me!) just can’t wait, please join me on Instagram, Twitter and in our Facebook group! 

Endo Sister Feature: Lisa 🎗

Endo Sister Feature, as promised! 🎗✊😎

Let EndoSucks! sister Lisa explain, in her own words, how endometriosis and chronic pain affects her daily life. Thank you for sharing your story! She is also featured on the Endo Sucks! Instagram.

If you would like to be a featured sister, email endosucks@gmail.com. If you’re looking to talk with other Endo Sucks! sisters, please join us!

🎗✨💝🎗✨💝🎗✨💝🎗✨💝

  
Hi my name is lisa.

I have endometriosis. 

I am also currently not being treated for it. So I suffer alone. Well not alone I have my husband and family and lots of beautiful endo sisters. 

The pain is constant. Tolerable at times..other times I cannot stand straight nor walk well. This disease almost cost me my marriage. With sex it is way to painful..like knives inside me, burning pain. Separated for 9 months, and as we got together to talk, we really talked and realized thay we can do this. We can beat this. Endo doesn’t have to end us. We will not let it. Whether I go weeks getting sick, believing I have endometriosis on the bowels, and the horrible pain days, we keep pushing thru and continue to spread the word..thank you for reading a little about me.

Endo strong here!

International Women’s Day is for everyone

It’s never too late to say thank you to all of our endosisters and women past and present for working for a better life for us all. And it’s always a good time to be rallied by Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.”

A new graphic for Endometriosis Awareness Month, you gems! 💎

Created this in InDesign for our endowarriors and shared on Instagram and Facebook. Please let me know what you think in the comments — including if you have any suggestions! 🎗

Speaking of social media, thank you for contributing to the photo challenge I talked about yesterday! If you have an Instagram and/or Twitter account, please include your handle in your email so you can be tagged in the post! 📸

 

Welcome back to Endo Month – with a photo challenge

Ladies and gents, it’s Endometriosis Awareness Month again! 🎗

Like so many people, Endo Sucks! has been pretty active on instant communication sites — we are on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook — but more than lax in the blogosphere. 

So let’s improve that.

This year, if you are interested in being a featured member of Endo Sucks! on the blog and Instagram for endo awareness, send a selfie and a short piece about you and your endo life to endosucks@gmail.com. Let’s see the yellow! 🎗

I’ll be also be posting more crossover content. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there may be an unflattering story involving PMS, potato chips and tears in the near future. Truth is truth, y’all.

Thank you again for following this blog and making Endo Sucks! into a community. Next year is our tenth year and we will really have to celebrate! 

And for this year — onward, Endo Month!

My personal #DeepBlueChallenge

I’m an Endosister on CD1. And things have been rough — already threw up today, which is not entirely usual for me. Had to move an appointment to tomorrow, and there is so much blood … I’m exhausted. My lucky break today is that my days off had to be broken up this week so all I have to do today is care for my health. 

I also am an essential oil using & loving skeptic — I joined doTerra because I loved their headache oil blend and their PMS oil blend works so well for me, but I’m one of those people who generally has to experience it to believe it. So I can’t think of a better time for my personal Deep Blue Challenge. This is a new supplement with anti-inflammatory ingredients, including frankincense, curcumin from turmeric (which we are all told to use to reduce inflammation!), ginger & more. 

  

Several women in my group have Endometriosis and have been raving about this as a way to reduce their pain. I became a member of doTerra because their products work for me (and hey baby, those wholesale discounts are sexy!), and I will always be honest with you that this is a group in which I’m enrolled. With ingredients like these, I definitely have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I’ll keep you all posted on my results! You can follow my oil adventures on mydoterra.com/oilsbychanel, which has links to my Pinterest and  Twitter as well. I’ll try to keep up on this blog as well.

Will I give up my codeine? Not if I don’t have to, kids! 🙅🙅🙅 But there’s no reason we can’t combine natural methods with our pain meds! I’ve tried all the chemicals and I can’t say my life is worse for pharmacology. But I will try anything and everything.