Mum woke up on life support after shooting pains
| Published date | 30 April 2022 |
The "stabbing, shooting" abdominal pains started when Joanne was 18, initially occurring mostly around her periods before growing more permanent and "excruciating" as she got older. Some days, the Walton woman would crawl to the bathroom, but scans and tests revealed nothing on her multiple trips to hospital in her late teens and 20s.
READ MORE: Woman who longed to be a mum begged doctors to remove her womb
On one trip to the doctor, she spotted a poster about endometriosis. She'd never heard of it before, but she recognised the symptoms and mentioned it to her doctor, who she said dismissed the idea. Even when she went in with breathing difficulties and a ballooning stomach known as 'endo belly', Joanne said she was told to take paracetemol.
Joanne said she felt "stupid and insulted", telling the ECHO: "He wasn't taking me seriously. I knew there was something seriously wrong with me, but he wasn't listening. I was even crying to the receptionist, saying I wasn't well. No one would listen to me."
It took until she was 26 to be diagnosed with endometriosis. Joanne first found out when she woke up on life support three days after visiting a hospital looking for help. During surgery, doctors discovered she had endometriosis, with the tissue so extensive, it had joined her organs together and blocked her bowel, causing kidney failure and a build-up of "poisonous fluid". They removed seven and a half litres of fluid, cut away the endometriosis tissue, and performed reconstructive bowel surgery to repair the damage.
The pain is better now -she doesn't crawl to the toilet anymore, she's more mobile, and after three rounds of IVF, she had her now-15-year-old daughter, who is "the best thing in the world that's ever happened to" Joanne. But she still suffers "severe exhaustion" and restless nights, and sometimes has to take deep breaths to ride out "that shooting, stabbing pain".
Surgery can be used to treat endometriosis, either with a laparoscopy to remove endometriosis tissue, or a with a hysterectomy to remove the womb, so Joanne knows she would...
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