Day 12: Thank you for walking with me


I think over the past 11 days I have spoken about most of what I want to share about endometriosis and my journey with a larger audience. Don’t get me wrong- there is so much more that I am going through and there is so much information about endometriosis that I could share, but that’s probably a better discussion with my endo sisters than the readers of my blog.

The past two weeks weren’t easy for me. It was in late February that I made the decision of being openly vulnerable for the first time in my life this Endometriosis Awareness Month. Back then I had little support for my decision to do so, but I was passionate and determined to speak up. It took every ounce of courage I had to be an open book. Anthony Bourdain once famously said:

“The journey is part of the experience — an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca.”

So when I look back today, I must say that this has been an incredible two weeks of my journey to being an advocate for myself and my endo sisters. I am feeling overwhelmed by the love and support that I have been getting from all over.

I wrote blogs daily and interacted with my readers via social media over the last 2 weeks. Some people reached out to share their own stories after reading mine. They told me how they found relevance in my story by associating it with similar experiences they have had in their lives. Others reached out to offer support and encouragement. Some others reached out with inquisitiveness and curiosity about endometriosis and the lives of endo warriors with the intention of becoming better allies to our cause.

Earlier this week I also shared my story via a short speech. I very hesitantly spoke about my journey of hunting the monster inside me at the Toastmasters club that I am a part of. I felt like I was being brave to open up and be vulnerable in a club that I was considering to be my ‘safe space’. After my speech, I felt really overwhelmed by the support and encouragement I received from my fellow Toastmasters. Some reached out saying my story gave them the motivation to look past medical gaslighting and seek the help they need. Somebody even had a moment of retrospection wondering if his wife had been battling endometriosis all those years she cried out in pain. A couple of others shared stories of people they knew who were either endo warriors, or victims of medical gaslighting to tell me that I am not alone in any of this. If you are interested, you can watch the excerpt from the session recording below:

Since this was a Toastmasters speech, I received my evaluation at the end of our session. One thing that stayed with me was this:

“I find it sad that we have to talk about this in terms of you being brave by coming forward and talking about this, and that you felt that it was nice to come to Toastmasters and talk about it in a safe space. And I encourage you to take this speech outside of the safe space and spread this word as far as you possibly can. I think you have got a very important message, and you deliver it extremely well. And that is going to make a difference in the world.”

To me, this piece was more feedback than evaluation. It opened my eyes to how the world sees my story- as a message with utmost importance.

I am incredibly thankful to everyone for the love and support I received. I hope my story will serve as a reminder that you should always be kind and helpful towards people who might seem to be struggling because chances are that they indeed are. You might never know what they are going through, and sometimes you don’t need to. Let’s make it a norm to offer help to others without insisting on knowing their story. Let us learn to be their support system while respecting their need for space and privacy. It might make all the difference in their tiny world! And someday your good deeds might just come around, because after all ‘we are all just walking each other home’!

#EndoTheStigma


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