Education and Judgment

As you all should know…For my birthday, I would LOVE for everyone to donate to the endometriosis association!  Now, I know it seems pointless to ask for you all to give to an association for a disease that I don’t have, but my best friend has it and I’ve seen the pain that it has caused her even though it is an invisible disease to the human eye.  And here’s the thing…she isn’t the only one dealing with it.  There are others…a lot of other women who struggle with it!  Today, I was reading a blog post by a woman named Lena.  She spoke to how tired she is and how the disease has affected her life:

“I am tired of trying to deal with people who don't understand my diseases and think I should live with this pain. I have been told to cope with it…How is one suppose to cope when you have endometriosis. A disease that you wish someone would ripe your insides out even after they have been taken. A disease that makes you curl up in a ball and cry because there is nothing else to do because pain meds. aren't working. The thing that has hurt me the most was the day I was visiting my parents. At first it was like any other day. Then my father looked at me and said "Are you getting lazy?"…I AM TIRED OF BEING JUDGED BECAUSE I HAVE THESE DISEASES. I KNOW THEY ARE INVISIBLE. BUT TO ME THEY ARE VERY REAL. SO PLEASE DON'T JUDGE ME, TALK TO ME. ASK QUESTIONS AND I WILL TELL YOU ABOUT THEM. THESE DISEASES ARE REAL!!!!”

She is merely one of millions!  And the one thing that she wants more than anything is not to be judged.  Rather than judging, she wants education.  She wants you to know what is going on with her body so that you can see her as a real person!  There are always good days and bad days, but endometriosis is a disease that is wide-spread across the globe and few people actually know about it.  That’s where the endometriosis association comes in.  They educate people everywhere.  They are the ones to provide the funding for research so that we can figure out what causes this disease and how to treat it.  Perhaps one day, they will be the ones to cure the disease!!!  (Wouldn’t that be amazing!!!) 

I’m turning twenty this year…Twenty dollars can give these women hope.  It can bring a smile to their faces.  Even just five dollars would be great!  Please don’t let me down!  And please don’t let these women down!

How to give:

1.  Give me a check made out to the endometriosis association.

2. Give me cash and I’ll write a check to the endo association.

3. Go online and give at http://www.endometriosisassn.org/donate.html

Be the one to tell millions of girls that you care about their pain!

For My Birthday...

Hello to those whom I love and who love me!

I'm putting out my birthday list now...mainly because I know that there will be some random lady out shoppin' at garage sales this weekend that will contemplate buying me something...BUT...

I don't want ANY thing for my Birthday (which is on June 6th). 

Instead, I am asking everyone to donate to the Endometriosis Association. 

Over the past year or so I have become EXTREMELY passionate for this association.  I was introduced to endometriosis through my best friend Nichole last year.  When she first mentioned it, I had absolutely no idea what endo (short for endometriosis) is.  After learning how to spell it, I looked it up.  The disease HORRIFIED me.  I had no idea how anyone could live with such a sucky disease, yet here was my best friend living her life wearing a smile. 

In terms that I like to portray it, it is like having menstrual blood on the outside of your uterus and other organs.  At that time of the month, it liquefies just like the blood on the inside of the uterus, only it can't get out of the body which causes immense pain in the pelvic area.  It causes cysts to form on your ovaries and causes adhesion which pull around your organs and cause more damage.  It causes women all over the world to be in pain day-in and day-out.  It causes women to deal with the struggles of infertility after already painful sex.  There is depression that comes with having a disease to which there is no specific cause.  BUT...these women press on and do their work and care for their families as best as they can.  WORST of all this:  There is no found cure.  This disease is chronic.  It affects more women than you can imagine. "Endometriosis is a painful, chronic disease that affects at least 6.3 million women and girls in the U.S., 1 million in Canada, and millions more worldwide." (Endometriosis Association)  

Now, I'm not trying to persuade you all to donate to this association, but I'm trying to convince you that it is a worthy cause.  If nothing else, now you know a cause that I'm passionate about and a little bit about endo!  Here is the link to the Endometriosis Association's site:  http://www.endometriosisassn.org/  

This association is all about education as well as promoting research.  Endo seems to be such a tabboo topic, but while we dance around the topic, MILLIONS of women are suffering!  So, let's end the "we can't talk about it" and make something happen to end it so we WON'T have to talk about it.  

