The Tango Between Two Diseases

Symptoms from Endometriosis and Ulcerative Colitis

I feel like my endo and my UC have been doing the tango, competing for first prize. On days when my UC  tends to be on the quiet side, my endo craves to steal the scene and do a few painful twirls on my diaphragm. Then they swap back and forth – never a dull moment! For those of you who have both diseases and potentially have diaphramatic or thoracic endo pain, you know that the localized pain is very similar in location and intensity to your UC pain. Lets see if I can explain with an image…

The image above is a great depiction of the internal female body, and the areas that are most affected by the two diseases. I have tried to do a mock up of where my pain areas are (pink = endometriosis; orange = ulcerative colitis). As you can see the areas that I feel endo pain are very similar to the areas I feel UC pain. For instance, I have endometriosis on my ovaries (not shown here) and adhesions on my left ovary which impacts my left sciatic nerve. However, after my entyvio infusions or during extreme UC flare up, I feel intense joint pain in both my left and right hips. While my diaphragmatic endo pain appears to be quite higher up than the upper colon pain these areas truly are close together when you are trying to discern one from the other.  And lastly, pain in abdomen and areas neighboring the abdomen caused referred pain up to the right shoulder.

Note: I also dont have a gallbladder so this is why there are complications between my liver and my colon, and why I take bile salts when I remember to.

Some good news though!

1. Today I had my very first firm, intact, pain free poop in 3 months!A shout out to the ‘Ulcerative Colitis’ facebook group who confirmed that it IS possible to start feeling and seeing results after only two loading doses of Entyvio. I was worried at first because after both first and second loading doses I was feeling abdominal pain that eventually subsides; with the last loading dose causing extreme joint pain. When my UC joint pain subsided I was unfortunately left with sciatic pain from my endo,… but whose counting really?!? *insert eye roll here*.
2. I am on schedule for my excision surgery on March 12th with one of the best doctors in the industry. It will be a long and drastic procedure that will aim to remove endo from the typical places as well as up near my diaphragm. The only thing that could stop the surgery from happening is if I have a flare up but Im doing everything in my power to prevent that from happening! I am so excited!
3. I need a third positive thing…oh.. i know! I just added eggplant in my diet!