The Unseen Struggle: Nathali’s Story of Resilience Against Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis

Speaker 1:
0:03

Welcome to Indobattery, where I share about my endometriosis and adenomyosis story and continue learning along the way. This podcast is not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis, but a place to equip you with information and a sense of community, ensuring you never have to face this journey alone. Join me as I navigate the ups and downs and share stories of strength, resilience and hope. While navigating the world of endometriosis and adenomyosis, from personal experience to expert insights, I'm your host, elana, and this is Indobattery charging our lives when endometriosis drains us. Welcome back to Indobattery, grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea and join my guest, natalie, and I at the table. Natalie is an advocate, where she runs her Instagram page, indosipota, as well as her new publication, the Chronic RBF. Thank you, natalie, so much for joining me today and I am excited to share your story. You have recently just inundated the internet with questions and from your posts, people are asking a bunch of questions, but I think to understand where you are, can we go back to where you started?

Speaker 2:
1:21

Yeah for sure. Well, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be on Endobattery, which is one of the most amazing podcasts for Endo. I'm newly diagnosed post-excision. Wherever you are, thank you, and I was in the process.

Speaker 2:
1:34

I would say that I started experiencing symptoms in high school, and not in the same way that everybody else talks about it, and that's kind of the theme of my diagnosis, my symptoms and even my excision surgery. A lot of it wasn't what you would normally find. So I would say, as soon as I started my period, my periods were very painful and they got worse over time, just excruciatingly debilitating. And I remember specifically just I would fill the hot tub in our apartment with boiling hot water, because if you're from Brooklyn, new York, you know that the hot tap here is literally like fueled by lava. It's coming out of a volcano because you will burn your flush off. I used to fill the tub with like after a day of school or just like if I had my period or I was cramping. I would fill it up with this boiling water and I would just submerge myself in it.

Speaker 2:
2:36

And I remember my mother, who is somebody who has always been very healthy and never really had pain issues Like her periods she always talked about were just like painless. Her pregnancies were wonderful and amazing and giving birth was great. She recovered pretty quickly from it. So she had like nothing to compare it to. But it would bother her to see me in pain and they'd be like you can't soak in this hot water and I'm like you don't understand. I took eight abdoles today and it's not working.

Speaker 2:
3:08

That was one thing that I did in high school and another thing I would do is it was to the point where my little sister, who's seven years younger than me and nobody should be doing this, but she already knew to put boiling water on the stove for me so that I could put it in Ziploc bags and put the Ziploc back on my abdomen and they never tore. That is crazy, but I was ready to risk no, seriously, like I don't know what Ziploc proprietary technology they had there, but I would put boiling hot water in Ziploc bags and they wouldn't burst and I would put it skin to skin. I don't have the toasted skin condition where, like I damaged my skin, but I'm shocked that I didn't have like blisters or anything like that, because it was just ridiculous what I was doing. I would just have extremely heavy periods, like I was always constantly worried that I was gonna leak through my pants, my clothes at school and back in the day for younger listeners.

Speaker 2:
4:02

We didn't have the technology that you do now. Nope, sure didn't when you have these like paper thin pads that can absorb like 10 gallons of blood. I used to wear the big, thick, like hospital diaper ones to the school.

Speaker 2:
4:18

It was like so embarrassing you could like hear it as you walked and it was uncomfortable and ugh, and especially if you had to double up on days.

Speaker 1:
4:26

Oh, yes. That was the worst Was the double up days where you felt like you're, like I was, a big booty, judy, and so I always had extra cushion in my tuition, and so putting two pads on made me feel even more attractive.

Speaker 2:
4:43

You know what I mean? Well, no, and that's great, cause at the time, super tight jeans were in, like so tight that you could barely walk in them. So, and I also had a giant butt which the Kardashians weren't around yet.

Speaker 1:
4:55

No.

Speaker 2:
4:56

I just felt fat and like I had these big, thick thighs, I was also a fellow big booty, judy, yeah. So yeah, it was like swamp swamp in the summer. It was terrible, it was awful yeah.

