My Healing Journey Overview (in photos)

If you haven't been following my whole journey and are just interested in my overall experience and results with excision, I'd recommend reading this post, my history of symptoms post, as well as my 12.5 month update. If you're curious about the specifics of my excision recovery and want an in-depth description of the first few weeks post-op, I'd recommend reading my individual recovery posts (week 1 through 10).

Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to compile all of my photos and show together how my bloating, swelling, and scars have healed over the period of 1 year. It's actually quite dramatic.

Recovery: Month 12.5 (Aug 4) + In-depth Excision Review

It's been 380 days since my excision and A LOT has changed since July 2017! I didn't think weekly (or even monthly) updates would be beneficial once I got to the point where the initial healing from surgery was done. But I wanted to post an update looking back now that I have several post-excision menstrual cycles under my belt to compare to my pre-surgery cycles. I feel confident I can more accurately review this entire journey at this point (considering most laser ablation procedures fail within the first 1–6 months after surgery). It has honestly been a HARD recovery, but I truly feel it was a miracle since my excision has been successful and benefited me in countless ways. This is going to be long since I'm doing an in-depth review, so in an effort to keep this more organized, I'm going to break things down into sections.

Recovery: Month 6 (Jan 29) + Bloating Update

Since I'm writing this several months after the fact, I don't remember all the specifics of how I felt at this point in time (other than generally good and pretty much healed overall). Mostly the point of this update is to show a comparison in my bloating pre-surgery and at my 6 month mark. I still get bloating occasionally after eating certain foods, and I don't have a perfectly flat stomach, but my cycle-related bloating has been reduced by about 95–100%. Here are my before and after shots:

June 2017 to January 29, 2018

Recovery: Week 10 (Sep 21–28)

This week I started physical therapy and learned that my pelvic muscles are really tight and I'm not very good at doing kegels. My first appointment on the 26th was with MaryJane. She thinks that my symptoms (urinary urgency and frequency) and the lingering discomfort during sex aren't anything that can't be fixed, which is very good news! Considering my endometriosis was extensive around my bladder and had grown into my pelvic floor, I definitely think it caused issues with my muscles and urinary system. It probably needs some retraining now that the disease is gone, and I think now is the perfect time to start.

Recovery: Week 9 (Sep 14–21)

This week I hit my 2 month post-op milestone! The first weeks dragged on, but these last weeks have flown by. To make things interesting this week is full of a lot of new things. I recently purchased a bunch of stuff to try out, and am starting some new things. Here's what I'm up to:

Physical Therapy
I will be starting with a pelvic floor physical therapist (who also specializes in women's health) next week. As far as my surgery recovery goes, I'm hoping this can stop additional adhesions and scar tissue from forming, keep my abdomen flexible and soft, help with general healing, and reduce the remaining discomfort I have during intercourse. However, the reason I was referred was actually to treat my bladder issues. I think any improvement I see will positively impact all these areas. Updates will come in the following weeks.