Yup, one of those kinds of days. I feel like there is a hand twisting my guts into knots and trying to rip them out through my lower back. Endo sucks...especially today. The heating pad isn't helping very much, and I don't take pain meds of any kind if it can be helped while breast feeding. I will feel better tomorrow though, since I know what stupid thing I did to make me feel this way.
I am on the Keto diet to control my hormones, weight, inflammation, and overall health. It has been doing okay so far, but I think the stress has really hit me big time. A bunch of things went wrong all at once, and the stress has been quite hard to deal with. Stress is to endo what fire is to gasoline. So despite my being past the worst part of my cycle, I'm having to deal with the endo anyway. It hasn't been severe, except for today. I was having a hard day emotionally yesterday, so my dear spouse brought home pizza, and I ATE IT!!! I knew it would make me feel bad and be in pain, but like an idiot, I ate it anyway! Guess I know now that the price of eating poorly isn't just discomfort but full out pain. It has been a very bad day for me, but I guess I'm cured from wanting pizza now :/
I've had a couple new symptoms pop up here this last month. I now have referred shoulder pain in my right shoulder, and some pretty gnarly pain, weakness, and stiffness in my hands.
During a cesarean section you experience quite unpleasant pain in the right shoulder when the uterus is yanked outside of your body and scraped out. This has happened to me during all 3 of my c-sections and is pretty common. Even though the whole bottom portion of the body is temporarily paralyzed, you feel the referred pain in the shoulder from the yanking and stress on the uterus. When I got sharp stabbing pains in my shoulder that subsided into dull tearing aches, it felt EXACTLY like the referred shoulder pain during a c-section. A couple google searches reveled this to be fairly common among women with endo.
Some people seem to think the right shoulder pain happens if the endo is more advanced, but I don't think that is true. There isn't really any correlation between the amount of endo present and the pain that a woman feels. Some women may have an abdomen full of tissue and scars and hardly have any symptoms or pain. Other women have reported being in extreme pain, yet a laparoscopic surgery revealed rather small amounts of endo tissue. Personally, I think the pain has to do more with where the endo is located, how it is attached, and what is going on on a hormonal level. For example, I have always had a lot of emotional trouble. My teen years were filled with depression, rage, confusion, and lightening quick mood changes (I still go from happy to full-on rage instantly depending where I am in my cycle). I have always had a rather tough menses, but nothing super horrible. I had to use Advil, a heating pad, and lay down for a couple days, but I didn't have the excruciating pain or vomiting that a lot of endo women suffer from. When I had my ectopic pregnancy and the lap surgery to remove it was when I found out I had a gut full of scars and endo. My symptoms did improve quite a lot after the surgery (zero cramping pains the first two cycles), but I didn't have near the amount of pain that one would assume from the amount of endo that I had. My physical pain levels were tolerable, but the emotional side of it wasn't. Endo effects everyone who has it differently.
The shoulder pain was only a bother during the first day. Thankfully it went away and hasn't bothered me again (yet). However the hand issues have been lingering. I think the pain in my hands is due to circulation problems and inflammation. It is pretty severe in the mornings, but it progressively gets better as the day goes by. My husband has been changing the baby's diaper in the morning, because I can't. I can't even manage to do up the snaps on his diapers due to the stiffness, weakness, and pain in my hands and fingers. On particularly bad mornings (like this morning) I can barely move my fingers for the first 20-30 minutes after waking up.
I have not been as strict as I need to be with my diet. I haven't been drinking my herbal tea every day like I should be, and I've allowed my carbs to creep up higher than I should. I don't want to, but I may need to do an egg day to help get myself back on track. It sounds weird, but eating just eggs for a day gets rid of all my bloat and seems to "reset" my body when I'm having issues. Eggs are near perfect keto food (even better if cooked in butter).
Another note about the herbal tea. I've just been drinking the red raspberry leaf tea, as I've not had the money to order more tea. I want to add nettle and dandelion root to my rrl tea as I've read they are good teas for endo and liver health. It seems ironic that I spent all summer hating the dandelions in my yard when I should have been digging them up to make tea, lol
I'm also considering picking up some moringa. People on the internet claim it works miracles for health (endo included), but people on the internet claim all sorts of crazy things ;) I do want to try some, but really don't like the price of the tea bags, not willing to take yet another pill, and am not sure how I would use the powder. Many people put the powder in smoothies, but I don't drink smoothies. I've considered starting with some green smoothies, but I hate the cleanup that comes with it. I would like a Nutribullet for this use, but who has the money for something like that? Not me. I have an old regular bullet blender, but not sure if it could handle making green smoothies or if I'd end up with green "stringies" or "sludgies" instead, lol
On an up note, our situation does seem to be improving a bit. My husband has a job interview soon (with several good jobs he is well qualified for applied to as well) and our washing machine is now fixed! Yay! Not happy to have to fork over the money for a new transmission for it, but at least I'm not scrubbing laundry in the bathtub any more. I hope to be feeling much better once the stress level goes down and I can focus better on healing. There are plenty of women who have successfully suppressed their endo through diet and lifestyle changes, so I should be able to as well.