Speaker 1:
5:07

Yeah, I mean, I'm a little bit older than you so we didn't have like the tight tight jeans yet. We had the Jinkos and things like that. You know where it's like the pockets were large. But then as I got older, into like later high school, early college, that's when it started really getting, you know, squeeze the life out of you skinny. So I get, I get that yeah.

Speaker 2:
5:31

And so so those, I would say those, are some of my first symptoms and exhaustion. I have horrific, horrendous exhaustion, like I just couldn't get out of bed in the morning and I thought that it was like discipline and something's wrong with me and I don't care. Blah, blah, blah, blah. But it was none of that, it was. Nobody tells you, even when you get diagnosed, that fatigue is a huge symptom of endometriosis.

Speaker 1:
5:51

Yes.

Speaker 2:
5:52

So I moved out when I was 18. And I lost my health insurance Cause at the time there was no affordable care act, so I was insurance, less it was. Also, I started college in 2007. And you know, the recession came right after. Right, it's not like I could get a job that would give me benefits and I and also I just I was a kid right, I didn't have the skill set to get like a real job. Quote unquote quotation marks. All jobs are real jobs, right, and college was rough.

Speaker 2:
6:23

College was rough because at that time, just period week was the worst. That was the worst week of the month, and then the week after recovering from the pain was pretty awful and I was just relentless. So when I was 20 years old, when I should have been finishing college, which I didn't, I didn't graduate until I was 24 because I couldn't afford some semesters. I was on my own, I was paying it for myself. I started experiencing pain all the time and then the affordable care act kicked in and I was able to get back on my mom's insurance and so I had moved in with my high school sweetheart.

Speaker 2:
6:58

We're not together, but at the time I moved in with him and we I became sexually active and I was like, well, the responsible thing to do is to go see a gynecologist and maybe I'll ask them about this pain. So I go. My first gynecological visit was awful. When I told her why I was there because it became sexually active she reprimanded me, told me that I was crazy, told me I was gonna ruin my life, prescribed birth control immediately and when she did my vaginal examination she didn't tell me that she was going to also check correctly. So really awful experience. And she just told me that the pain was normal but that I should be more concerned about getting pregnant and ruining my life. So it took me a long time before I went to another gynecologist. No wonder, and at this time my symptoms started being okay.

Speaker 2:
7:51

So now I don't only have pain period week, but a few days before my period I'm in a lot of pain. The week after I'm feeling this tinge of pain predominantly and I'm tired, I'm exhausted. I feel like I run a marathon every day and I just have no idea why. And no matter how much I work out and how healthy I eat, I just don't feel better. Right and healthy quotation marks, right, right, what it really was was I was just restrictive eating because that's, I was following diet culture pads. So then I was like, no, I need to get an answer for this pain. So I see another gynecologist. She just tells me it's normal, right, if you have pain, it's normal. If you're bleeding a lot, it's normal. Okay, fine, the pain is getting worse. I'm bleeding a lot, I'm fainting.

Speaker 2:
8:36

Now I'm starting to deal with constipation in a way that was bizarre to me, just because I'm like I only drink water. That's my favorite drink and I love my fruits and veggies. I was eating a lot of fiber, right, and I was young too, right. So I was having like crazy constipation and nothing would help. And the Aleve liquid gels that I was taking during period week, I was taking about like 16 to 18 a day. Wow, no one should be doing that. No one should be taking that much ibuprofen. That is not the way that you deal with that. I actually can't take Advil anymore. I have a horrible reaction to it. Now when I take it, same, my body just can't tolerate it. And so I was like this can't be like a. It doesn't make sense to eating 16 to 18 Advil liquid gels a day, every single day of period week, which could be seven to 10 days for me.

Speaker 2:
9:25

So I'm in college, I'm just trying to get through college.

