By: Chelsea

As you probably know from working with us, I have been living with several chronic illnesses that have often kept me doing what work I can from home. Years of doctor visits, tests, trying new medicines—nothing seemed to ‘fix’ my issues, and we honestly weren’t even completely sure what issues we were trying to fix. The diagnoses of fibromyalgia and IBS were in my charts, but neither of those exactly have standard treatments.

Toward the end of last year, a perfect storm of circumstances led us to push for a second opinion about my unrelenting pelvic and intestinal pain. Let me tell you, even when you know that you desperately NEED a second opinion, when you are in the throes of intense pain it can be nearly impossible to do the work it takes to find a new doctor you hope you can trust. But in the few moments when my pain was managed enough to allow me to search, I started down a path that many doctors before had dismissed: endometriosis.

There’s a much longer story to tell, but the short version is that the research pointed to surgical excision as the ‘gold standard’ of endo care, there aren’t a lot of doctors who are trained and experienced enough to perform the extremely delicate procedure, and it often takes patients who are diagnosed with conditions like IBS and chronic pain to reach a diagnosis of endo. Luckily one of these specialists with an incredible track record of surgical excision, Dr. Devin Garza, lives in Austin, and I knew after all my research that he was the doctor I had to see.

Currently, I’m exactly one week post-op, and am recovering at home. While we didn’t set out to get a diagnosis and surgery right before March, we are very happy this all happened when it did so we can share and educate others during Endometriosis Awareness Month. Keep an eye on the blog for more details about our journey to the endo diagnosis, the how and why of excision surgery, and lots of information about endometriosis and what you can do to help raise awareness!