One month post-op. This is the reality.

On December 18, I went through one of the most complex gynecologic and pelvic surgeries a patient can have. All of this was performed in one operation:

• A supracervical hysterectomy

• Bilateral salpingectomy

• Full appendectomy due to endometriosis involvement

• Removal of a rectal endometrial cyst

• Multiple deeply embedded endometriosis excisions across the pelvic cavity

• Excision of endometriosis from the rectal region, cul-de-sac, abdominal wall, peri-ureteral areas, intestines, and peritoneum

• Treatment of chronic pelvic inflammation

• Removal of endometrial disease wrapped around and infiltrating multiple structures

Twelve major excisions.

Three major organs removed.

Multiple organ systems affected.

This wasn’t “a surgery.” It was a full reconstruction of my pelvic and abdominal region, including work in some of the most innervated, pain-sensitive areas in the entire human body.

Recovery has been brutal. I wake up every 10 minutes to 2 hours from the excruciating pain. Walking is still difficult. My nervous system is overwhelmed from the sheer volume of trauma my body underwent at once. Energy comes and goes very quickly.

Even with being diagnosed with ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), I have never been this exhausted in my entire life.

I have prayed every single day to turn a corner. Some days I have a little more energy, but the physical pain remains unbelievably severe.

What I’m feeling is medically consistent with the scope of what was done. This would be overwhelming for anyone, let alone someone with no family support.

I’m sharing this because people forget what major surgery actually means, especially when it involves multiple organs and deep nerve-rich areas.

Empathy shouldn’t disappear just because time passes.                                     

Had I been informed that this many additional procedures would be performed simultaneously, I would have NEVER agreed to it.

Major abdominal, pelvic and rectal surgery is among the most painful recoveries a human body can ever experience.

Weeks passing have not reduced the pain that my body is still actively suffering from minute by minute. My ears have not stopped ringing from the constant inflammation roaring through my system.

I have been literally gutted.

Everything hurts. My pain is not being managed properly. The allodynia is severe. Even the lightest touch, the fabric of my clothes, or the pressure of the sheets triggers pain signals that feel impossible to escape.

I’m here. I’m fighting through it. And I’m doing my best to heal from something that would level anyone.

I cannot believe this has happened to my body. I keep repeating that I will heal, yet the pain is so consuming that the words feel like a betrayal, spoken over the raw, unrelenting screams of surgical wounds & nerve pain ripping through me minute by minute, day after day, for an entire month. I never signed up for this. I have been dragged through a level of suffering I could not have imagined, forced to live inside a body that feels carved open and left to survive it alone.

🥺❤️‍🩹