Freedom from Endometriosis: Eleani’s Life-Changing Surgery Experience

Hi, I’m Doctor Rich. And my passion is to provide every woman with practical knowledge about the world of women’s health. Today, we have a treat. Ellie is going to share with us her story about how she suffered from painful periods from endometriosis and how she got a cure with robotic endometriosis surgery. If you’re a young woman who has painful periods or chronic pain and you’ve been told, “It’s in your head! There’s nothing to be done. It’s normal. Just live with it!” — you’re not crazy. There is hope! Stick around to the end to find out what you can do. 

Don’t have time to read this post? Watch the video here instead!

So Ellie, tell us a little bit about yourself. 

Eleani: 

I’m Ellie. I’m 38 years old. I’m married, and I have one kid right now. I’m studying for my master’s to be a school counselor. And I usually lead a pretty active life — like every stay-at-home mom. I just come and go, exercise, do my studies, and take care of my kid. I have been having pain for the last probably 20 years without anybody ever telling me exactly what was wrong with me.

Doctor Rich:

Wow. Twenty years. That’s a long time. Yeah, so that must’ve been frustrating. Tell us about those.

Eleani: 

It was frustrating. Because since I was a teenager, you know, I always had heavy periods — and I was told I was okay. It could be genetic; it could run in my family. So I kept on going with my life, but maybe by my twenties, I started going to doctors because I needed to know why they were so painful. They told me, you know, I was too young. They said to just take birth control. Then I got pregnant. And I felt, “Well, maybe after that, my periods won’t be as painful.” But they still were. And actually it was worse! So I felt maybe it was because I was getting older. But all the doctors that I went to just recommended birth control pills, to change my diet, to do exercise… but honestly, never anything helpful. They never told me what was wrong with me or exactly why I was bleeding so much and why I had that much pain. 

Doctor Rich:

So that’s interesting because it sounds like they kind of had an idea of what was going on. There are common, conservative therapies for endometriosis — like dietary changes and conservative over-the-counter pain medicines and birth control. But that didn’t work for you. 

Eleani: 

No. And I always knew I was PMS-ing, so I was going to start taking my Motrin or whatever that was prescribed. Still, things never changed. And the thing is that, you know, when you know you’re going to have your period as a woman and you have to stay in your house for 15 days because of the pain — before and during your period. I felt like I had no life! Every time I had my period, I had no life and everybody that knows me around me, they knew, “Hey, I can’t go. I’m not going. I’m staying home. See you in two weeks.”

Doctor Rich:

Wow, that’s incredibly restrictive. 

Eleani:

No, it is. And — it’s funny because obviously, bless my husband’s heart — he knew that already. And as my kid was growing up, he would be like, “Mom, what’s wrong?” I couldn’t do anything. I was just laying on the couch for the next week. You know, like, “I’m sorry, buddy. I can’t do stuff with you,” because it was really, really painful. I would get really bloated and have a lot of flow. So I really had to stay home. 

Doctor Rich:

So at what point did somebody realize that there might be something more here? Or was there some action that you took finally to get you to see how we could help you?

Eleani:

Well, because I started actually, since still, since I was a teenager it caused me to have anemia, so I have low iron. And again, this was like a whole, “Well go to the hematologist and check everything,” and everything was fine. And finally, when we moved here almost two years ago, the doctor told me, “Okay, go to the hematologist.” It didn’t work. They told me to go to the gastroenterologist to get an endoscopy and colonoscopy to see if I had internal bleeding. I mean, even if I had pain because I have a feeling like, well, maybe it’s something else. And I did all that, and it showed that I didn’t have anything. It was fine. So finally they told me, “Okay, we need to refer you to somebody that’s a specialist to see what’s going on.” 

Doctor Rich:

It’s an interesting double-edged sword. You can get caught up in the referral circus where you go from one specialist to another specialist. On the face of it, it’s fairly obvious that the anemia or the low blood count is a result of the monthly ongoing, excessive blood loss. But so as to not leave any stone unturned, you ended up getting referred, and fortunately, that was a dead end. There was no pathology or nothing wrong internally.

