Endo Year Reflections: #1

Welcome to EndoBattery, where I share my journey with endometriosis and chronic illness, while learning and growing along the way. This podcast is not a substitute for medical advice, but a supportive space to provide community and valuable information so you never have to face this journey alone. We embrace a range of perspectives that may not always align with our own. Believing that open dialogue helps us grow and gain new tools always align with our own. Believing that open dialogue helps us grow and gain new tools. Join me as I share stories of strength, resilience and hope, from personal experiences to expert insights. I'm your host, alana, and this is EndoBattery charging our lives when endometriosis drains us. Welcome back to EndoBattery. Grab your cup of coffee or tea, or whatever keeps you cozy, and pull up a chair, because you're always welcome at this table. Can you believe we're nearing the endo of the year? See what I did there.

Speaker 1:
0:56

This time of year always seems to come at full speed. Between the holiday hustle and juggling life's demands, it can feel like there's hardly any time to catch your breath. But here's the thing the end of the year is also the perfect time to pause, reflect and celebrate all the growth, knowledge and connections we've built together. And this year. Wow, what a year it's been. We've had incredible experts join us, meaningful conversations and, of course, plenty of moments where I think we've all said I needed that I wanted to do something a little different to close out the year. Instead of cramming a single episode with all the lessons and highlights, I thought why not take this journey in smaller, more digestible doses? Thought why not take this journey in smaller, more digestible doses? After all, we know pacing ourselves is essential when managing energy and life. So here's the plan Multiple times a week for the rest of the year, we'll take a walk down memory lane together. Each short episode will spotlight a lesson learned, an expert who has left their mark or a conversation that resonated deeply. This is your chance to reflect with me, revisit what you've loved or maybe discover something you missed. I'm calling it our endo of the year reflection series because sometimes looking back is just what we need to recharge and gear up for what's ahead. So buckle up for this little reflection road trip quick stops, meaningful moments and plenty of reminders that you're not alone on this journey. Let's take this ride together, one moment at a time, and, as always, thank you for being here, for listening, sharing and showing up, not just for me but for yourself. You're the heartbeat of Indobattery. So, with that being said, let's get started, shall we?

Speaker 1:
2:48

The first episode of the year was really me just talking about endobattery what is endobattery, what's the goal of endobattery and what I see as the future of endobattery. And, honestly, it was me gabbing and telling you, much like I am now, about what's to come, and that hasn't really changed. Goals have been accomplished this year. Things have happened this year that have been great, some not so great Things I've discovered and, honestly, I'm seeing just this sense of community come to fruition that I had so desperately dreamt of that long year ago. It seems like this community has been such a blessing to me in so many ways. I've met new friends, I've talked to new people, I've grown, and I hope that you have too, because that is the goal of this podcast. It's not just for me, it's for you too. So thank you for showing up and if you haven't heard that episode, go back and listen, because that will give you an overview of how EndoBattery started and then also what the goals and aspirations are for this podcast, even for this next coming year.

Speaker 1:
3:59

I want to say, with the episode with Dr Mona Arati came out blazing fire with information, good knowledge and, overall, some inspiring information for people's journey. I learned a lot in this episode. That conversation alone gave me better insight to not only endometriosis but also endometriosis surgeons, and what I found that is unique about endometriosis specifically is that a lot of times these surgeons do what they do because they have personally been impacted by this disease. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's because they themselves have lived with it, but because they know someone that has, or they've seen the effects of it on someone that they love. Something that Dr Arati touched on was the fact that her journey really started at a very, very young age by hearing other women struggle with their health and with health care. And well, just take a listen.

Speaker 2:
4:51

I decided I was going to be a gynecologist when I was nine years old, when I was sitting in a women's professionals meeting with my mom, who is a woman professional she has a PhD in engineering and she was kind of like the woman leader for women in that community and the women started talking about GYN problems, their periods, pain with sex, all sorts of stuff, and all of them, universally, were complaining about how no one listened to them, how they would go to their doctor and they would feel blown off or like they would even feel embarrassed to bring it up, because they all felt that, oh, it was just part of being a woman that they had to suffer. And this really hit home with me as a nine-year-old, because a week later I got my period. I got my first menstrual period and I was literally curled up on the floor in agony, thinking I was dying. I was in 10 out of 10 pain. My mom, unfortunately, was on a business trip, she wasn't home. My father was kind of just blew it off and I literally cried myself to sleep that whole night long, thinking I was going to die, and after that my mom came, explained to me. But then it was a long journey of you know, er visits and all sorts of stuff and people just saying, oh you should, you just have constipation. I'm like, well, how come I just get constipation every time I get a period? It honestly, it remained like that until I became a gynecologist and I accelerated. People don't know this about me. A lot of people do, but some people don't.

