I have been quiet on social media for some time now, but I think it’s time to break the silence. Last year was a big year in my life. I closed my business because it was dying, and I ran out of both the ideas and willpower to save it. I’m not sorry I closed it. It was the right decision, but it is still a difficult loss to bear. It was my baby, and a year later I’m still at the edge of tears every time I think about it, the work I did, and the beautiful people who let me be a part of their healing journey. But, closing that door has enabled me to focus on my own self-healing.
Please stop reading now if you do not want to read about my female health issues. I’m about to be quite candid and break some taboos by talking about things I certainly was not reared to discuss in public. Yet, I also feel the need to do my part to de-stigmatize female health problems that we women often feel ashamed to discuss.
My healing journey began after feeling a lump in my lower abdomen back in 2015. I finally went to the doctor and got diagnosed with several uterine fibroids in the summer of 2016. I also found out that the excessive menstrual bleeding I had endured since puberty, now a gushing spring due to the fibroids, made me anemic. The news came as a shock. I had four non-cancerous tumors, and the biggest one about the size of an orange. I would probably have to have a hysterectomy because they were too large to try to shrink, and too big for a less invasive surgery. These are not the words you want to hear from your young, naturopath student doctor. I mean, they’re supposed to help you heal, naturally, right?
I looked back at my student doctor and told her that I didn’t care if she thought my tumors were big to shrink. I told her that I wanted every little secret, supplement and bit of nutrition advice she could muster. I told her that if anyone could shrink these fibroids, I could, so she should give me everything she had in her arsenal of natural health.
She gave me instructions on how to clear toxins from my body and environment. All of the sudden, I was going through a whirlwind of odd directives: drink only out of glass, no plastic or foam; eat only organic produce and meats; stop using commercial menstrual products; go to EWG.org to find the least toxic body products and makeup (by the way, the Environmental Working Group IS a great resource that will rate the toxicity of all your personal products, and I highly recommend checking out EWG.org); and don’t touch receipts (They have BPA in them).
But, the worse thing about it all was the isolation I felt. I tried speaking about it to some female coworkers with the intention of informing them about better and safer menstrual products (more on those later), and I got mixed reactions, but I felt like a leper for bringing up such personal topics to youthful women. As women we can be pretty open and graphic about many things, but when something is going wrong with our “lady parts,” it is usually not discussed.
Still, I feel a need to reach out to young women with healthy uteruses, and a longing to learn from the women who have had fibroids. I long to hear what works, what doesn’t, what women’s experiences are with these little tumors, and how they endure them. While there are many support groups for many different issues and ailments, I have not found one for gynecological problems or fibroids. But there really should be one, considering that 70 to 80 percent of women get fibroids at some time during their lives, although only about 1/3 of women have symptomatic fibroids like mine.
So, what’s a girl to do? Where nothing exists, we create it, right? So, that’s what I’m going to do. I am going to start doing written and video blogs to document my healing journey, in the hope that doing so helps someone else. And, I’m thinking that a private facebook group may be a great forum where we can connect with other women who are on their own healing journeys, so that we can all learn from and strengthen each other. So, if you’d like to participate in that private facebook group, please let me know in the comments, or send me a private message. Good health to you all!
Continue reading:
Fun with Fibroids 2: Fun with Supplements
Fun with Fibroids 3: Fun with Hormones
Kathleen Simonds, Trauma Recovery Guide 