I am on the Keto diet to control my hormones, weight, inflammation, and overall health. It has been doing okay so far, but I think the stress has really hit me big time. A bunch of things went wrong all at once, and the stress has been quite hard to deal with. Stress is to endo what fire is to gasoline. So despite my being past the worst part of my cycle, I'm having to deal with the endo anyway. It hasn't been severe, except for today. I was having a hard day emotionally yesterday, so my dear spouse brought home pizza, and I ATE IT!!! I knew it would make me feel bad and be in pain, but like an idiot, I ate it anyway! Guess I know now that the price of eating poorly isn't just discomfort but full out pain. It has been a very bad day for me, but I guess I'm cured from wanting pizza now :/
I've had a couple new symptoms pop up here this last month. I now have referred shoulder pain in my right shoulder, and some pretty gnarly pain, weakness, and stiffness in my hands.
During a cesarean section you experience quite unpleasant pain in the right shoulder when the uterus is yanked outside of your body and scraped out. This has happened to me during all 3 of my c-sections and is pretty common. Even though the whole bottom portion of the body is temporarily paralyzed, you feel the referred pain in the shoulder from the yanking and stress on the uterus. When I got sharp stabbing pains in my shoulder that subsided into dull tearing aches, it felt EXACTLY like the referred shoulder pain during a c-section. A couple google searches reveled this to be fairly common among women with endo.
Some people seem to think the right shoulder pain happens if the endo is more advanced, but I don't think that is true. There isn't really any correlation between the amount of endo present and the pain that a woman feels. Some women may have an abdomen full of tissue and scars and hardly have any symptoms or pain. Other women have reported being in extreme pain, yet a laparoscopic surgery revealed rather small amounts of endo tissue. Personally, I think the pain has to do more with where the endo is located, how it is attached, and what is going on on a hormonal level. For example, I have always had a lot of emotional trouble. My teen years were filled with depression, rage, confusion, and lightening quick mood changes (I still go from happy to full-on rage instantly depending where I am in my cycle). I have always had a rather tough menses, but nothing super horrible. I had to use Advil, a heating pad, and lay down for a couple days, but I didn't have the excruciating pain or vomiting that a lot of endo women suffer from. When I had my ectopic pregnancy and the lap surgery to remove it was when I found out I had a gut full of scars and endo. My symptoms did improve quite a lot after the surgery (zero cramping pains the first two cycles), but I didn't have near the amount of pain that one would assume from the amount of endo that I had. My physical pain levels were tolerable, but the emotional side of it wasn't. Endo effects everyone who has it differently.
The shoulder pain was only a bother during the first day. Thankfully it went away and hasn't bothered me again (yet). However the hand issues have been lingering. I think the pain in my hands is due to circulation problems and inflammation. It is pretty severe in the mornings, but it progressively gets better as the day goes by. My husband has been changing the baby's diaper in the morning, because I can't. I can't even manage to do up the snaps on his diapers due to the stiffness, weakness, and pain in my hands and fingers. On particularly bad mornings (like this morning) I can barely move my fingers for the first 20-30 minutes after waking up.
I have not been as strict as I need to be with my diet. I haven't been drinking my herbal tea every day like I should be, and I've allowed my carbs to creep up higher than I should. I don't want to, but I may need to do an egg day to help get myself back on track. It sounds weird, but eating just eggs for a day gets rid of all my bloat and seems to "reset" my body when I'm having issues. Eggs are near perfect keto food (even better if cooked in butter).
Another note about the herbal tea. I've just been drinking the red raspberry leaf tea, as I've not had the money to order more tea. I want to add nettle and dandelion root to my rrl tea as I've read they are good teas for endo and liver health. It seems ironic that I spent all summer hating the dandelions in my yard when I should have been digging them up to make tea, lol
I'm also considering picking up some moringa. People on the internet claim it works miracles for health (endo included), but people on the internet claim all sorts of crazy things ;) I do want to try some, but really don't like the price of the tea bags, not willing to take yet another pill, and am not sure how I would use the powder. Many people put the powder in smoothies, but I don't drink smoothies. I've considered starting with some green smoothies, but I hate the cleanup that comes with it. I would like a Nutribullet for this use, but who has the money for something like that? Not me. I have an old regular bullet blender, but not sure if it could handle making green smoothies or if I'd end up with green "stringies" or "sludgies" instead, lol
On an up note, our situation does seem to be improving a bit. My husband has a job interview soon (with several good jobs he is well qualified for applied to as well) and our washing machine is now fixed! Yay! Not happy to have to fork over the money for a new transmission for it, but at least I'm not scrubbing laundry in the bathtub any more. I hope to be feeling much better once the stress level goes down and I can focus better on healing. There are plenty of women who have successfully suppressed their endo through diet and lifestyle changes, so I should be able to as well.