But this is not an uncommon story in many patients. Many end up seeing at least five or six doctors and even having two or three surgeries before they end up with an expert who can do a removal of the endometriosis. So from the time that you were referred, what was your experience? 

Eleani: 

So I’m telling you the timeline right now: I moved here two years ago in August. I started going to the doctor in September. She gave me the referral for the endoscopy in December. I got an appointment for March, but what happened in March? COVID struck. Yeah. So all that got canceled. I did have the referral for the iron infusions for my blood. So that kinda kept me. I didn’t have anemia. My periods were still painful, but you know, I had energy. So I had to wait until the whole COVID thing passed until finally they gave me the referral. So I waited like a year and a half to see your name on the papers. So I was like, “Okay, let me call.” And finally, and it’s funny because every doctor, I mean, you call for an appointment and they’re like, “Okay, two months.” So I was like, “Okay, well, this is going to take forever. I’ll call them.” They had an appointment available in, like, three weeks. So I was like, okay. This gave me a good feeling — like this might work

Doctor Rich:

We made the decision to proceed with surgery. The surgery was a robotic excision of endometriosis. So there’s a lot of, uh, disease or scarring in the pelvis that essentially comes from excessive blood. So you bleed a lot. Some of the blood goes back out through the tubes, and it scars and it causes implants. And so now you’re not just menstruating in the uterus and cramping there, you’re cramping it, all these other sites. So our surgery, we go in and we actually take out all that scarring. We also thin down the lining of the uterus. And how was that result? How did that do for you? 

Eleani:

It was amazing. I never had a laparoscopic surgery before, so from the data, you know, in the morning we started, even when I got discharged, I actually felt pretty good. I will say it was painful only that afternoon because you get bloated. But after that, obviously I had to wait until I got my period to see if it worked. Because again, at the hospital, everything was great. Like, it was amazing. I went home and I was like, “Okay, I’m recovering, but I don’t know.” So just an example, I didn’t really know when my period was coming because I didn’t feel any pain whatsoever! As a woman, you do feel when you’re PMS-ing, but I usually, before the surgery, when I got my period, like five days before I will feel pain in my lower back, uh, I will have cramps at this time after the surgery. When I had my first period after the surgery, I didn’t feel absolutely anything — anything! I didn’t know. 

Eleani: 

And then I got my period. I’m like, “Okay, this is good!” It still lasts five days as before, but it’s only heavy one day, which, believe me — for me, that ‘s amazing because it’s never been that way. And again, no pain. So that was the first time. And I’m like, “Okay, wait a second. Let’s see. Maybe it’s because he just cleaned everything inside, maybe it’s not real.” And yeah, then I remember I had a post-op six weeks after. Everything went fine. And you said, “No, it’s okay. You’re going to feel good.” I’m like, “Okay!” Then my second period. Yeah, the same, the same. It was amazing. And that’s when I saw you, and I’m like, “This is the best thing ever.” Like I have, again, I have no cramps. They’re gone. They’re completely gone. 

Doctor Rich:

So looking back, uh, what advice would you have for women who have suffered through this for two decades to come and have a pretty minor procedure to get the changes that you’ve experienced? 

Eleani: 

Now? Well, yes, I actually have a lot of friends — I actually have a sister — who had the same problem. And we would always, you know, as women, we share information like, well, do these, or take these, or whatever. But after this, I, I mean, don’t be afraid. I’m telling you, he told me what was going to happen. And I was like, you know what, my eyes closed. Just do what you can. I know you’re going to fix it. And it didn’t work. Uh, I don’t know if at what point, like I was supposed to have a hysterectomy or not, but he did offer me another procedure, and it didn’t work. Don’t be afraid. Like, I know a lot of people don’t like, you know, invasive procedures because it’s a surgery, but it was very easy. It was painless. 

