30 Day invisible illness challenge: Day 22

Day Twenty Two:

My illness has taught me...

...to appreciate the little things

Oh this sounds a bit cheesy, but it's true. Since my diagnosis, my condition has declined. It's gotten worse and worse, then a little bit better, then downhill once again. I'm currently at this point where my pain is so persistent and my body cannot function normally. It hurts to urinate, I have bloody pee, and I cannot go for a short walk without getting tired, sore, and abnormal bleeding. This cycle of pain and exhaustion has taught me that energy and mobility aren't to be taken for granted! I actually really miss being able to get exercise and use my body. 

Unrelenting pain has me cleaning my house like:

Endometriosis has taught me the value of true love. Again, so cheesy. Yet, so true.

It's hard having a chronic, incurable disease. I can't imagine how hard it is on my boyfriend. I hate complaining about it, and yet I find myself moaning about my pain time and time again. It would be hard, I imagine, for my boyfriend to see me vomit from pain, hear about how I'm peeing blood and in so much pain, and seeing for himself that I'm tired and sad. I know that if the roles were reversed and it was my boyfriend that was in pain on a daily basis, I would be utterly heartbroken. It would break my hear to see him crying from pain that I could not fix.
I've learned that true love overcomes all obstacles, and my endometriosis has proved to be quite the obstacle. When my boyfriend and I met, I was rather ill, but I found that I was pain free for about 6 or 7 months. My endometriosis wasn't bothering me, and my IUD was doing a marvelous job. But I distinctly remember one summer evening when I was chasing my boyfriend's younger brother. We were running like crazy people, and I chased him around my car. Suddenly, I was overcome with an all consuming "cheese grater pain". It was so awful that I fell over and broke into a cold sweat. I felt paralyzed for a moment. The pain worsened after that, and it's been a downhill ride ever since. 

Slipping further into a state of chronic pain and misery like this: 

And really, Endometriosis has taught me that I can still be a caring and productive individual. When you suffer from unrelenting pain every day it's very hard to be positive and productive. I have my bad days (lately it seems I have more bad days than good days) but I can still manage to be loving and caring. I can still work, I get schoolwork done, and I look after my animals. I have to be proud of the little things, and be happy about my accomplishments. I cleaned, did homework and cooked today? VICTORY! Now it's nap time.