Georgia Straight newspaper features End Endo BC & Erin Coward's story



Erin Coward - Georgia Straight photo  

 Many thanks to the Georgia Straight weekly newspaper in Vancouver and health columnist Gail Johnson for their excellent article on endometriosis, featuring Erin Coward.

You can read the article at: http://www.straight.com/article-374700/vancouver/awareness-brings-end-suffering-silence 

We really appreciate all the kind comments from all around the world and hope this will be the start of creating a support group in Vancouver!

Erin says:

Thanks again for all the support and sharing your stories with me and others. I have been sick for over a week and I'm sorry for the late response. I hope in a few months we may be able to collectively, if your comfortable that is, come together and create our own support group. Maybe even meet face to face and help each other deal with our suffering.

I can tell you I have been through the ringer. Just came off all my opiates and have been dealing with an Endo attack with no masking of the pain for the first time since I was 18. It has been extremely scary and painful, but I was on so many meds and it was time for me to look at alternative ways of dealing with my pain again. This is not easy for anyone. I can tell you, I've cried everyday since stoping the drug therapies. Many people who have been present this week say they can see a different person in me since I've stopped taking the drugs and I see it too.

I know this is not a complete long term option because the pain is so sever, but I'm at least going to try and make a go of it. I have a great support group and wonderful friends who have been there this week encouraging me on. I guess this is going to be a new journey for me. I know I can't control the pain, but maybe through alternative medicine I can find new ways of trying to make peace with my pain. I guess i'm ready to feel now and not be doped up all the time. There is no other option for me I can't return to the ways I've been coping, because it was too deadly and made me a whole other person. If you can find the strength to do it, please try. I can tell you from the deadly experience I faced, sometimes drugs aren't the answer.

It totally sucked going through this last week. What has kept me motivated is that I'm not alone and hearing all of your stories. If you say to yourself you can do it, you can do whatever you set your mind to do. I've been telling myself this all week. I can do this. I can fight this. My grandma Ellen, if she were still alive would be incredibly proud of me and as we all use to tell her, "Your a tough old bird," I can now say I'm a tough young bird for trying this.

Please keep going and maybe one day we won't have to be in so much pain and suffering. Maybe one day there will be answers. We can only get these answers if we all keep pushing for them, so don't give up, find the strength to push through your pain. The answer is out there, we just have to find it and we can only do that by sticking together and not giving up.

Erin

Thanks - from Erin Ross Coward

Hi Everyone:

I just wanted to first say thank you for the first few blogs and support. I want to let everyone know that there isn't enough being done to increase awareness of this disease.

By doing this blog, I hope we will be able to reach out together, share experiences, medical and or holistic treatments, but also create a better awareness of this horrible chronic pain illness that effects many women on an everyday basis.

There is not enough being done to create awareness and understanding about the disease and I can only hope that in time, we can all share our experiences and get the word out there so that maybe one day there will be a cure.

Right now Endo suffers are stuck to turn to drugs to mask the pain. This just gets us through the day and its not a solution but a band-aid to that covers the problem for a short time.

Our pain is constant and the flare ups are a million times worst.

When people ask me to explain to them the pain of having Endo I say: "Imagine everyday of your life you have the worst period you have ever had, now times that by ten and you have Endo."

Many of us resort to treating the Endo through drug therapies (some of which are extremely exhausting and have horrible side effects - I personally lost 22 pounds in one week after taking the drug Lupron, had hair loss and terrible headaches).

These treatments can be very draining and the failure of them frustrating. Sometimes they will work for one person, but not for another.

Then there are surgeries. I have had four to remove cysts and scar tissue. The problem with this is that it helps for a few months, but the scar tissue eventually grows back and so comes back the pain.

Please spread the word. There is no support group in Vancouver and I hope that within time and with this blog we can create one.

I also wanted to note that I would like to include in this group other diseases of chronic pain that affects females, since there are so many other chronic illnesses that can accompany Endo. I have two others now and may have a another.

Thank you for all your support and please continue to spread the word about the blog. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I have had many operations, tried numerous treatments and am taking many meds to control the pain.

I have also tried holistic treatments and yoga/meditation. Right now I have a team of five different kinds of doctors working on my case to ease my pain.

I know various medical and naturopathic/holistic doctors and can try to answers your questions as best as possible.

I hope together we can make this blog a success and find a way to end Endo or in our life time control the pain factors and find better approaches to treat this disease

- Erin Ross-Coward

Welcome to End Endo BC! Please bookmark this blog and keep checking in for support on endometriosis

Hi everyone,

Welcome to End Endo BC - a new blog for women to connect with one another who are living with endometriosis and other chronic pain syndromes. Currently there are limited options for local young women to chat to one another about thier diagnosis, treatment options, lifestyle changes and successes!

I have been fortunate to have a great team of medical and alternative practitioners, as well as a supportive family and remain hopeful that by sharing our stories collectively we can become strong enough to overcome the challenges we face daily.

Please join me in this search for pain free health!