Many years of hell living with Endo...

Since starting my periods at the age of 12 I've always had bad pain and bleeding. By the age of 14 I had started seeing my GP because the pain was so bad but me and my mum just got fobbed off with "it's her age, everyone has bad periods" and other statements of that kind. I was put on many different Contraceptive Pills but most didn't agree with me, either giving me headaches or bringing me out in rashes but most of all they didn't help with the heaviness of my periods or the pain. At school I was having at least 2 days off sick each month at "that time of the month". I was still visiting my GP but still not getting anywhere. When I left school I got a job at my local Hospital as a Medical Secretary. After speaking to one of the Doctors I worked for (who wasn't even a Gynaecologist) she suggested I may have underlying problems and to go to my GP's and insist that I get referred to a Gynaecologist. So I toddled to my GP again and after telling him I was now working at the local Hospital he said straight away that they would refer me to the Gynaecologist (I didn't even have to ask him!). After a few weeks wait I saw a Consultant at the Hospital. She was very pleasant and told me I would need a Laparoscopy to have a look inside my belly and around my ovaries etc to see what was going on. I think I was around 19 and I was actually really happy when she told me they were doing this because I finally thought yes, somethings going to be done and I no longer have to live with pain. Not only was the pain and heaviness of my periods so bad to live with I was now becoming really irregular and bleeding for months on end then just having a few days break. I was also beginning to put on weight. I was a size 8 and within months, no exageration, I was a size 10. I was tired all the time and having sick days off work just like I had off school, but obviously it's different at work, you can't keep having time off. When I went for my Laparoscopy I didn't know what to expect but after I'd come round from the anaesthetic, yes i was drowsy but didn't feel half as bad as i thought, it's only a small procedure really. The Doctor came round to see me after and told me that they had found Endometriosis and that it had be cauterised (lasered) away, they showed me the picture of the Endo and it was just a small dot. A small dot i thought, a small dots caused all this pain!! Once out of the hospital I was so happy thinking i could get back to normal. I wish it was that simple, after only 2 weeks the bleeding and pain had come back. I was feeling worse then ever and having time off work was becoming very often. I was either in really bad pain or was just so tired I literally couldn't get out of bed. I began putting on more weight too and noticing my hair and skin were becoming greasy, all this on top of feeling like crap isn't good! I kept going back to my gynaecologist and wasn't really getting anywhere. I then met my boyfriend Luke. I had my second laparoscopy when I was seeing him but I don't think he really knew the serious of my problems. By the time I'd had my fourth laparoscopy me and Luke had moved in together and wanted to start a family and I was very aware of the problems of becoming pregnant and as my symptoms were worse than ever now, I really didn't think I'd ever get pregnant which made everything even worse. The one thing I wanted was a baby. After the 100th visit or something to the gynaecologist she decided she would refer me to the Endometrosis Specialist who worked at my hospital (I couldn't believe she had never thought to have referred me to him before, me and my mum were stunned). By this time my faith had completely gone and I really thought I'd be stuck with this nasty illness forever, it really did start to get me down and I felt that poorly I just didn't want to leave the house. I was 23ish and from going out all the time and socialising I went to wanting to just lay in bed. Because I was having so much time off work too that was also worrying me. A lot of people I worked with were sympathetic but I know a lot of them were getting fed up of me not being there but until you know the way Endo makes you feel you just don't know, that's why I think people who don't have Endo should read posts and blogs about it to see what it makes people feel like then they might have a bit more sympathy and patience for sufferers. All I could do now was wait to see the Endo Specialist...