Our Instructor assigned us to write about something that was based of of personal knowledge. I decided to write about me becoming a women and being diagnosed with endometriosis.
Becoming A Woman
As I woke up around 6:00 in the morning to get ready for 7th grade, something just didn’t feel right. I instantly felt different and knew that something wasn’t normal. I had this weird feeling in the bottom of my stomach. When I got out of bed to get into shower, I noticed that my colorful pajamas pants, I was wearing were soaked in the darkest red. My sheets were also soaked. It had brought me back to a conversation that I had with my mom discussing that one day my period would start. Who would of thought that would be the way to start 7thgrade. I kept thinking to myself even pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. How and why is this happening this soon? I am only 13 years old, I am still a baby; it is too soon to have to deal with something like this. I finally got up, ran to the bathroom screaming for my mom. I stood there saying to myself “I am dying, and why is this happening to me.” I just kept crying. When she came to the bathroom she told me it’s not the end of the world. She helped me get cleaned up and explained that every female goes through this, and everything will be alright. I had finally just come to the conclusion that I was only becoming a woman.
After finally starting to understand what was happening, I adjust to the fact that this was something that I was going to have to deal with for years to come. As months went by, the cramps became more and more unbearable. I knew becoming a woman couldn’t be this bad. The stomach pains felt like someone stabbing me in the stomach. I had symptoms of vomiting uncontrollably until I started heaving. I started missing a lot of time from school. I was an Honor Roll student, so I had to find a way to cope with this.
The second month came and my symptoms were getting worse. My mom decided to take me to the emergency room to find out why someone so young could be having so many issues. Looking at the four white walls waiting for the doctor to come back. As the doctor came to tell us that I had Endometriosis everything went a complete silence, that you could hear a pen drop. As we left the emergency room my mom eventually expressed that her fear had become a reality. She was praying that this was not the beginning for me of what she had to go through herself as a teenager. As she suspected, the doctor came out and said what she didn’t want to hear. I was diagnosed with endometriosis at the age of 13. Endometriosis is a disorder in which tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus. It also increases the chances of infertility. Sounds painful and scary right but not only do I now have it my mother and grandma suffered with it to.
I remember after finding this news out my mom tried to find every way to comfort me and reassure me that everything will be fine. She even took me to Olive Garden to get shrimp pasta and their famous bread sticks to try to get my mind off it for a while. I was finally getting my asthma controlled and now to find out I have another illness that has no cure. After missing numerous days from school because I was just in so much pain, the doctors started experimenting with different types of medications to help control the pain and vomiting. The stupid purple pill they tried didn’t work my period actually stayed on for almost 14 days. The next month the doctor suggested that we try the same pill they had given my mother when she was dealing with the same issues at the age of 17. Unfortunately, the pill that worked for her did not work for me either. I cried and said “this is just the absolute worst thing in the world.” No one should ever have to go through this. It is embarrassing to always have to take a change of clothes everywhere you go because you never know if you will mess up the ones you are wearing. It got to the point that between the pain and embarrassment, I didn’t want to go out. I didn’t want to be sociable and start becoming depressed.
Finally, they decided to try the magical white pill and guess what it worked. My mom was a little nervous on how it would affect me in long run, but she did whatever it took to see me smile. It was killing her to see me suffer so young with the same thing she had been dealing with for years. I was starting to feel like a normal person again. I still get cramps and pain but is not as severe as it was before this medicine. Sometimes I think about how many other people are actually dealing with Endometriosis at a young age like I am. Here I am five years later I’m college still wondering why becoming a woman was so challenging for me.
Memoir Reflection
After rereading and thinking long and hard I could have used more imagery when I talked about the emergency room. For example, I could have said as I waited for the doctor in a room with four white walls sitting on the hospital bed looking at the clock ticking. I could hear pen drop it was so quiet, but the doctor finally came in. Also, I could give a description of the doctor instead of saying the doctor I should have used the tall, blue eyed, Caucasian women with a white lab coat on enter the room with a worried look on her face I knew right then there was bad news. I could have explained in more detail about how I felt during this process that I never thought I will ever go through. After finding out I had endometriosis I knew my life would change forever because it had no cure. Lastly, I could have described in more detail when my mother took me to Olive Garden.