Someecard-EndometriosisFYI I had to type and prep this on Tuesday night, so please excuse the “ifs” and “hopefullys.” As you read on, you’ll understand why.

Nothing like waking up, feeling fine, having a really good workout, and then finding out you have to go in for emergency surgery in two days.

That was my day on Monday. You know how I had to have a laparotomy 4 years ago, to remove a large (7 cm) cyst on my left ovary (they ended up taking the entire ovary/tube as well)? Well, this time the (also 7 cm) cyst was on the right ovary, and presents as significantly abnormal; a suspected tumor. I went from BAR class to the GYN and found this out.

All this is because my old friend endometriosis (I’m very touched by this personal account from Padma Lakshmi that Beth Kanter sent my way, I kept reading it and saying, “That’s me!”) came back with a vengeance. Everything is really “Krazy Glued” down there. Not fun.

So, as you read this, I am now sans any ovary & tubes. Hopefully my GYN/surgeon has been able to do everything laparoscopically, because I do NOT want to go through another two months of recovering from having my belly cut open as I did last time; it’s bad enough that I’m being shunted into perimenopause with no warning.

Given that I was supposed to travel to Laguna today for PRSA’s Counselors Academy, along with a bunch of other travel and work coming up, I floated deferring the surgery by a month (I mean, if it’s all stuck together, then what difference does it make, right?). My GYN was not amused. So, if all has gone well (fingers crossed), I’m recovering at home right now. And we should know pretty soon whether or not the mass is benign (toes crossed).

It’s been an interesting time, as my husband had, and is recovering from, minor knee surgery last week. Clearly we inhabit the Burke Convalescent Home. But all said and done, we are lucky to have good medical care, insurance, and great family, friends, clients and colleagues, who are all so supportive – very, very lucky.

So this is not a complaint, or a rant. It’s just so you know what’s going on, in case your WUL schedule goes a bit haywire in the next couple of weeks (hopefully it won’t).

And it’s also to ask any of my women friends (or those with daughters/women of childbearing age):

If you fall into the way-too-large group of women who have not yet figured out why your period is so painful… please, insist your doctors check it out. I complained for years – decades – but was told “some girls just get painful periods”… and I accepted it. As a result, I was not diagnosed with this bugger of a disease – endometriosis – until I was 34.

Endometriosis is a horrible, insidious, invisible disease, and you are the only person who can be your own advocate. So please, be that advocate and kick this motherchucker in the butt before it kicks you.