Since it is Endometriosis awareness month, I am here to speak about my battle with having endometriosis and also to help those who have it and may or may not know. First I am going to introduce myself. I Am Deidre Matthews and I am 17, soon to be 18. As a kid I was always doing activities. I have participated in ballet, jazz, swimming, piano and figure skating. I have stopped all those activities except figure skating but almost had to two times in the last four years.
I got my period for the first time when I was ten years old (when I was in grade five). It was always regular up until I was twelve years old. At twelve, I was skating more regularly almost 3-4 times a week with my friends and having lessons at the same time.
In October of 2005 I got my period on Halloween for only one day. Not only was it for one day, it was very light but the worst pain I have ever had. I never thought anything bad about the time length until I went to mid-January before having my next painful period. I didn’t say anything because I always thought having painful periods was normal so I’d always be taking Midol in hopes it wouldn’t hurt one day.
Then a little less than a year later, my mom brought me to the emergency room at the Sainte Justine’s hospital in Montreal. I described my ongoing stomach pains to be sharp-stabbing with some cramps and some of the worst. That at the time were the only symptoms I had faced so it gave the doctor many different scenarios to go through. The first, was an x-ray of my abdominal area.
I sat in the x-ray room for almost 20 minutes before they proceeded to go and do x-rays on me. When they took several photographs of my insides they went to develop the film as I went to go get changed since that was the last test they had to take. We then waited in the waiting room and the doctor called us in to tell my all the pain I am in might have to do with a slight block in the intestines. They gave me pills to see if it’d help but the pills never did and the pain went away slowly over time.
Not much happened for another year and a half. Now it’s when I was fifteen years old. I had gone to the Dominican Republic and once I returned home I had a cold. The cold turned into several other colds over 14 week period that’d almost caused me to take a break at skating because I kept missing anyways. Only reason why I didn’t was because I was coaching and I didn’t want to have to leave my students in the middle of the season so I decided to wait.
I got over all my colds and viruses I had the first week of March and had about a week’s rest for my body of no pain or sickness. On the Saturday March 7th, it was my last skating day for the season because the show practices were starting. I was working on one of my skating dances when I tripped and fell really hard on my stomach. I blanked out for about thirty seconds and then I was able to slowly get up. The fall didn’t really hurt it was just more of a shock since the dance was going well and I was on time.
Then on March 9th, 2009 (Monday night) I was getting up to go put something in the garbage something on my right side of my stomach popped and sent me flying backwards into the chair I was trying to get up from. I took thirty seconds and I told my mom it felt like something popped. She didn’t comment because she didn’t know what to say.
I tried to get back up again, but my stomach was hurting too straighten up and walk normally. I walked bent over to the kitchen and then I headed downstairs to get a drink and the stairs was the most painful walk I ever had. It took me about four minutes to walk down and six to walk back up and for the rest of the night I stayed all curled up because that was the only way my stomach didn’t hurt.
The next day I had a very slow day in school, I had a lot of pain and people were able to see that I wasn’t myself. I had a few teachers and most of my friends ask me what was wrong because of my lack of energy. I told them that my stomach was in a lot of pain and for the rest of the day my stomach felt like popcorn. It’d popped several times to where I felt worse than the night before. I also knew I was going to have to go see a doctor about it but I was putting it off.
I put off seeing the doctor for three days because I didn’t want to have to go sit in a clinic with many other sick people and getting a chance of becoming sick once again. On the Thursday I finally gave in and went to the clinic and sat there for about two hours only to be called in and going through some of my symptoms, I was told it was probably my intestines again and she gave me a paper to go get another set of x-rays. I knew for a fact that, that was wrong and nobody actually knew what was wrong with me.
It maintained the same amount of pain for a few weeks, some days worse and some days better and then I went to go see my family doctor. I knew it was probably endometriosis that I had but I decided to wait and here it from a doctors mouth. I described to her about my symptoms were and the pain. She asked me several questions including am I sexual active which I am not and then she just sat there. She started signing papers and then handed me them. I was now to go for blood tests, urine cultures and an ultrasound.
I started off by going for the blood tests and urine culture on and early Saturday morning. It was really early but since it was a private clinic it went by fast and we were in and out. A few days later I got a call to go see the family doctor and she told me that the urine culture didn’t turn out clear and I had to redo that test before having my ultrasound done. She also said my blood tests were fine and everything came out normal.
So I went back to the clinic to redo the urine culture and then the tests were sent back to the lab once again. This time my doctor called to inform me those tests came out clear as well and I don’t have to worry about the test anymore and I can proceed to the next phase which was the ultrasound.
