Spotlight: Endochick

Spotlight: Endochick
Website: Endometriosis: The Silent Life Sentence

Twitter: @Endochick
Blogging since: March 2007
Occupation: Freelance Writer, Freelance Correspondent for a local paper, an Aspiring Novelist, and a Part-Time Head Teacher at a Day Care. Above all, I’m also a mommy to two wonderful little kiddies

What made me start blogging?
I began blogging mainly as a cathartic exercise. I had no one in my community to talk to who had endometriosis and who could identify with what I was going through—and I needed an outlet to “unload.” My mother had had endometriosis, but her hysterectomy at 28 left her disconnected and unable to help me. My husband had been through so much with me health-wise and I didn’t want to drag him through yet another emotional medical journey.

So as a writer and someone who enjoys journaling to work through her troubles, I opened a blogger.com blog. I began cataloging my experience of being diagnosed with endometriosis as well as a very frightening mammogram. Eventually, I moved my blog over to wordpress.com and began getting a plethora of responses from women just like me. These women were my age, younger, even older! I couldn’t believe it–I wasn’t alone! They were thanking me for being so honest and raw with my language and for really capturing what it feels like to have endometriosis. And I realized my blogging wasn’t just for me anymore, it was for all of us “endo” girls. My blogging became a mission to help spread endometriosis awareness and education, as well as still being an open book into my life as an endometriosis patient. I do this with the hope that other women who have the disease, or suspect they may have it, will not have to feel alone as I once felt.

What motivates you in your writing?
My pain motivates me. It reminds me that life is short and that no amount of pain is going to stop me from living every last minute of it. I often write through the pain.
My readers also motivate me. Without them I would be writing into an empty void with no one to bounce my ideas off of. Their comments are often inspirational and I enjoy them so much!

Who do you admire in the Endometriosis community?
I really admire Jeanne from ChronicHealing.com (formerly Jeanne’s Endo Blog). She’s an inspiration for women with endometriosis and other chronic illnesses. During the month of March (Endometriosis Awareness Month), Jeanne created the hash tag #endo for Twitter and had it placed in the Twitter Hash Tag dictionary. It’s use in now widespread on the social networking platform. Also during this month, I instituted the phrase for use on endometriosis blogs and Twitter: “March Blogging Madness for Endometriosis Awareness.” And Jeanne was instrumental in helping to circulate this catchphrase. Jeanne is always willing to come to the aid of a friend, endometriosis sufferer or not.

What are the most common questions people ask you – and what do you tell them?
I get asked about my experience a lot and I often tell them my personal account—how I was diagnosed, etc. But I reiterate to each individual that the time it takes to be diagnosed is different for everyone. The only way for endometriosis to be diagnosed definitively is by laparoscopy. This diagnosis takes, on average, 9.9 years. During this time, doctors may “suspect” that you have it, which was my case for years. They can “suspect” and treat you to an extent all they want. But to be diagnosed one way or the other is important.

I’m also asked how I deal with co-workers, family, friends, and people who just don’t understand the pain I’m going through with my endometriosis. This is a difficult thing to deal with—people who don’t “get it.” It would be easier if we had broken bones, or even cancer. People could see our casts or our hair falling out from the chemo—and they would sympathize with our pain. But when the pain is so internal, so deeply hidden in our wombs with no external reference point for others to identify with, it makes it almost impossible for them to understand.

My answer is—you can’t make them understand. They will never understand because they can never walk in our shoes. But take two people with endometriosis—they can look at each other and they just know. They know each other’s pain and they don’t even have to describe it. They know the cramps, the bleeding, the cysts, the adhesions, and the endless pain. They just know. And, while you can’t make other people “understand,” you can educate them.

The more people we educate about endometriosis—in the work place or in the world—the more we will be taken seriously by our co-workers and loved ones. Endometriosis isn’t simply a “bad period,” as non-sufferers believe. And we need to get that word out. We need to band together, with those who understand our pain, to get that accomplished. We are not a minority; after all, according to the Ohio State University Medical Center, endometriosis is more common than both AIDS and cancer. That makes endometriosis patients a majority, a strong majority of 89 million women worldwide. When we combine, we can get our voices heard.

What would you most want to say about your condition to someone who doesn’t have it?
We are not drug-seekers—we are actually in pain. We are not lazy—we are prone to sitting on the couch in a puddle of tears because our insides are bleeding. We don’t need your pity—we need your honest, compassionate support. We don’t need or expect that you will understand what we are going through. We need you to understand that you never will. We just need you to acknowledge that the pain isn’t a specter, an imagined thing come to haunt us, or something we created in our minds. We need you to acknowledge that we are not “making the pain up,” not receding into tiny balls of tortured women every month in a desperate cry for attention. We just need you to acknowledge that our pain is real—even if you can’t feel it or see it.

What is your favorite health-related resource?
That’s a tough one! I have so many health-related sources I use. I would point readers to WebMD.com, though. I read the articles and use their little quizzes and tools often. It’s a great site and health source, full of wonderful references. I even have their gadget on my iGoogle homepage so I can receive a current feed of articles from WebMD.com.

Learn more about Endochick
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Written by WEGO Health

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