This is Endometriosis Awareness Month and how can I not write around it when the most traumatic fact about this condition is that on average it takes 11 years to diagnose this disease and till then our lives are arguably crippled to even do certain basic tasks of a day without even knowing what is causing it. I had been made to believe by certain very renowned doctors that the excruciating pain that I experienced due to endometriosis was a psychological illness for over a decade. But I had a firm head and failed to fall prey to their misdiagnosis and inability to detect that I had endometriosis until the disease aggravated to its 4th stage.
Thereafter too, the debates never ended. Whether should I take the hormonal pills and injections that ease my pain and stop my menstrual cycles but on the other hand had severe side effects? When they too stopped working, I was advised, to go under the knife, then began the next debate between my Pune gynecologist and the surgeon, whether or not to remove my uterus, though both of them were genuinely good and had their reasons? While my gynecologist wanted to save me from the trauma I was facing due to my condition, the surgeon thought I was too young for such a critical organ removal. All this while I only felt like a guinea pig as till then all I knew was that endometriosis does not have any treatment that can ensure it will go away permanently.
The surgery was done in 2019, and the disease returned to the same extent in exactly seven months. I was heartbroken and kind of tired and my threshold to bear the pain had gone down drastically, mentally I felt very vulnerable though still adamant about not giving up. Destiny wanted to try me harder and one morn while working out in the gym I started bleeding profusely for days and weeks at a stretch. Delhi gynecologists were harsher they broke my confidence further by offering me different packages to remove multiple organs this time without any guarantee that the pain, my most disturbing symptom along with bleeding sometimes for as long as 45 days will go away. Then began the perennial debate about whether to go for it or not. This time it was me versus them and the strong-headed me decided to go against it.
It was exactly ten months ago that I refused this surgery because I was still bearing the side effects of the previous one which has made me age by at least 10 years. It is right when wise men say that surgery must be our last resort. Thankfully my decision so far has turned in my favor.
I have resorted to a lot of praying for tapping the power of my subconscious in my favor along with medication from an Ayurvedic endometriosis specialist. I am happy, I am healthy, I am healed is my prayer every day because prayers are perhaps the sanest way to keep you grounded and aware, and grateful. My chantings and my writings have given me a lot of peace and calmness. The void in me that the sickness created every time dragging me back in the fulfillment of my goals (I could not restart my academy that I ran successfully in Pune in Delhi) is slowly melting away for I have learned to manage my life-long medical condition and life together in the most balanced way.
Behind my smile, which I am ready to flash at the drop of a hat because I genuinely consider it my strongest weapon, I have now equipped myself with a lot more strength, and a lot more discretion and choice. I have become very choosy about the work I accept and invest my time selectively in what gives me pure joy. Unfortunately, I face social media aversion too these days but thankfully I still breathe and love writing every single day of my life. In January and February, I penned letters to my son which I gifted him on his birthday in March, and pouring out my heart in them taught me a lot, and softened me further as I looked book at my journey. Hopefully, I shall put them together in my 8th book if my child shall be fine with putting my work in public.
From being a Gold medalist Automobile engineer and working in giants in Tata Motors, Ikea of Sweden, and Honda Cars to being a blogger and author of 7 published books for the last 14 years and running a communication skills academy in Pune, I am grateful I could do and am still doing exactly what I loved. There is nothing else I desire and by the grace of God am in the most peaceful stage in my life which I shall not give up at any cost.
I really wanted to pen my endometriosis journey which I had done before too because typically in India we women take our health for granted and put ourselves in the last without realizing we have to be healthy first to keep others healthy. For 12 long years, I had kept popping Allopathic hormonal tablets to keep the undiagnosed pain at bay and have ruined my body, but I just don’t want it to happen to anyone else, I thus have penned a heartfelt series of several articles in the past many years on what actually is endometriosis, what are the early symptoms, what home remedies help, what yoga practices do wonders and that this otherwise untreatable considered disease has a fair treatment in Ayurveda. If even one woman can benefit from them I will consider my work done.
I also personally speak and guide as many women as possible on this and am on an unsaid mission to be an endo warrior and do my best to spread awareness on the same. If you find someone who has uncontrollable periods' pain and severe bleeding, do ask them to contact me I will try my best to give them the right leads, I have been doing it for some years now and to be just able to share their pain with someone who knows helps a great deal because primarily this silent disease which is also a form of benign cancer is not considered a disease because diagnosing it is very tricky. I am linking below all related blog posts I had penned on the subject with the most earnest desire that they reach the person in need through you.
Endometriosis has its treatment in Ayurveda
I apologize that I picked myself to write about on International Women’s Day though I know several phenomenal women, exactly because of this mission I am on and this is my direction of life at work now. Let’s be the face of positive change in our society for the greater good of the women who either suffer silently or don't get the proper diagnosis and treatment of this disorder which every 1 in 10 women suffer with.
This blog post is part of the Women's Day Blog Hop, themed on She: A Tribute to Her, hosted by Swarnali Nath.
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