I got my appointment for mid-July. I drank the recommended water and when I got there they asked for my paper. I handed them the first ‘test’ paper I had laying on my kitchen table. They later called me up and said, “I thought you were doing an ultrasound.” I said I was and they just looked at me puzzled and sent me to sit back down. About three minutes later I had a nurse come up to me and she brought me to a changing room where I had to change out of my clothes and put a hospital gown on. She then brought me to a room and made me lie on the table.
I had a few ultrasounds before that and I know for a fact that’s not how they are supposed to do it. She then put a machine over my belly and told me not to move. She snapped several pictures and then she told me I could go and my doctor would have the results in less than a week.
When I got home I told my parents that they did the wrong test on me and I wasn’t supposed to have had x-rays done. She called to reschedule the appointment that would be a week after and said not to worry about it because I would have had to do the test if they didn’t find anything in the ultrasound.
A week passed by and my mom and I went back to the clinic so I could have the actual ultrasound. The technician went through everything and he also showed me what he saw and said, I have several cysts on both ovaries which is probably causing the pain. My right side (side that was hurting more) was the side that had more cysts and he said when my family doctor gets the test results then she should prescribe me pills to ease the pain. Little did I know that wasn’t going to happen to quick...
I went back to see my family doctor around August/September, not sure of the actual day. She was almost 100% sure that the cysts were NOT causing my pain so she referred me to go see a gastrointestinal doctor since that was most likely the cause of the pain. I did as I was told.
I first saw the doctor in October and he took down my symptoms and we had about a twenty minute chat. He told me he had three tests he could perform.
1) Upper intestinal test
2) Lower intestinal test
3) Colonoscopy
He wanted to start off with the two upper and lower tests because the colonoscopy would be for older ages and it’s probably nothing to do with it. So he signed the paper and told me to come back and see him once the test was done. My mom called the place to get the x-rays done and she faxed them my paper. They couldn’t read his hand writing so they took a guess (not to mention the doctor who gave me the paper was in the same building). They told me to get a kit (same kit as a colonoscopy) and follow the directions thinking that was the x-ray test.
1) Upper intestinal test
2) Lower intestinal test
3) Colonoscopy
He wanted to start off with the two upper and lower tests because the colonoscopy would be for older ages and it’s probably nothing to do with it. So he signed the paper and told me to come back and see him once the test was done. My mom called the place to get the x-rays done and she faxed them my paper. They couldn’t read his hand writing so they took a guess (not to mention the doctor who gave me the paper was in the same building). They told me to get a kit (same kit as a colonoscopy) and follow the directions thinking that was the x-ray test.
I did as told the day before and when I got to the building I was in for a major surprise. I went in the room and they told me I was going to feel pressure in my rear area and it is meant to feel uncomfortable but it wouldn’t hurt. They were right but it was a shock since they were doing a colonoscopy when I was not supposed to have one.
When I was done they said it was the cleanest colon they’ve ever seen, I should hope so I was only 16. We went back weeks later to see the gastrointestinal doctor and he gave me another paper to go get the last two tests done. I thought the worst was over, but I was wrong.
A week before Christmas I went for the last of the two tests. I had to drink this weird powder chalk stuff and then wait until it was digested into my system. Then they took pictures as I had to drink more stuff and let me tell you it was the worst tasting stuff ever and I was more concentrated on keeping it down then what the doctor was saying. When those excruciating tests were done I didn’t hear or worry about the results until February when I had to go back.
When I went back the doctor said everything was clean and I have nothing to worry about. He then said, “We still haven’t done the colonoscopy but I don’t think that is necessary for your age.” I looked at him but didn’t say a word. When my mom and I left I looked at her and said, “we didn’t do a colonoscopy? He is the one who kept telling me the technicians said it was clean and he doesn’t remember?” She told me to let it go because I do not have to go back to see him anymore.
Later that month I went back to see my family doctor out of frustration and I said, “I need to see a gynaecologist because I think I have endometriosis.” She didn’t want to give me the referral because she is a gynaecologist but she did anyways. And then the last week of that month I went to see the new doctor. After going through my symptoms he said it was a high possibility but he wanted to give me a test to make sure. I accepted his test and so he told me to go on birth control for three months straight and stop it to see how bad the pain was.
I started by doing so and the first month went by okay. Then on March 29th, 2010 I was having the worst pains in my stomach I ever had. That was also after skating for four hours straight. I couldn’t stand up in a straight position and I shouldn’t have been skating after feeling the pain all morning. When I got home at 6, I was still crying because of the pain. My mom told me to stay low that night.
