Help Lara raise money

I had a realization this year, that despite quite a thorough understanding of the pain I’ve been through, made me .

I’ve birthed three babies. With the twins I was induced and needed medical intervention to get the contractions to be effective, and those contractions tend to be known to be more intense and painful.

I had an epidural with the twins, mostly because I knew it was required (twin births happen in an OR with an epidural in case they need to quickly do a c section if one of the babies is in distress) and because I figured it would get worse so I may as well rest.

The pain was distracting and unenjoyable (obviously) but it wasn’t “scream or cry” painful. I always figured I was lucky I didn’t have the kind of painful labours other people had. Mine only hurt a bit more than most of my periods.

And this is what only occurred to me in the last year. Maybe my labour wasn’t easy but instead almost all of my periods hurt as much as labour!!!

I just took it for granted. I accepted that periods are painful and there was only so much to be done about it. I accepted the migraines I got every month right before my period (and the ones I often got when I was ovulating.)

I didn’t know that all along I had endometriosis and adenomyosis. I didn’t know that not being able to get out of bed 1-2 days a month was more than most people meant when they said their periods hurt. I didn’t know that the endometriosis was destroying my ovaries and impacting my hormones (which impacts a lot of other things!)

When I ended up in the ER because I was in so much pain I honestly thought I might be dying, the pain was much more painful than anything I experienced in labour, and I didn’t know it would only keep getting worse for months to come.

I didn’t know these things because almost nobody knows enough about endometriosis and adenomyosis (including most of the doctors I encountered.)

More awareness and more money is needed so that all the people with this kind of pain can find help and get the right treatments because right now, you practically have to be in the level of pain I was in to go to the er to be urgent enough to see the right specialists. Because enough research hasn’t been done to find better and earlier interventions.

It’s not ok. Help me make a difference by supporting my doctor and the research he is doing to help create some change.