Speaker 2:
6:19

I went to college when I was 12. I went to med school at 17. At 21, I was a full-blown MD studying gynecology, and by that point I started realizing that women menstrual disorders was just not taught, wasn't treated, wasn't addressed. And this was early 2000 by this point because I finished medical school in 2001. And I literally graduated my residency and I started traveling the world. I went to Brazil, I went to Italy, I went to France. I started going to every conference there was about minimally invasive surgery and gynecology and just learned as much as I could. Because I felt that all women were ever offered were birth control pills or a hysterectomy for these types of problems, and both my parents are engineering, so it couldn't make sense to me that what were we treating? Why birth control pills or hysterectomy? Why can't we just fix the problem? Why can't we find what the problem is and fix it. And that's how I became long story short a menstrual disorders expert.

Speaker 1:
7:24

I worked at Henry Ford, I worked at Cleveland Clinic, I taught fellows experience, but she brought her experience to the table and she is fighting hard to help people with endometriosis have a better quality of life. Obviously she's genius, as we all can tell by the fact that she went to college so early. I'm floored by that still. But beyond that, she also brought something up to me which I had never even considered before and something that I thought was quite fascinating, honestly, and that's the mini or micro laparoscopy surgeries. Now, this blew my mind for a couple reasons. First reason being is that there was actually a surgery that was less invasive than a minimally invasive surgery, which is really not all that minimally invasive to begin with. But there's options for those that maybe aren't sure if they have endometriosis or they have less severe cases of endometriosis. But don't take it from me. Dr Mona Arati explains this perfectly.

Speaker 2:
8:25

And for those patients that have a lesser degree of endometriosis, I will sometimes offer them mini or micro laparoscopy because they will heal so much faster. So if I do their surgery on Wednesday with a mini micro laparoscopy and they have stage one or two endometriosis which I can treat with mini laparoscopy, by Monday they're back at work. Interesting, so literally it's a five-day recovery for them, which is why I tend to do those on Wednesdays.

Speaker 1:
8:50

So by Monday-. What is that though? What is a mini micro laparoscopy?

Speaker 2:
8:55

So mini micro laparoscopy is you've heard of laparoscopy? So mini micro laparoscopy is you've heard of laparoscopic surgery, right when you have a camera in the belly button and then you have instruments that are usually five or 10 millimeters that go through little ports that go in the external abdomen into the abdomen to do the surgery. Mini micro laparoscopy uses a three millimeter camera, so it's like this big so the size of like a pencil, smaller than a pencil.

Speaker 1:
9:19

It's a pencil.

Speaker 2:
9:20

Yeah, they call it needle-oscopy. So it's just like a fat 14 gauge needle and all the ports are and the instruments are that size too. So I can do endometriosis excision with, almost with basically no incision because these are like they're like the size of a fat needle that goes through the abdomen. So there is very little recovery time and there's very little downtime. There's no concerns about hernia formation or not running, not lifting. You can go back to normal physical activities almost immediately and there's no need for pain medicine and the healing is just so much faster. You still have like that post-op bloating, you know, and the anesthesia effect and like gas pain and you know that you get after a laparoscopy, but the recovery is so much faster it literally cuts recovery time in half.

Speaker 1:
10:07

You've just heard two really great clips from this episode with Dr Mona Arati and, honestly, it didn't really even stop there. This conversation was chock full of information, passion and just zest for fighting for those with endometriosis to receive better care. This episode really touched on many facets of living with endometriosis and of being a provider for endometriosis. I think you'll be just as inspired as I am looking back at all these episodes. There's things that I've forgotten, conversations that I cherish dearly and things that I want to continue learning about. So tune in for the next EndoYear Reflection. Until next time, continue advocating for you and for those that you love.