It increasingly got worse (not thinking it could) and so that’s when my mom rushed me to the emergency room. At first I thought it was my appendix because it was only on the right side but when I got there the pain started to spread. I took many tylonel’s which never helped and then at about 12am I was called to see the first doctor. She took many blood samples and told me to go back into the waiting room and when the results were in they’d come and get me.
We then waited until two in the morning, they called my name and we went into another part of the hospital. We sat in that room for half an hour until the doctor decided showed up. He said that my blood tests were clear and he couldn’t find anything. He told me to go home, take some tylonel and get some sleep and to come back for another ultrasound at 9 in the morning.
I did as told and went the next day for the ultrasound. We waited again in the emergency room for the results and the doctor called us in. He said the technician only did the test on my appendix but she couldn’t find it. He also stated that most people who come in with stomach are fine days after. Well this was the second time in 3 years I was hospitalized for stomach pains and it was on going for over a year now. And this point this is the first time I almost quit skating.
He then asked me what my previous doctors had said, and my mom told him I was being followed for endometriosis and the doctor said that was a large possibility. He said they can’t find endometriosis in x-rays or ultrasounds so they’d all end up being clear (like my tests have been showing up). He told me to go see my gynaecologist and speak with him again for further doings.
Since nothing was happening I got a new appointment in Montreal with one of the top doctors. We went through some tests and asked me about any injuries that may have happened before the pains. That’s when it clicked; I fell a few days before hard on my stomach at skating. He did a physiotherapy type test to determine which hurt a lot and he said I probably have a slight tear in my stomach and that physiotherapy can help with it. I need to go see my family doctor to get the papers.
That’s where the progress was starting. My mom called my family doctor and asked if she’d give me a referral but the doctor said no. My mom emailed a family member who works at the place where one of the doctors diagnosed me and told her so he wrote up a referral and gave it to her to give to me. (He didn’t want to do it at first because he didn’t want to get my family doctor mad).
So now we move on to middle of May. I had my first appointment for physiotherapy and my second appointment for the gynaecologist. I went to the gynaecologist first and he told me he wasn’t happy with the results from the test and asked me to redo it again and also let him know what physiotherapy does for me.
At physio, we did a full hour and a half tests with my physiotherapist and she said that she couldn’t do anything with my stomach but my back needed a lot of help because of lack of posture and muscles. She told me to take four months off of skating for the start to see how it goes. I took the four months off (thinking the second time I was going to have to quit) and those four months were hell and very boring.
So I was doing that I was also going through a lot personally and that made me stressed. I ended up throwing up every morning (no matter what time it was) and I was weak, tired and couldn’t move. I at first blamed that on the stress and when I went back to see the gynaecologist in September of 2010 he told me I had endometriosis.
I always knew that day was coming but when I heard the words out of his mouth it still shocked me. I couldn’t actually believe it until a few days later. He had me take the birth control pills again for three months, stop, and 3 months again.
This time while taking them I had the same symptoms as the last time I took them. The only difference was I had no stress/little at all. I took them for two months of pure torture and still throwing up every morning that I had to put a stop to it 2 months into the first 3 months. I stopped taking the pills.
Currently today March 2011 I am still off the pills but everyone is right the pain does get a lot worse as each month goes on. February I had to say was the worst month I had with endometriosis. I thought I was going to be hospitalized again. I could barely move for 3 to 4 days (even though I still had to coach and skate) I lasted like half an hour on the ice at the beginning and then I’d only go to school for 2 or 3 hours because it was so bad. My stomach felt like it was outside of me and three of those four days I took 9 doses of 2 pills per dose of Midol to relieve some of the pain. It was never fully relieved but it helped. That month also made my back worse because of the pain and my physiotherapist is even concerned.
Where I am headed next: I am still staying off the pills until April, when my doctor is back to start new pills or treatment. I try to keep a maintained diet of lots of fruits and vegetables. I do a lot more skating then I’ve done the past two years and I am still in physiotherapy once a month to check on the progress of my back and I am looking forward to getting back on track.
Endometriosis facts:
What is Endometriosis? Endometriosis is the abnormal growth of cells (endometrial cells) similar to those that form the inside of the uterus, but in a location outside of the uterus. Examples, Ovaries, bladder, cervix, vagina ect.
• Symptoms:
• Pain before and during periods
• Pain with intercourse
• General, chronic pelvic pain throughout the month
• Low back pain
• Heavy and/or irregular periods
• Painful bowel movements, especially during menstruation
• Painful urination during menstruation
• Fatigue
• Infertility
• Diarrhoea or constipation
If you have any of these symptoms or think you have endometriosis go see your doctor, don’t wait. Live your life pain free.