Speaker 2:
9:27

There were so many instances where I like bled through my clothes. I almost missed finals and it was awful. And that's what I was the most concerned about was I was the first in my family to go to college. I was the first one to navigate the college system to begin with, and there was all this pressure on me because I was the first right and I was worthy as long as I was in school and working, as long as my body was producing something. I was worthy and I was living out everybody's dreams of why they hid underneath crates and a truck and crossed the border, of why my grandmother got student visas for her daughter to come here right, but none of them went to college and none of them had the opportunity. None of them spoke English, but Natalie had the pressure of going to school and becoming something right, doing something, bringing the family honor. That's what people love.

Speaker 2:
10:20

That movie I think it's called Encanto from Disney. Yes, it gives me like instant PTSD, like because that's what you know, it's cliche, but I was like oh God, I was like. You know, this is my life. It's hard. It's hard to be the first and I'm the oldest of 24 cousins.

Speaker 2:
10:43

So I'm not only an example to my sister, but I'm an example to 23 other kids. It was a nightmare, so that's all I cared about. I didn't care about me hurting because my mother worked. She was a single mom. She worked 70 hours shifts a week. I never heard a complaint about pain or being tired. She came home, cooked dinner, made sure we had food if she was going to work on the weekends and clean the house and did what she had to do. I never heard a complaint. My grandmother worked standing at a factory, also 60 to 70 hours a week making sweaters. I never heard a complaint.

Speaker 2:
11:15

My father used this body to work still to this day. He's a busboy at a restaurant and is on his feet all day, so I don't hear him complain about it. And so for me to complain about pain to my family was ridiculous Like how dare I when I have all this privilege and all this opportunity that they didn't have? So I didn't really talk too much about how the pain was affecting me and I didn't really ever want to talk about it. So I don't want to be seen as weak, because if I can't tolerate my pain, then I'm weak of character, I'm weak as a person and I'm not worth anything. My parents have been through so much worse than I. How dare I? You know, that's that's how I felt, and so I wanted an answer to the pain, just so that I could continue being worthy.

Speaker 2:
12:02

And the second gynecologist, so actually third. So now I'm on my third gynecologist and I'm telling her about the pain and she's like, again, normal, normal to bleed for seven to 10 days. Normal to bleed through her clothes. Normal to be debilitatingly in pain. Normal to faint. Okay, fine, I wait a few more months. The pain is just getting worse. I end up in the ER because I have the. I felt like somebody harpooned me through my abdomen. I thought I was going to die and that's the only reason I went to the ER.

Speaker 2:
12:33

I'm sure going to school and working didn't help the toll on my body, but it was. I remember it was the first time, thinking like, oh, this is a nice break. I get to sit in the hospital bed overnight and I get to call out of work with an excuse. And they're just like oh, they didn't even do a sonogram. I'm complaining about abdomen pain. And they're like you're on your period, it's just period cramps. And I'm like okay, that's fine, you know. And again I'm weak. That's what it is Like. I'm so weak.

Speaker 2:
13:02

I go to my fourth gynecologist and she says to me I remember she was like I think you have GI issues, you should go see a gastroenterologist. Clearly, that's what this is Right. And so I'm like okay. So I go to a gastroenterologist, I do the whole, the whole bit. I'm 20 years old, I get an endoscopy done, not a colonoscopy yet, but the the gastroenterologist was like I don't see anything wrong. And so I wait a few more months and I go see a gynecologist again because now I'm in pain three weeks out of the month. If I work out it gets worse and my constipation is extremely painful. Just going to the bathroom will make me want to faint, because you know, something coming out of me just felt like I was going to die.

Speaker 2:
13:45

At that point I had started Googling my symptoms and that was the first time I saw endometriosis. And it's funny because I'm new to the advocacy online space as a contributor Right. But I've been Googling my symptoms from 35 tomorrow and I was 20 when I when I first found the word. It's been a long time.

