The Agony of Endo

I must apologise that I have not blogged in a long time, but somehow real life has got in the way. Towards the end of the summer my dog, Holly had to have an operation to remove a lump on her leg which luckily turned out not to be cancerous. Following that I returned to work and in a BESD school the autumn term is invariably the busiest and the hardest, but I am blessed with a very nice class of children, who are hard working and generally a pleasure to be around. Thus I threw myself into work and in my spare time endeavoured to complete Winters' Soul, the second of my Hope Eternal novels. That is near enough complete and in the editing stages now, but again has been put on hold due to my own ill health.

I suffer from a condition called endometriosis which is to put it bluntly hell on earth when it flares up. Saturday saw me feeling a little unwell in the morning before the full-blown agony of an attack hit and I was begging my husband to get my mum. My poor mum ended up spending the rest of her day with me at first the medical centre and then A&E while I cried and passed out more than once from the pain while various doctors offered water, pain relief (which did nothing) and undertook a few tests. By ten o'clock that night I just wanted to go to sleep because the pain was unbearable and frankly I was exhausted. The rest of the week up to today has passed in a haze of pain, drugs and sleep. I think this is the first day I have managed to sit up in bed without it causing the 11/10 pain (they always ask on the scale of 1-10 how much pain do you feel? Really? It really is 11 when it hits!). So now I am at least able to sit up in bed and though still very weary, I wanted to do something with my non-spaced out brain, so thought I would connect with my blog again.

I have been very lucky as my fantastic parents and husband have really looked after me while I have been so ill. It's no fun trying to help someone whose in a lot of pain; they couldn't do anything to help with the pain and I couldn't bear to be touched much less hugged as it hurt too much, but they have been patient and loving which has been a big help. Endo leaves me feeling very low as the pain begins to subside, but my family and friends have been incredible at keeping my spirits up. Just a message to say they are thinking of me has helped more than anyone could imagine, because talking on the phone just isn't easy when you feel like this. My brain gets foggy and I lose concentration easily, which means texting or writing is much easier because I can sort of focus on that better. Or if I haven't I can delete what I have written.

So I just want to say sorry I haven't updated in a while. Thank you for the get well messages and massive thanks and hugs for my family, friends and wonderful husband. And keep watching for news of Winters' Soul, which I promise will be released soon.

For anyone else out there suffering from endometriosis I found the UK based charity Endometriosis UK a great source of support and information. This is their website:

http://www.endometriosis-uk.org/