­
­
Still Sunflowers: My life with endometriosis - Still Sunflowers: My life with endometriosis

Why Endometriosis Matters on International Women's Day

If you clicked on this blog post, you probably already know that today is International Women's Day. But you may not be aware that March is Endometriosis Awareness Month. I appreciate that the two intersect today. As I've reflected today on feminism and what it means to be a woman in 2017, my feelings about my incurable illness have also come up. To...

Continue Reading

My Best-Laid Plans

My entire life, I have always been a planner. In college, I'd have brief anxiety attacks if I couldn't find my day planner. I wrote out everything I needed to do, to the hour. I'd lose my mind if my friends couldn't tell me the exact time we were hanging out that night or where we were going. Even now, I color-code my...

Continue Reading

Vulnerability and Presence

Sick Girl Club So the photo above represents the past few (crappy) weeks of my life.  About two weeks ago, endometriosis handed me a horrible bout of menstrual cramps, which have been weird to adjust to. Up until my surgery in November, I had been on continuous birth control for about two or three years and hadn't had a scheduled period during that...

Continue Reading

I Was Healthy Until I Wasn't

My health care story isn’t necessarily dramatic. I don’t have cancer. I’m not disabled. I’m not dying. And I’m not in danger of those things any time soon, hopefully. But I think that’s what makes my story compelling — how ordinary it is, how easily it happened to me and could happen to you. 2014 was a great year for me. I turned...

Continue Reading

Built on Hope

I'm certain Bowie left this shirt for me after he passed... (Fair warning: This will be an exceptionally nerdy blog post because I really. really love Star Wars.) So Saturday was the two-year anniversary of me being diagnosed with endometriosis - my endo-versary, if you will. But my mind wasn't really on it or even on what it should have been, which was...

Continue Reading

Hi-UD

I pretty much wanted to show off my new gym shoes. Approximately three weeks after my surgery, I emerged the cave that is my home, shriveled in the sunlight and trudged to the gym. I was anxious to get back, and not only because my in-laws gave me a sweet early Christmas present: bright pink running shoes. I could feel my back and...

Continue Reading

I'm Not Afraid of You

It's a little early to be thinking about 2017. But maybe because I'm so anxious for the disaster that is 2016 to be over, I've already started planning parts of next year. Instead of a New Year's resolution, like many people make and often break, I create mantras for my year. It's an idea I picked up in therapy for depression and anxiety...

Continue Reading

Popular Posts