Speaker 1:
14:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2:
14:10

I've been watching the, the social media space, for a long time not as long as some of our other amazing advocates that talk about being in AOL chat rooms about it, Right, but I found endometriosis and I was like, okay, I have a lot of these symptoms. But when I saw the causes for it, I remember distinctly reading that it could be because of STDs, Really, and I was so embarrassed oh yeah, I was embarrassed, I was ashamed and I was like, oh my God, if I hope I don't have this because somebody Googles this, they're going to see STDs. And I was like a virgin when I met my then boyfriend and what are people going to think about me? And I remember that being one of the reasons, right, and I remember it saying that it only happened to him at over 35 years old. But I still took a chance. So I went to go see my now fifth gynecologist and I said, listen, I got.

Speaker 2:
14:59

I went to gastro. No symptom. He says there's nothing wrong. I think I might have endometriosis. She literally looks at me and goes where did you learn that word? And I said online. And she was like please don't Dr Google me. She was like you don't have endometriosis. Older women get endometriosis. You're way too young and she was like your symptoms are normal, and so I was just like and all these people prescribe birth control right For?

Speaker 2:
15:26

what reason I have no idea. I felt defeated. I felt a little crazy. I was just like I'm not a liar, like I don't do things for attention. I just felt so defeated and I just didn't know what to do and the symptoms were just getting worse. Then I found a PCP, a primary care physician, and I tell him and like listen, I went to five gynecologists. They all say that I don't have anything gynecological wrong with me. And he says well, it's not gastro, because he was an internist. And he was like I think this is gynecological and he was like.

Speaker 2:
15:55

I think you should go for one more opinion and I'm like a seventh one.

Speaker 1:
16:01

Like yeah.

Speaker 2:
16:02

I mean eighth opinion. You know, and I'm telling my best friend about it and she's like you know, my family got an ecologist. Is really nice, you should go see him. And I didn't want to go see a man, but I was desperate so I was like, all right, let me just make an appointment and let's just see what he says. If this doctor says that it's all in my head and this is normal, I'm gonna stop looking for an answer, because I had also had sonograms done and all that kind of stuff, right. Interaginal sonograms work excruciating, exams work excruciating, right, but that was normal. I kept being told that was normal. So I go see this doctor, I love him so much.

Speaker 2:
16:37

He's a great gynecologist not an endometriosis expert though, and he was just so sweet, so gentle, asked me for consent the whole way through, which I had never experienced yet, and I didn't say a word, I didn't say what I thought I had, I just told him my symptoms. He did a pelvic exam, asked me if it hurt, you know, was asking me certain questions, very quick examination. He takes me into his office and he looks at me. And New York City is like so full of different people from different places, different cultures. So where I grew up, we grew up with a lot of Arab descent friends. So Habibi means my love in Arabic, and he looks at me, in my eyes and with just the most compassion, sympathy in his voice, he says Habibi, I'm very sorry, but I think you have a condition called endometriosis. And I was like, oh my God, he said it, I didn't say it. And he says to me there's no cure for this. He's like you're most likely gonna be infertile by the time you're 30. And he's like you should think about having kids as soon as you can, and then we're gonna do hysterectomy. He's like all I can do for you for now is we're gonna do a leproscopy. I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna burn it and see what state you're in, and then after that he's like I'm gonna put you on birth control and then we'll just see until you have kids so I can do hysterectomy.

Speaker 2:
17:56

I was 21 at this point. I had turned 21 finally. That was just a lot to reckon with. I didn't know if I wanted kids. I had career goals.

Speaker 2:
18:04

I sought to finish college Like I didn't know what to do and everyone was telling me not to do the surgery. But I did it because I was like, at the very least you're gonna go in and either she's something or not. And he did. He went in, he got a biopsy it was endometriosis. He did ablation surgery and I didn't know how hard the recovery was gonna be. So I ended up failing that semester of college because I was told I was gonna be fine after two weeks. I was in so much pain yeah, I needed physical therapy Like I was not okay and I worked at like a pharmacy they call them Dwayne Reed here which is like a Rite Aid or a Walgreens or whatever. I couldn't lift the boxes or do the stocking stuff. I had to then quit that job, which I'm glad I did go to because that's where I met my husband, but Kind of says 2020, right Right.

