It’s March and with thoughts of Spring, we head into Endometriosis Awareness Month. Like many other months of the year, those who are sufferers and their loved ones choose to raise awareness of the things which have affected their lives, in the hope that it will bring answers, help and encouragement to others. This poem describes my own ongoing fight with this illness and I hope that it explains some of what our #Endosisters and #Endowarriors go through. If you would like to donate funds into the research of this illness please do so via https://www.endometriosis-uk.org/ and give them the help that they need and if you see someone wearing yellow this month, or even just the adornment of a yellow ribbon then this might just be what they are showing their support of.
Just Living With It….
I lay to rest as my body quakes,
Just how long have I stayed awake?
My limbs are sore and continue to shake
Again the bed I’ll have to remake.
I roll around here and there,
Sleep won’t come and it’s not fair!
Fever and delirium often appear,
Managing to awaken the fear
There’s pain in my stomach, fire in the pit
Tired and aching from all of it.
Sometimes in pain and sometimes I’m numb,
Then to the tablets I’ll succumb.
Gently rolling from side to side,
Waiting for it all to subside.
Exhausted from the tossing and turning,
For a decent night’s sleep I am yearning.
Swelling and Bloating are part of it all,
Feeling so weak, you often fall.
Friends and Doctors think we are mad,
When to bed we return as pain gets so bad.
Surgery on occasion they’ll offer,
In the hope it’ll make you better.
Or hormones and potions by the score
For any reprieve you’ll ask for more.
Sometimes some small amount of relief
Will spur you on “The Cure?” a belief
But they haven’t found one, they’re testing you see,
Medication and therapies on you and on me.
A silent illness it’s often said
So easily discounted as “All in your head”
But it is real, and it is there,
If you’re lucky you’ll have someone who’ll care
You’ll need them with you by your side,
When away from the world you’ll want to hide.
Quite often leaves you childless
Weeping in offices, you are a mess!
As you’re told and trying to understand,
You’d better take someone to hold your hand.
You have your turn of the “monthly curse”
That never ends and you hope for a hearse.
The endless pain to take away,
The emotional torture at the end of the day
Removes the chance of happiness
When those around you couldn’t care less.
Many years later, when you feel insane
They suddenly tell you it has a name.
So what have I got? What is this?
Well, they call it Endometriosis
How did it get here, suddenly arrive?
Will it finish me off or will I survive?
Well, it fuses your organs and causes you pain
And just when you think that you’re through it again
You feel that familiar dragging, pulling around,
Know it’s back, but not where it’ll be found.
Your digestion is poor, your bowels misbehave
A day without this is all that you crave.
On rare days you can feel so well
Invisible illness, Endometriosis Hell!
