There are stories and stories and this one is a type of story that breaks your heart. It is also an example of how education on endometriosis can save many sufferers from harmful surgeries.
She started her periods at 11 and her then gynaecologist told her she had a thick endometrium. By the age of 15 she was taking constant pain killers. Her periods were so painful that she would faint.
“I got my first period when I was 11. Since then, I had very heavy flows and went to the paediatric gynaecologist because of it. He said I only had thicker than usual endometrium. I think pain during my period started a year or two after that, and I started using painkillers regularly at age 15. I only had pain during my period, but it was really intense.”
Despite having a family history of painful periods, her family did nothing for her.
“My family thought nothing much of it since my aunt (mother’s sister) and grandmother (father’s mother) had the same issues and “lived normally with it”. Many of my friends believed me about having pain and felt sorry for my troubles, but also many of them thought I was heavily exaggerating when I talked about days when if I didn’t take a painkiller I would faint, that my heart would race like crazy, and I would be mildly nauseous and covered in cold sweat”
“Somewhere along the way, I started believing I was really just weak and that my pain maybe wasn’t that bad. After all, I couldn’t compare it to anybody so how would I know? I would sometimes try to just not take a painkiller to try and train myself to be stronger, but it would only exhaust me completely and the pain would start being so intense I would cry and wish I just died at that moment so at the end I would blindly swallow another pain killer and survive”.
She was diagnosed at the age of 30, 15 years after she began living on painkillers.
Despite going to a gynaecologist from the age of 16, Andelka was not diagnosed with endometriosis until the age of 30, when she discovered she had an ovarian tumour. Due to the possible risks, she undertook various tests and she discovered she had an endometrial polyp as well. It was then when she was sent to a doctor who has specialisation in endometriosis. The conclusion was that she has endometriosis.
“At first, I felt relieved since it meant I wasn’t crazy after all, and I finally knew my pain wasn’t made up or over-exaggerated. But at that point, even though I heard about endometriosis I knew very little about it and its consequences. And that was partially because, since middle school and pathology classes, I have had some hypochondriac traits, so I was trying not to read too much about diseases on the internet. So you can imagine how when I started reading…relief turned into horror really fast. I then scheduled surgery for as soon as possible.”
Two weeks before her surgery, a friend told her to check a post on instagram. It was a post that made her cancel her surgery in Serbia, and contact Dr Kyriakopoulos.
“I cancelled my operation in Serbia and contacted Dr. Dinos via email that I found on his Instagram profile, and after a few messages, I knew all the reviews and claims I saw were true. It had to be him, I wouldn’t let anyone else operate on me.
I will say this too. I am a girl who studied at the University of Chemistry in Belgrade and has a master’s degree. So as someone from the science field, I lost much of my religious faith along the way. But all of this was too much of a coincidence and made me believe again. There must be a God or guardian angel or something higher, and I did something right to convince them I was worth saving.”
She was told that pregnancy will help her endometriosis
“After I told the surgeon I had scheduled surgery with here in Serbia, that I planned to try for pregnancy, she told me that pregnancy might subdue endometriosis and contract my cyst and gave me a choice of doing that or surgery. So I asked if that meant I would still eventually have to have surgery to which she answered: Probably yes. At first, I thought about just removing the polyp and trying to stay pregnant, but after I went home to think about it and started reading about endometriosis in more detail I felt I couldn’t have peace of mind if I didn’t remove it. I felt as though I discovered I had some horrible plague that had slowly and quietly been ruining me from the inside, and I had been letting it go all those years.”
After years of living in pain, thinking she is just weak, isolation from the others 3-4 days a week, preparing for periods with pads and painkillers, Andelka had her 1st endometriosis surgery.
Two months later she is doing well and she can see improvements in her symptoms. And her mental state is improving as well.
“I am very well now. I am on my 2-month milestone through recovery. I already feel my periods getting easier, the pain in the week before surgery is completely gone, and my period lasts a bit shorter. I can’t remember when was the last time I used so little painkillers. Also, the bloating is almost completely gone, and I hope it will only get better as days pass.
On the psychological level, I had a good relieving cry when everything settled and I took a look at everything that happened from a new perspective. And maybe I realized just then, for the first time, how much I was really struggling and how much I pushed everything under the rug. But also because I was finally, as Dr Dinos said, free to live my life to the fullest”.
Her experience with us was positive and she considers Dr Kyriakopoulos and Marina her friends
“My experience with Dr. Dinos and his team was unbelievable. I never felt so taken care of by any medical professional, I never felt so well informed about every step at all times, I never felt such trust in someone I didn’t know 3 days before, and I never felt that someone who didn’t know me wished to help me so much. I was so happy and surprised when I woke up from my surgery and Dr. Dinos came 5 minutes later. He immediately told me how everything went and reassured me I was well now, he was so gentle and acted like a friend or parent that I didn’t feel worried about my recovery at all from that point. I knew everything was truly going to be ok with me. He and his team were there for me before and after surgery and even today, and they are fighting on the front lines with every girl and woman who comes to them. For that, I only feel thankfulness and awe. I will never stop being grateful for meeting them not only as doctors and medical professionals but as people who I can look up to. I spent most of my time with Dr Dinos and Marina and I really consider them my friends and I hope they consider me theirs too”.