Speaker 2:
18:52

Yeah, and so it was just like again. I was just like I'm so weak, Like I couldn't even handle this, like little surgery where they did nothing right, and I got put on birth control and I just took it because I had to Did that help with symptoms, though, so it did. Okay For me. It absolutely helped with symptoms. In the beginning I was on. I forgot what. I don't know what it's called now low estrin menastrin.

Speaker 2:
19:15

It's like a very low dose of birth control, but it did help with symptoms and the ablation I would say help with symptoms for like three months and then the pain came back, everything came back and he was just like I did all I could do. He was like I don't want to do hysterectomy now. You're too young, this is just going to be your life. You're just going to have to live in pain. And you know they prescribed me opioids. I went to the ER a few times. I remember the first time I got injected with morphine and they didn't tell me that's what they were doing.

Speaker 2:
19:44

I freaked the hell out in the ER and the nurse came over to me and she's like you've never been high before and I was like what? No, I was like do people enjoy this?

Speaker 1:
19:55

I'm like I'm going to die.

Speaker 2:
19:56

And she was. She was laughing, I was not.

Speaker 1:
19:59

It's funny to laugh at now when you think about it, but back then you're like why is this necessary? Like why would you just do something to someone?

Speaker 2:
20:07

Without telling me. And the worst part was the endometriosis pain didn't go away, but I was absolutely high off of morphine, so maybe it wasn't as bad, I don't know. So I was like high and in pain and you know, they gave me opioids but like at the time we were starting to learn about the opioid crisis and I was, I was terrified to take them. And when I did take them, oh my God, I have the worst reaction to opioids. I don't know what it is. They just immediately constipate me and it's just the worst thing ever. So I actually still have the opioids from my excision surgery from 2019 in my medicine cabinet, I don't know, like as a souvenir, like I have no idea, and that's not to say that if you take opioids, I mean anything by it, it's just for me personally, they just never did anything besides make me loopy and still be in pain.

Speaker 1:
20:53

So how much pain did you get to the right doctor, Like what led you to that point of saying I can't take it?

Speaker 2:
20:57

So then, like I got diagnosed, felt a little bit better for a little bit of time and then everything just compounded on me, like every year. The symptoms would get worse every year, and it's amazing how much you get used to, how much pain and discomfort you get used to, because I was just like this is this is just what it is Like I'm not eating healthy enough, I'm not exercising enough, I'm not doing enough of, I'm not doing enough of something. It's my fault that I don't feel good, and I had a partner who also didn't understand, and we didn't understand it in a mutual assistance. Nobody told me that it was a full body disease. Nobody told you that it was chronic fatigue, nobody explained that it could cause pelvic floor dysfunction, and that was another thing that drove me crazy. I was complaining about abdominal pelvic pain to my gynecologist nonstop for years, so my PCP, nonstop for years, and no one, not a single person, was like your pelvic area hurts, you should see a pelvic floor therapist. Not a single person.

Speaker 1:
21:57

I didn't even hear about it until after my excision.

Speaker 2:
22:00

So I was very lucky that Sally was my first pelvic floor therapist. Come on.

Speaker 1:
22:07

How did you get like the most world renowned PT for pelvic floor on the first try?

Speaker 2:
22:12

No, seriously, it's amazing.

Speaker 2:
22:14

So I got diagnosed 2010. I was like in all these Facebook groups for years. I remember just like hating being in them because people would just be like my husband's going to leave me if I don't have sex with him, my husband's going to leave me because I can't get pregnant. I don't know what to do. Like I'm a failure and that was all that the conversations were about, and like I wasn't even thinking about that. I just wanted a solution. So I was vegan. I was whole 30. I did every diet you can imagine Anti-inflammatory. I exercise and exercise and exercise. Like HIIT had taken over everything. So I was doing high intensity intervals. I could jump. I could probably slam dunk at one point because of how high I could jump. For what reason Was I doing that?

