For a little over two years now, my life has been a long series of health problem after health problem.
A couple of months ago, I went in for my fifth surgery in 2 years.
It all really began after my third miscarriage in 2024. As it was a missed miscarriage and surgery was strongly recommended, but sadly I suffered complications and ended up needing emergency surgery shortly afterwards.
Then, in January 2025 whilst abroad, I developed a respiratory infection that left me stranded in another country, unable to fly home. After that ordeal, I became determined to do everything I could to improve my health. I kept getting infection after infection, so I started researching supplements, focused on eating well, naturally losing weight and simply being more mindful of looking after myself.
A few weeks into that journey, I became really unwell. What I thought was a stomach bug turned out to be appendicitis and I ended up having emergency surgery to remove my appendix.
Being type one diabetic, surgery comes with its own complications, and I ended up staying in hospital longer than expected after a drain was left in place. Even so, I didn't let that derail my health journey. I carried on trying to lose weight, eat well and become healthier, but I felt anything but healthy.
The pain I'd been experiencing before my appendix was removed never actually went away.
Instead, I spent months in and out of hospital while nobody could work out what was wrong. Eventually it became clear that it wasn't just my appendix causing problems. My gallbladder was also diseased and as I would later discover, there was also an underlying gynaecological cause.
I was passed from pillar to post, living in constant pain with very little support. After countless trips to A&E and the pain becoming unbearable, I was finally moved onto the urgent surgery list to have my gallbladder removed.
Four surgeries in, two organs gone in the space of a few months, I genuinely thought that was finally the answer. I believed the pain had been caused by my appendix and what turned out to be chronic cholecystitis and gallstones.
Sadly, it wasn't.
Around the same time and since my last miscarriage, my periods had been getting progressively worse. I had been under the care of several gynaecology departments, but I never felt like anyone was looking at the bigger picture. Every symptom was treated as an isolated issue rather than trying to understand what connected them all.
What started as one unbearable week every month became two. Then three. The pain was so severe I would find myself curled up on the bathroom floor.
During all of this, I made the decision to change NHS trusts after the care I'd received. Eventually, I met a gynaecologist who genuinely listened. She pushed me up the waiting list for a hysteroscopy and shortly afterwards a 3D ultrasound, which showed signs of endometriosis.
If I'm honest, I didn't know much about endometriosis at the time. What I did know was that people were waiting 10, sometimes even 15 years, just to receive a diagnosis and often even longer for treatment. After everything I'd already been through, waiting was something I simply couldn't face.
I know how fortunate I am to have been able to access private healthcare with the support of my family. In June, I underwent a diagnostic laparoscopy, where endometriosis was found and excised.
I was given the green light by my consultant to go on holiday three and a half weeks later. Looking back, it was probably the worst thing I could have done.
Although I felt well enough when we left, the stress of travelling, combined with my first proper period after surgery, sent my body into what I can only describe as a major flare-up. Recovery has been brutal and nothing prepared me for just how difficult it would be. Perhaps I should have expected it after so many surgeries in such a short space of time, combined with living with type one diabetes, but that doesn't make it any easier.
Managing diabetes whilst trying to recover has been incredibly difficult and unpredictable. Staying out of burnout has felt impossible and running a business alongside it all has been even harder.
My life has become consumed by hospital appointments, medications, pain, surgeries, healing, cancelled plans and missed opportunities. I feel like a shell of the person I used to be.
Every time I've gone under the knife, it feels like I've lost another piece of myself.
Behind every smile has been chronic pain and I honestly can't think of a single experience over the past two years that hasn't somehow been overshadowed by my health.
The NHS has failed me on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin. Some of those experiences have left scars far deeper than my surgical ones and I don't think I'll ever be able to talk about them.
I've gone back and forth about whether to share any of this because, truthfully, I don't think I've fully accepted that I've been diagnosed with another lifelong chronic illness.
Despite surgery, I will always live with endometriosis. The pain may improve or it may return and it may continue to affect different parts of my life in ways I don't yet understand. And sadly I am still undergoing testing.
The spotlight currently being shone on endometriosis is incredibly important but I've also found it overwhelming. I've been trying to process endless information, countless stories and completely different experiences. Some are full of hope, others are heartbreaking. Then there's the reality of how little research and understanding there still is for such a complex disease.
I thought finally having an answer would make everything feel lighter. Instead, I've realised that having a diagnosis doesn't instantly take away the pain that's been stealing so much of my life.
I know the next few months will probably be the real test of how successful the surgery has been. I've been told things often get worse before they get better. But nothing prepared me for how hard this recovery would be.
For now, I'm simply taking things hour by hour, one day at a time and trying to find myself again somewhere amongst all of this.
