After 25 years of me asking the question “do I have endometriosis?” and getting a variety of answers (shrug, “yes,” “no,” “I don’t know,” and “there’s no way to know for sure”), I finally know for sure. Despite having 3 of the 4 characteristics consider high risk factors and a match with 80% of the common symptoms of endometriosis, it turns out I do not have endometriosis. Which I guess is great. The thing is I still have a debilitating condition, only now I don’t know what to call it.
Going into the surgery I had a range of predictions for the outcome including how I would feel in the weeks following the procedure. I knew that a potential outcome would be that they wouldn’t find anything, but since having endometriosis would explain so much about my life and health, it seemed almost impossible that would be the case for me. Clearly, that prediction was wrong.
And pretty much every other prediction I had was also wrong, except that the bowel emptying prior to surgery would give me relief from my Long COVID symptoms. Just like the prep for my colonoscopy and the one bowel prep I did just because it would give me temporary relief, I have had more energy and a calmer heart since surgery.
When I woke up from surgery, my first impression was that my gut felt incredibly clean and happy. I assumed that meant they must have found and removed plenty of tissue interfering with the functioning of my organs. As that’s not the case, I can only assume that feeling came from my digestive tract being mostly empty. If only I could survive without eating, then maybe my Long COVID symptoms would go away permanently.
While surgery ended up not being the magic bullet that would solve my long-standing health issues and improve my more recent Long COVID issues, it did give me more data for both conditions. Perhaps, now that I’m working with specialists, this data will lead us to more concrete answers in the near future. At the very least, I will no longer be wondering if I have endometriosis and feeling pushed and pulled around by the non-answers from the medical community.
Feature image credit: Surgery by annisa luthfiasari from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)
Carolyn Ristau 
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