Doctor Rich:

I believe you had actually done some research. I think you had looked online, saw Michelle’s video, which you can watch here, about hysterectomy. And what were your thoughts on that — as opposed to what we did, which was leaving the uterus, leaving everything, just taking out the scarring? 

Eleani: 

Before? For example, a lot of the things that you hear are all the hormonal complications, weight gain, and all that. And when I saw Michelle’s video, I thought, “I guess it’s not that bad because she said she actually feels ten times better than before.” So that’s why I’m like, I just came to you with my eyes closed. I knew you could fix it, whatever it was. But I do think a lot of people have preconceived notions of surgery and, you know, fertility and all that. I just, I don’t know. I feel great. 

Doctor Rich:

It sounds like, um, you were able to access some of our content library and become a little bit informed around some of the surgical options. So choosing to not have a hysterectomy and instead do just the removal of endometriosis — what is your life like? 

Eleani: 

Yeah. Well, I actually, you know, I don’t have to schedule things around the time when my period is coming. I can just go and have dinner or if I have to go to work, I get to have dinner the first day of my period. That is great — I’m telling you! And I can, for example, like I have before, if I have to go to work, I have to take a change of clothes with me. I have to plan. And you know, for the thing — I have to take a little water and all my pills, a bunch of stuff after that. I, I don’t really, I don’t have to, like, anymore. It’s like a normal day, nothing extra. 

Doctor Rich:

That’s fantastic. What was your research and thought around coming to find me as your provider?

Eleani: 

I was, well, like I said before, I was referred to you and usually between the time I called them and gave me the appointment and I had time to research, you know, I Googled you and I saw that you have very good reviews. I saw that you have that YouTube channel. So it made me think, “Okay, it’s somebody that’s current that knows, you know, what’s going on.” I saw that, I know you have a section about, you know, the stuff that you should eat when you’re on your period and like all the bad habits that people get. So that gave me confidence, like, okay, like he really knows what I’m going through, it was very informative. 

Doctor Rich:

So tell us about your referring doctor in that process. 

Eleani:

Well, when, you know, during all the referrals and all the appointments that I have to do my doctor did call me and asked me, “So finally, did you guys just resolve, who do you got as your doctor?” And I told her, like, it was Dr. Farnam and she said that, you know, he was great. So that reassured, you know, my will to go and work with whatever Dr. Farnam had to do.

Doctor Rich:

Well, that’s reassuring! So were there any concerns that you have had about coming to, uh, get a specialist evaluation or friends of yours? 

Eleani: 

Well, actually, you know, when you look online or whatever, you see people asking, if you got a referral to this doctor or that doctor, like I saw “I got a referral for Dr. Farnam. And like, is he good? Did he help you?” Or there are people like me, I’ve seen that. Yeah. You know, he’s the best; you need to go. I have said it too. Like, you really have to go. I don’t know. I know people are younger sometimes. They’re kind of afraid to go to a specialist because they think, “Oh, the doctor is too harsh.” And he’s going to tell me right away that I can’t help you. Or that you’re too young because it happened to me like when I went to the doctor at 24 years old — “Well, you’re too young.” You can, you know, go in there and see what you have. So no, I think you still have to try Dr. Farnam because he’s very good. 

Doctor Rich:

Well, and I think this brings up a big issue where a lot of women, especially younger women, they’re whether they’re overtly told or they’re just made to believe that it is in their head or that it’s normal. Well the problem is, you know, whoever’s telling them that is not the one that’s suffering. 

Eleani:

No, really. That’s another thing. A lot of people, well, women are intimidated by a male doctor because it’s like, whoa, what do you know? You’re, don’t get your periods. It’s not painful for you. Not really. And well, but I mean, you get it, you don’t know the pain, but you get it, you have help. But yeah, I do know that. And again, as a younger person it will be the same. Believe me. Sometimes they’ll be like, “Oh, refer me to a female. I don’t want them out because they don’t know.” But that needs to change. It’s not true. 

Doctor Rich:

Well I think the key is to find a specialist; find someone who is an expert or has been fellowship trained in excision of endometriosis. If you found this video helpful, please share.