Speaker 1:
22:56

I don't know, I was running.

Speaker 2:
22:58

I was running, I was rowing again with pelvic floor dysfunction and the first sign should have been when I like snapped my T-band. I did tear, but I bruised it so bad my thigh was like five times its size in purple. I got an MRI done and I had to go to physical therapy. While I'm in physical therapy for the rehabilitation of my IT band, I'm telling the therapist that I have anometriosis. I'm telling her about all this horrific pelvic pain and I'm like, is there any correlation between what happened to me and anometriosis? And she was like no, that doesn't make any sense, it wouldn't affect it. And I was like, okay.

Speaker 2:
23:36

And then, come 2017, my symptoms are now 24-7. Every single day I'm in pain. Every single day it hurts. Every single day I have tension. Sex is painful. I'm constipated constantly. I faint from being constipated, like I could literally feel as the bowel movement was happening. It would be so excruciating. One time I passed out. I remember I always joke like I became like an expert fainter. I could feel when it was coming and I would just get down so that I could just like lay down and not like fall dramatically because they don't want any convenience, anybody. I passed out at the subway entrance once, and I remember waking up like 30 minutes later and thank God like I was fine. But, like in typical New York fashion, no one helped me and I just got up and I went to work. That was just my life.

Speaker 1:
24:25

Colorado. Everyone would be around you. Everyone from like three states over would be right there to make sure that that we also hold the door for each other. I know that that's not common in New York, but here we hold the door for each other.

Speaker 2:
24:38

Now I've been to other states and when people are like really nice, I'm just like what do you want from me? Right, what it's up.

Speaker 1:
24:46

You know it's very New York for me.

Speaker 2:
24:47

Yeah, and I was still trying to finish college because I had another semester that I failed, because I was like in such horrible condition and I was so embarrassed about it then and I was like I don't know how anybody finishes anything with an Amitri Ossis, to be honest. So 2017, 2018, I'm in one of these groups and somebody is like I hate Nancy. Nancy's the worst. She kicked me out of the group and so all these women are like Nancy's the worst. I hate that group and I'm like what group are they talking about?

Speaker 1:
25:19

Right.

Speaker 2:
25:20

So I asked I was like, what group are you guys talking about? And then I found it Nancy's, not an Amitri Ossis, care and education. So I go and I'm like what the F? What is the secret? Underground patient led and I'm reading about Dr Redwine and I'm reading about Nancy and I'm doing the education module and I'm reading all these stories about excision and I'm like this is what I have, like I'm going to do this. You probably know exactly what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2:
25:44

Sometimes the endo can just like dip, go high and low, and so then, like I would have periods where I would feel a little better and then I was like, oh, maybe it's not that bad, and then it would get worse, right, and even though I educated myself so much through Nancy's nook, I still didn't really understand what the Amitri Ossis was doing. So, 2019, I'm doing hit again, I'm doing high intensity interval workouts, working out all the time Sorted, eating all that stuff, right, because I'm still blaming myself for all this pain and discomfort and exhaustion. And my now husband at the time my boyfriend picks me up, we go on a date, we do one of those painting wine things, we walk out and I swear it felt like something just fell out of my vagina. I tell him we have to go home. Now I freak out. We were supposed to go to dinner. We go home and I have him check. I'm like do you see anything coming out of it? And he was like, no, I don't see anything, but I feel it. I feel something is coming out of me.

Speaker 2:
26:42

I go to my gynecologist the original one. I'm still seeing him, right. So I got diagnosed in 2010. I'm still seeing him 2019. He was like you have uterine prolapse. And I was like what? And he was like, yeah, he was like I can't believe it. He was an OBGYN, so he delivered like a million babies and had all his clients had kids. And he was like I've never seen this in a woman your age that hasn't birthed before. But you have prolapse. I'm so sorry. And he's like I told you. He's like what are you waiting for? You have to get pregnant. I just turned 30.

