Science is a truly marvelous thing, but it would be wrong to say we know everything about the workings of the world.
This is very much the case when it comes to medicine. Some illnesses are thankfully simple: they’re diagnosed, treated, and cured. But others are far more complicated.
Emma Maxwell knows all too well what’s it’s like to suffer from a complicated illness.
She spent 7 years in pain, while doctors told her that, as a young woman, she had a lower pain tolerance, and that she was just being a “drama queen”.
Emma’s nightmare began in her early teens, when she started to experience pain in her lower back, pelvis and rectum. She experienced heavy periods, constipation, bloating, and nausea.
As a teen, Emma felt completely misunderstood.
Nobody would believe that she was in pain, which led her to think, on some level, that she was going crazy.
Because of the pain from her periods, Emma spent a lot of time at the nurse’s office at school. Teachers punished her for “skipping lessons”.
But despite her hidden illness, Emma was a loud, bubbly teen who loved animals and babies. She hoped to have a big family when she was older.
Little did she know that babies of her own might not be something that her body was capable of.
Emma’s pain became worse, and she would spend days in bed, unable to leave the house. By the age of 15, she was desperate for help, so arranged a visit to her doctor.
She was put on birth control, which was supposed to help her to manage her periods and reduce the pain. It did nothing. So she was switched to a different brand of pill. Then again. Then again.
Emma went through more than 10 different birth control pills in three years, while her doctor told her that she just had “a bad period”.
Nobody seemed to be taking Emma’s symptoms seriously, despite how many she had.
Sharing her story on Love What Matters , she recalled:
“I lost an unhealthy amount of weight, I was severely constipated, I always looked six months pregnant, I was unable to eat or drink without pain, my anxiety and depression spiked, and my period pain seemed to never subside.”
When she turned 17, Emma approached her physician with some research she had done into Endometriosis. She noticed that a lot of her symptoms matched up, and it seemed to make sense to her.
But her physician shrugged off her suggestion, telling her to stop doing her own research and let the professionals do the job.
Finally, in 2018, a co-worker helped Emma to get to the bottom of her condition.
They put her in touch with a gastroenterologist, who first diagnosed her with IBS. But the diagnosis didn’t quite fit. It didn’t explain the painful sex, fatigue, or vaginal pain.
After a hospital scare followed several unsuccessful trials with IBS medication, Emma sought help elsewhere – this time with her OBGYN.
Before Emma had even finished explaining her symptoms, her OBGYN said it sounded like she had endometriosis.
The only way to diagnose endometriosis was to have laparoscopic surgery, so, two weeks later, Emma was booked in.
Finally, the surgery showed that Emma did in fact have endometriosis, and “quite a bit of it”.
She recalled:
“I learned I had adhesions attached from my bowels to my ovaries, to my uterus and to the sidewalls of my belly. This meant my organs weren’t able to function the way they’re supposed to. It explained why I had such severe constipation—my bowels were kinked and twisted due to the endo. It explained the unbearable cramping and my bladder issues.”
Though Emma’s surgery didn’t automatically cure her, she’s been on a path of self-discovery since her diagnosis. She’s become an advocate for her illness, and hopes to raise awareness about endometriosis so that other young women like her can receive a diagnosis sooner.
You can follow Emma’s journey on Instagram . More info about endometriosis can be found here .
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Source: Love What Matters, Mayo Clinic , Instagram