I would like to talk about keeping a positive outlook on life while having endometriosis. WARNING I KNOW THIS BLOG POST MIGHT IRRITATE SOME PEOPLE BUT I HAVE TO SPEAK MY MIND... Isn't that what freedom of speech is all about anyways? I have noticed that when ever I go into any endometriosis forum for some insight into something that I'm going through, it always seems like there's another person or people who always try to make their situation sound worse that yours (which may be the case), but sometimes all I'm trying to look for is a little encouragement not a game of "Who has endometriosis the worst". I completely get that sometimes you are deeply involved with pain, work, being a parent, and the list goes on, but we should try going outside of ourselves and try to help other people besides ourselves. Honestly, having endo isn't the worst thing you can possibly have. Yes the pain is crippling, yes my moods are all over the place but when I go into work at the hospital I am surrounded by people that need help and that wakes me up a little bit.
I am in no way insinuating that having endometriosis is easy, or that you ALWAYS have to be positive, but excluding men from the endometriosis forums, as well as attacking other women who don't have the same symptoms as you gives women with this disease a bad reputation for being bitchy. There are somedays that I cannot move or even get out of bed, but to be honest I can't let endometriosis take over my life because I know that if I do, the disease will win. I think that talking about endo online is very inspirational to me and I admire it. I just wish that if a woman expresses the way she feels about a certain topic or asks for advice, that women don't all respond trying to top their endo symptoms. Just because everyone doesn't experience endometriosis the same way, doesn't mean that one person has it worse than the next. This disease is very unique to every single woman and it effects men just as much as it effects women.
I am going to leave you with a story that I heard the a couple years ago...... There was a girl who was very depressed, she walked into a store and bought some gum. Meanwhile, the store clerk had a bad day because she was dealing with health issues, a baby at home, and she didn't feel like working that day. The store clerk looked the girl up and down and gave her a mean scowl. The store clerk then yelled at the girl and told her that she wouldn't ring her out because the girl only had a pack of gum to buy. The girl left the store in tears, went home and took her own life. When the store clerk came back to work 3 days later she read the newspaper and saw that the girl had taken her own life. The store clerk found out that the girl had cancer and that she had had 4 weeks to live. The store clerk felt bad and wished that she hadn't been mean to the girl, but she was having a bad day. My point is that we never know what person is going through, so we should try to think about that when responding to people online or even when we deal with people in real life. Yes, your situation might seem bad, but someone else might be going through a lot too.