Speaker 2:
27:11

And he's like you have to get pregnant, like I don't know what you're waiting for. I have to take the uterus out. And he's like and if you don't want it to get out, I'm going to have to stitch it so that it can stop from falling and I can't explain Like I'm telling it, like nonchalant, but like when I was told that I had to have a hysterectomy when I was 21, telling getting this news. Now, every time you get news of, like something new, it was just devastating Because I just met my now husband. We were embarking on this new life and now I have I'm 29 years old, with prolapse. Like, are you kidding me? 30 years old with prolapse, I was like, well, what can help it? And he was like, well, start doing kegels. He's like buy weights off of Amazon to start doing kegels. That's really the best that you could do. So I go home, order it from Intimate Rose. I order the kegel set. The little did I know how much Intimate Rose would play a part of my life. For the rest, of my life.

Speaker 2:
28:03

And that I would meet Amanda Olson. I start doing the kegels and I started having excruciating pain and the hit workouts were worse than I was, like it was awful. So I'm Googling what helps prolapse and it says pelvic floor therapists. Never heard of this in my life. I go to Nancy's Nook, I type in pelvic floor therapist and I start reading all these posts from Sally and I go to her page and she has all these live videos that she's recorded and left on the Facebook and she's talking about endometriosis and how it causes constipation. That was the first video I saw she had like it was like a poop one, and I was like, oh my God, I have all those symptoms. And then I started watching all of her videos and I reached out to her.

Speaker 2:
28:47

I still have the email in my inbox and I'm like hi, dr Sally, I got diagnosed in 2010 and they're saying that I have prolapse. And immediately she responds. She was like I don't think it's prolapse. She was like come see me, I have an opening next week. Endometriosis can cause a lot of things. Just come see me and I tell my husband. I'm like, oh my God, I found this woman who knows about endometriosis and she's going to help me. So he comes with me to the appointment and I'll never forget I'm laying on the table. I meet Sally, who just is like straight to business, right.

Speaker 1:
29:18

I love Sally.

Speaker 2:
29:20

Nice to meet you and she's just so sweet and comforting and she's just like telling me do you have these symptoms? And she's describing my life, like she's describing everything I've ever been through and the symptoms that I'm having. And I'm telling her about the pain that I'm having. And I brought a chart. I listed all my symptoms. I drew X's where I had pain, and so she laughed because she like picks up the paper and she was like the little X's that you traced.

Speaker 2:
29:46

She was like I don't know if you know this, but that's your genital femoral nerve that you mapped out on yourself. And so I was like, yes, I'm like I always have ovary and uterus pain. And she was like it's not your ovary, it's not your uterus, she's like it's your bladder. That's hurting. That, you think, is your uterus and that ovary pain that you're saying. She was like I think you have nerve compression and so she's like touching me, whatever. And she was like I think you have inguinal hernias pressing your inguinal nerve, that's that ovary pain on both sides. And I'm like hernias, how? Why? Like you know, because what you think of is like intestines falling out of, like a hole.

Speaker 1:
30:18

But I'm just like there's no way that I would have that. I would know right Like somebody would have seen it on the million scans that I had.

Speaker 2:
30:24

I had a colonoscopy that year because I was still trying to find answers to my constipation. Again, gastroenterologists quote beautiful colon, end quote. And so she's like doing her thing. And then she has me stand up and she calls up the Captain Morgan pose and I put my leg up on the thing. She does what she has to do and she's like cough and cough and she's like you don't have prolapse. She was like you have a severely hypertonic pelvic floor. She was like you are extremely tense and she was like what have you been doing? And I was like well, I do high intensity and so I'll walk out some kikles. And she was like stop doing kikles immediately and you loosening, not tightening. And that's when I started learning about the pelvic floor.

Speaker 1:
31:06

Natalie's story isn't over quite yet. It's just starting to get really good. So join us next week as Natalie continues talking about the ways that she has overcome all the challenges that she's faced in her journey. You won't want to miss it and until next time, continue advocating for you and for those that you love.