3 weeks of hell

I can't believe it. I have unfortunately started having pain again. It all started in January when an attack came on. I was in such bad pain that I had to go to the hospital. My mom took me to the ER at Ephrata hospital. At first, they ran some tests and did a CT scan. At first, they just thought it was a bowel obstruction before we got the CT results, but it was not yet. We couldn't figure out why I was getting pain.

They decided to admit me. Then, they just kept pumping me up with medicine. There were some differences compared to the other flare ups I had before surgery like I was getting a fever, bloating, and it was so hard for me to pee. I've never had that happen and it was concerning me that I may have something else wrong. After trying many ways to help the pain, nothing worked. Ephrata felt that they could no longer handle it and sent me to the hospital of Pennsylvania (HUP).

At HUP, they kept giving me medicine to help the pain. They thought it was my Endo pain coming back. Finally, after a few days of pumping medication into me, I was discharged from the hospital. But that is not where this ends. It is just the beginning.

For weeks, in and out of the hospital, I was in pain once again. I lost hope. I felt

Discouraged. Finally, we called down to Dr. Sinervo. Tomorrow I leave for my fourth and hopefully final surgery. I just hope they can figure out what's going on and stop it. 

Cancer vs Endo

By Good evening everyone! Tonight I want to talk a little bit about the similarities and differences between cancer and Endometriosis.

In the summer of 2014, my brother was diagnosed with stage two melanoma in his big toe. They ended up cutting it off to get rid of the tumor. Unfortunately, that didn't solve the problem. In the mean time, the cancer had spread up to his lymph nodes causing the cancer to be stage 3. They once again performed a surgery to get rid of it. During his next scan, they found even more cancer cells. It had now attacked his chest bone, liver, and a spot on his back. This now made his case a stage 4. He told my family this during Christmas of 2014 and explained that this may be his final Christmas with us. The average life expectancy for his case is 6-9 months. When I found this out I immediately shut down. I didn't know what to think or how to act. My big brother was now fighting for his life. They tried several infusions to decrease the growth and thankfully it was slowly improving. Slowly, but it was improving. A few weeks ago, I remembered he had a scan coming up and asked how he thinks the results will go. He explained that he thinks that it's not going to be any better, but it will also not be any worse. About a week ago, my mom texted him asking how the scan went. That's when we got the news... There was no evidence of disease. In other words, my brother has beaten cancer! I couldn't believe what I had just heard! Just a year ago we didn't know if he would be here, and now, he's cancer free! It was such a relief for my family and I as well as a great way to start the new year!

When my brother had cancer, he would try to relate it to Endo so I could comprehend it better. I was surprised by how similar the two were. Just because you can not die from Endo, doesn't mean it isn't life threatening. Here are similarities of the two illnesses;

1. Pain, lots of it!- Obviously both illnesses cause tons of pain! Endometriosis can be just as painful as cancer if not worse than certain types. 

2. Affect your body image- everyone knows that if you receive chemo for cancer you are most likely going to lose your hair. What most people don't know is that Endo can cause your stomach to bloat like crazy. These both affect your image!

3. Social life- with cancer, you may not be able to do everything that your friends can because of the germs in the air and such. With Endo you can not do much with your friends either! The pain can get so bad you can't go anywhere and have to stay home with your heating pad. 

Those are a few similarities. Now here's the biggest and most obvious difference;

You can die from cancer- yes cancer is deadily but endometriosis and be just as bad. The pain can make you feel like your dying and cause such drastic changes to your life it feels unbearable at times. 

I hope everyone enjoyed tonight's post! I felt inspired by my brothers news and decided to blog about cancer and Endo and how they are so similar. Cancer is horrible and no one deserves it, but so is Endo!