"When I was 17, I had an abortion that went terribly wrong. A mistake in the operating room led to nerve damage and a lifelong struggle with chronic pain. Imagine a cheese grater dragging against your private parts every second of every waking hour. For the past 17 years, despite dozens of experimental treatments, medications, nine surgeries, injections, women's wellness retreats, and every type of psychological and physical therapy you can think of, pain has been a constant feature of my life."
"After my first surgery, a vestibulectomy, I had to pee in a bath for weeks to avoid the stinging caused by urine getting into an open wound. Each subsequent surgery and unpredictable flare-up has left me couch-bound and isolated. Even though I've been in the comfort of my own home and with the company of visitors and my favorite characters on television, the loneliness has sometimes been crushing."
When I was 17, an abortion went wrong and a surgical mistake caused pelvic nerve damage that resulted in lifelong, unrelenting chronic pain. Pain feels like a cheese grater against private parts every waking hour and has persisted through 17 years despite dozens of experimental treatments, medications, nine surgeries, injections, retreats, and varied therapies. Recovery included painful wound care, repeated flare-ups, couch-bound isolation, and crushing loneliness and depression from canceled plans and lost joys. Coping involved comparing personal suffering to larger injustices, and exposure to a film about dairy-farm cruelty reframed the pain by revealing forced artificial insemination and calf separation.
Read at Psychology Today
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