Honestly, it is all I want for my birthday.  I don't want more things that I'll have to mess with selling when I head to Africa.  I just want you to make a donation to the endometriosis association...not while thinking about me, but while thinking about the women who suffer from the disease and the step you are taking to end that suffering!  Whether it's a dollar or a thousand, every penny counts.  

ALSO...Let me know if you made the donation online!  I want to thank you for doing so and rejoice with Nichole as more education and research will be done because of you!  If you don't want to do it online, give me the money or check and I will personally make sure it gets to the organization!  

I'm super excited!  PLEASE do this!  Do it for the women out there, like my best friend, who are suffering every day behind a mask!  Thank you!!!!!!!!!

Love in Christ,

~Samantha

The Impossible

Looks like I've waited too long to try to get to sleep.  I still have a lot to do, but because I shower in the mornings, I have to wait to pack quite a bit of my stuff.  SO, it will be an EXTRA early morning.  Most likely, I'll have to be awake and moving by 5:30am at the latest.  However, It seems like an insomnia night.  Great.  Not exactly what I need on a night that is already aging and continues to bring morning more and more quickly!  :-/  I am in hopes that I get to sleep soon.  But, I feel like that may not be the case.  I hurt so badly and I just want to be out of pain.  I lose hope on bad days.  I forget how much energy it takes to wear that mask so that people see you as a human being than as a sick, weak "thing."  I want to feel like I used to.  I want to be able to dance around my room like a crazy teenager and use my hair brush as a microphone!  (Not like I've ever done that before, but it sounds like fun!)  I want to be able to run and play with my lil' sibs.  I want to be able to do the things that I never did but could have.  Sure, I can't go back in time, but I sure would like to live the time I have here on earth like someone normal, rather than whatever "this" life is.  Sucky.  Painful.  Stupid.  Yes, all those words would fit nicely.  I just wish I could cure chronic pain.  I wish the word chronic meant a few hours tops!  And even still, that's highly unlikely.  I wish I didn't have to see women suffer from things like endometriosis and eventually make the decision to get a hysterectomy to try to get out of the pain.  I wish I didn't have to see people who can't get out of the hole, the never ending downward spiral.  I wish I didn't have to see such a thing as pain!  Now that I'm in constant pain, it makes me ever more aware to those who have been dealing with it far longer than I have.  It makes me sad to think that so many people deal with things like this.  I just wish they didn't.  I just wish that we didn't have to deal with the pain and the people who don't understand.  Yeah, at one point in time, I had no idea what chronic pain meant.  I could read all I want about it, and I still said things that I shouldn't have said.  However, now...it hurts in more ways than one.  Ha.  Anyhow, I'll stop my sad story.  But I won't stop wishing for the impossible.  Because it seems impossible that I would have such great sibs and a Grandma who loves me and encourages me no matter what.  And it seemed impossible that my parents would ever get a divorce and that we would live through it.  And here we are.  And it seemed impossible that I would ever get an older sister, but I gotta admit, I got the best one out there...who loves me for me, knows me inside and out, and is the big sister I always wanted!  So, I'll never stop wishing for the impossible.  You never know what you might get!

Endo Awareness Month

Today is the last day of Endometriosis Awareness Month.  I do not suffer from endo, but I know quite a few people who do every single day of their lives.  I hope and pray that one day a cure will be found from this horrible disease.  This article really does talk about what it really means to have endo.  I encourage you to read this article that is linked, and post comments below if you want to.  But know that I didn't write this article.  Dr. Cook posted it online.  But it really does capture what so many women around you are going through.  Please read!!!  :)  And say a prayer for all those with endo tonight...and every night!

What It Really Means to Have Endometriosis