As I read, your article I traveled back in time to my youthful days.
Endometriosis was one of my major problems. At that point it was period
pain with a difference. As a student, I remembered hoping and praying for
no scheduled examinations during the last week of any month. Worse yet, it
was business as usual since it was an accepted phenomenon by both family
and friends. They knew family members with the same problem and that was a
norm. As a teenager I remembered I was sitting in church staring at the
preacher while sinking in the abyss of my pains. The next moment my gaze
focused on faces looking down at me in the sick bay. Heaven’s know what I
felt when I heard that I had fainted and was lifted out by my hands and
feet by the male deacons!
My big challenge came when I was being interviewed for Nursing
School. I clearly remembered being told by successful applicants “ Do not
admit that you have period pains because you won’t be accepted” Well, I
eventually got in but those days did come. Fortunately for me I had a
group who knew how to cover up for their friends, and to play nurse with
hot water applications and ginger or mint tea. I later discovered that the
severity of the pain would lessen when I took paracetomols twice daily for
at least two days before the commencement of the period. But, there were
times when I had to resort to the usual ‘body programming’ to endure the
ordeal. I wasn’t the only sufferer. There were many in my batch and the
senior batch. One incident stood out clearly for all of us. During one of
the class sessions a senior student experienced such excruciating pains
that she vomited and swallowed back the vomitus. She was not going to ask
permission to exit the room because of fear of being thrown out of Nursing
School. Whether it would be so or not, I never know. No one dared to take
that chance.
Tradition it seems has associated this complaint with some
‘controllable psychological display’. I am happy to see that new light is
dawning on the reality of this parasitic illness. It certainly has robbed
many of us of our social, academic and personal dignity. For me, I had my
last battle with in it while completing a major university examination. I
left that room and was admitted to the hospital. I later consented to have
an hysterectomy. That was the end of that piece of anatomy and of course
physiology. I wish however to see more research in this area especially
among those of us medical personnel who have walked the path.
Hilda Ming
Director, Nursing Education
University Hospital of the West Indies, Mona.
Jamaica gillian942002@yahoo.com
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests:
No competing interests
17 June 2010
Hilda, M. Ming
Director, Nursing Staff Development Division
University Hospital of the West Indies, Mona St. Andrews, Jamaica, West Indies
Rapid Response:
Endometrosis: Challeging moments
Endometriosis: Challenging moments
Dear Editor,
As I read, your article I traveled back in time to my youthful days.
Endometriosis was one of my major problems. At that point it was period
pain with a difference. As a student, I remembered hoping and praying for
no scheduled examinations during the last week of any month. Worse yet, it
was business as usual since it was an accepted phenomenon by both family
and friends. They knew family members with the same problem and that was a
norm. As a teenager I remembered I was sitting in church staring at the
preacher while sinking in the abyss of my pains. The next moment my gaze
focused on faces looking down at me in the sick bay. Heaven’s know what I
felt when I heard that I had fainted and was lifted out by my hands and
feet by the male deacons!
My big challenge came when I was being interviewed for Nursing
School. I clearly remembered being told by successful applicants “ Do not
admit that you have period pains because you won’t be accepted” Well, I
eventually got in but those days did come. Fortunately for me I had a
group who knew how to cover up for their friends, and to play nurse with
hot water applications and ginger or mint tea. I later discovered that the
severity of the pain would lessen when I took paracetomols twice daily for
at least two days before the commencement of the period. But, there were
times when I had to resort to the usual ‘body programming’ to endure the
ordeal. I wasn’t the only sufferer. There were many in my batch and the
senior batch. One incident stood out clearly for all of us. During one of
the class sessions a senior student experienced such excruciating pains
that she vomited and swallowed back the vomitus. She was not going to ask
permission to exit the room because of fear of being thrown out of Nursing
School. Whether it would be so or not, I never know. No one dared to take
that chance.
Tradition it seems has associated this complaint with some
‘controllable psychological display’. I am happy to see that new light is
dawning on the reality of this parasitic illness. It certainly has robbed
many of us of our social, academic and personal dignity. For me, I had my
last battle with in it while completing a major university examination. I
left that room and was admitted to the hospital. I later consented to have
an hysterectomy. That was the end of that piece of anatomy and of course
physiology. I wish however to see more research in this area especially
among those of us medical personnel who have walked the path.
Hilda Ming
Director, Nursing Education
University Hospital of the West Indies, Mona.
Jamaica
gillian942002@yahoo.com
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests