My journey with Endometriosis (Pre and Post Laparoscopy)

Hello everyone! Hope you all been well, to all women out there please stop and read my post.

I am 24 years old considerably young and healthy. I watch my diet, I rarely consume alcohol and I dont smoke nor take drugs. However unfortunately recently been diagnosed of having Endometriosis and having cyst in my womb, which literally rock my life upside down :(

Endometriosis is still a fairly "unknown" illness, despite the fact that it is one of the most common gynaecological problems.

So what is Endometriosis ?

Endometriosis is an often painful disorder in which tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterus, grows outside your uterus. The caused is sadly unknown yet.

Important note that I want to stress out even further is Endometriosis is hard to diagnose and because of general lack of knowledge, there is often a long delay between a woman going to a doctor about her symptoms. An average it could take eight and half years to be diagnosed. 

Based on my experience, general doctor usually prescribed pain killers to overcome period pain. Beside that period pain is usually been ignored as one of the symptoms of Endometriosis. In short, your doctor might overlooked it. 

What are the Symptoms of Endometriosis to look for?

1. Abdominal cramps or backache during period
2. Painful bowel movement 
3. Heavy of abnormal menstruation bleeding
4. Difficulties of getting pregnant 

How to diagnose endometriosis? 

One of them is through laparoscopy. It requires 3 small incisions where the surgeon then introduces a camera and some instruments into the belly to look over the female pelvic organs. Through laparoscopy, the surgeon is also able to remove affected tissues.

Here is my journey on pre and post Laparoscopy: 

Day 1- Admission to the hospital 
Before 12 midnight , no water and food intake.
IV drips will be replacing your water intake to keep you hydrated.

Day 2-  Surgery Day

My whole surgery process takes around 2 hours.

My Gynaecologist removed my cyst and my affected tissues. She diagnosed me of having stage two endometriosis. *Report from lab found out there is no cancerous cells spotted* Thank God!

I was feeling drowsy the whole day, some may experienced vomiting due to the allergic reaction of anaesthetics. I barely could walk due to nausea and drowsy feeling. *needed nurse to lift me up*

Still on IV drips and I hate IV drips the feeling of water gushing into my vein is making me uncomfortable.

Day 3- Post Surgery Day
More energetic, able to walk and do simple things.
Sill feeling drowsy especially after medication.
Today will be my last day of IV drips *Horray*

Day 4- 2nd Day Post Surgery

Due to my continue internal bleeding, I have to get a few more injection to stop it thus I have to stay one more night in the hospital.

Day 5- Check out Day

Was able to go home but still continue experiencing internal bleeding. Emotionally wise became better as I am very happy to be home. Able to walk slowly, belly button incision start to ache a little.

Day 6- Emotionally stable

To be able to wake up on your on bed is already a blessing. Dutifully eating all the prescribed medicine. There is a total of 3 types of medicines and 1 pain killer.

Tips: I recommend to download Medisafe apps, it act as an medicine record and reminder for you on when to take medicine.

Day 6-20-Experiencing internal bleeding and emotional unstable

Due to my cervix was badly infected, I still experience internal bleeding longer than usual. I have to constantly be aware of my panty liners to avoid any unnecessary spillage. My emotional swings quite badly, having nightmare constantly throughout a few nights, hardly I could sleep well.

Day 20- 26- Experience itchiness and pain on the scar, emotional stable

My mum told me is a sign of healing and I hope so too. My emotional turn back to normal, thanks to the support of my friends and my parents.

Overall, I am blessed that I have finally found out the caused of my excruciating period pain as I have been struggling it for a prolonged period. Bed ridden, tossing on the bed, screaming in pain is not what a women should endure. 

Lastly, I would like to stress out that all women should go for a check up with a gynaecologist at least once a year especially if you are experiencing those symptoms that I have just mentioned above.  

Here is a short video to send a message out to all women out there:

Disclaimer: All these mentioned above is based on what I have experienced and information gathered from my gynecologist and through the internet. I am not a qualified medical practitioner. Please consult your doctor, or other qualified health care professional.

Health Awareness #2: Strabismus a.k.a Squint Eye

When I was 18 years old, I was diagnosed by an Ophthalmologist of having Strabismus also known widely as Squint Eye.


What is Strabismus?
Is a condition where your eyes are not properly aligned with each other. For example, you are looking towards one direction but somehow one of your eyes lost focus and sway to the side. Strabismus is mostly found in children.

Example :

Picture taken from kgn.orgn

My parents didn't aware of this condition since I wasn't born with one. I started to realise it when I was in high school at the age of 15 years old. It started during one of the night tuitions with my friends. I was talking to her and she saw both of my eyes weren't coordinating together. One of my eyes look away to the side. It happened quite frequently during night tuition especially when I am very tired. Sometimes when I talk to her,  my eyes get stray away and she would wave her hand in front of me and said "Wui..!! " or sometimes "Hello???". 

Since then, I became much more self aware of this condition and a bit confusing. I told my parents about it, but they sort of think is nothing much or perhaps think that I am too tired to focus. 

I let it drag for years till one day my friend said to me "Hey, no offence to you but I have been noticing that you might have the same eye condition as one of my family members" I was shocked! Because all these while, I thought I was the only one having this condition. He told me that his cousin went to see an eye specialist and undergo an eye operation to fix it. 

Hearing that, once my mum came back from work, I insisted to go for an eye check up. In my heart, I wanted it to get fixed as soon as possible. I google here and there and found International Specialist Eye Centre (ISEC) located at MidValley. Check all the doctor profile and found the most suitable Ophthalmologist named, Dr Choong Yee Fong. He specialised in squint eye condition. 

I underwent an eye surgery for both of my eye where Dr Choong helped me to tighten both of my eye muscle. The healing process after the surgery is not a smooth one for me. I couldn't open my eye for a week, that's where I truly experienced how was like to be a blind person. I was extremely sensitive to light, whenever I see light, I would scream. The light shone on my eyes were painful enough to make me tears. For the first few days, I need my mum to guide me to the toilet and feed me but after awhile I got used to it and try my best not to depend on anyone. 

After 1 to 2 weeks, I could slowly open my eyes. Though my eyes were still reddish but it wasn't painful anymore. I was really happy with the result, I could focus on my work better and experienced less frequent headache. Strabismus could cause headache as well.

The best thing was I am no more worried about people keep asking me "hey, your eye looks crooked" or "Hello, I am here, why aren't you looking at me".  

After my healing process, I started to be more aware with the people around me. I can spot people having strabismus quite easily and it makes me wonder did they know that this can be fix. Perhaps they aren't aware off or no one dare to tell them that. If it wasn't my friend that were brave enough to tell me, I will be still suffering from strabismus. 

I would like to write this blog post to pass the message around so that people will be more aware off Strabismus. It could happened to your closest friends or even family members. 

Be brave and tell them that what you have been noticing and encourage them to go for a check up. Some Strabismus conditions that aren't so serious could be cured by constant eye exercises whereas serious one need surgery. 

Do not be afraid and embrace it with courage :) 

Sincerely, 
Elena

Health Awareness #2: Illness called Traveler's Diarrhea

During my travel around Cambodia I have developed severe diarrhoea after eating Japanese Buffet in Phnom Penh.

I think it should be the fresh Oyster that make me sick !! Perhaps I didn't put enough lime juice to kill off the bacteria? >.<

Beside that, I have diarrhoea at a really wrong timing!!! *damm*

The thing is the next morning I have to travel on the road for 8 hours to Siem Reap.

There is hardly any clean tourist rest room on the way.

The roads that we are using is comparable to a "Kampung Road"

*NIGHTMARE FOR ME*

So I swallows severals charcoal pills and some Chinese small little pills to get ready for me journey back to Siem Reap.

Thank God ! No urge to the toilet.

After that incident till I am back home, I still have occasionally terrible stomach cramping and bad diarrhoea.

Went to the see a doctor today that took me almost 2 hours in the waiting area!

I was diagnosed having Traveler's diarrhoea and will have to eat 4 types of medicine including antibiotic.

Went to the internet to google about Traveler's diarrhoea, found out that it has affected about 10 millions international travellers annually.

Usual symptoms are like abdominal cramps, nausea, bloating and three or more unformed stools within 24 hours.

I guess I am not alone after all...

My advice: When you are travelling, try your best not to take raw food! My case was I am too tempted because the Oyster looks so huge and taste delicious :(

Lesson learned !


Sincerely,
Elena

Health Awareness #1 : Unusual Eczema on Lips

Hello everyone !

Today is my first personal Health Awareness Post. I hope my readers could be benefited from this post and spread out the awareness.

Recently I have developed a very dry lip condition. It had occur for a duration for almost a year plus. It was a terrible and uncomfortable experience.

Here are some photos....

This is the worst crack I ever gotten, it swell so badly in the morning. As you can see the surrounding of my lips were orange red. Whenever I try to move my lips around, it hurts. 

Sometimes it gets better and show a little of cracks..

Sometimes my lips just wanna de-skin itself. Felt like a snake... -.- 

I have tried several lip balm such as Vaseline, Avene, mentholatum and others. 

But it just doesn't work!! ( Was really frustrated with the result!!)  

When your lips start to crack, it look awful on your appearance. Especially when it not only starts to crack but it start to swell and occasionally blood oozing out. There is this one time, I got to carry a tissue around so that I can stop the bleeding whenever my lips cracked terribly.

I went to look for a doctor after a few months suffering from this condition. One of the reason why it took me so long to see a doctor because everyone seems to assume that dry lips caused by
 1)dehydration  2)too much heat in body 3) hot weather

So I went to see a doctor and he told me that I might be allergic to something, maybe the food I been eating? I was like....huh.. you sure?? Because for the past 21 years of my life, I have no such allergic to any food. Both of my parents family members has no food allergic that had been heard off.

The doctor advised that, I should eat plain porridge and slowly add pork, chicken and so on to my diet.After hearing this....OMG -.-

To tell you the truth, I didn't take his advise.

So my lips still cracks months after months. During 2014 Chinese New Year, I meet my cousin who recommended me to Dr. Ranjit a dermatologist at Subang Jaya.

Went there and turn out to be I am having eczema on my lips !! I was shocked !
I am unaware that eczema can be on lips.

He prescribed me some cream for my lips and pills.

After 3 days, my lips have improved tremendously :D

I finally got my sexy lip back :D

Wooo hooo !!

New Update on 23 Feb 2014 

Forgotten to mention that I have to abstain from spicy and acidic food.
No Chilli nor citrus fruits.

Kinda sad because I love to eat chili :(

Yesterday I accidentally ate one slide of chilli and my lips swollen -.-


Information on Dermatologist Dr Ranjit on Facebook - Dr Ranjit Clinic


With Courage,
Eileen