Endometriosis Operation Update

As some of you know I have stage 4 endometriosis (my story here) and I recently went into hospital for an operation. Turned out to be a big old op!

Firstly let me start by saying how fantastic the NHS nurses and consultants were, they did a brilliant job of keeping me calm and having me in hospital for 6 days.
I had my own private room with a tv in, very fancy.

Any who, what I originally went in to hospital for was to remove an endometrioma cyst, which sadly became infected. The cyst had stuck to my bowels and kidney too. And, there was a lot of endometriosis tissue to remove.

So, the procedure: I had a laparoscopy, right salpingo-oophorectomy, midline laparotomy – hartmann procedure, cystoscopy – right retrograde study and insertion of JJ stent right side. All very technical words, but I’ll explain below.

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What that all means is that I had the infected endometrioma cyst and endo tissue removed, I sadly had to have my right ovary removed. I have stitches from just above my belly button to my lower abdomen. I have a stent in my kidney and my bowels are damaged so I have to have a stoma bag for a year, then have it reversed, which takes another year to recover.

What’s it like having a stoma bag? It’s life changing if I’m being honest. I really struggled at first, being the emotional human that I am, I couldn’t deal with the smell of emptying it without being sick. But now I’ve kind of gotten used to it. The stoma nurses were brilliant in helping me come to terms with it, it’s not forever, it’s only a year they kept saying and that I can lead a normal life.

But it’s hard. At the moment, I’m finding it hard to walk, sit down, lie down without being in pain. I’ve also got a bunch of medication to take, but I’m sick every time I have a paracetamol or my antibiotics as my mouth is so dry and scratchy. I’ve also lost my appetite, I can barely eat anything apart from clear soup or a little bit of mash potato.

Hopefully in a couple of days my throat will stop being so sore and I can eat a proper meal.

Anyway, just wanted to update you all on my endometriosis op, it’s my third one since 2015. Endo you are a pain in the butt, but raising awareness of this condition is my goal.

If you’re struggling with endo or have an operation coming up don’t be afraid to contact me or leave me a comment below.

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