Hope for Healing: Kassie Coleman’s Journey Through Secondary Infertility & Jaw-Dropping Diagnosis

Hi everyone. Um, thanks so much for joining us, uh, for Hope for Healing. Um, I'm Erica Hoke, if you're not watching on my personal page, if you're on YouTube. Um, and I am a fertility mentor and an advocate, um, for, um, an advocate for, um, people that are suffering from infertility. So I have with me today a really Ame— and technology is so fun. Did you lose the signal there, Casey? Did you see that? Okay. All right. So her name is Casey. She's a teacher and a part-time barista. She's a crafty mom of one, and she delves into new projects all week. So good for you. That is amazing. I love crafts, but not much time for that. Casey has had one miscarriage and two chemical pregnancies. She's had a few failed secondary infertility treatments. And of course, like anybody who has gone through that, we know what kind of devastation that leaves on yourself and your whole family, right? She's managed to become stronger through her losses and she remained persistent. She advocated for herself through her unexplained infertility. And you guys, you're not going to believe what has what this woman has been through. This is an amazing story. And I'm so grateful that she's here today because this is the kind of thing that you have to hear to believe. She was told all sorts of things for 4 years about her secondary infertility, about the pelvic pain that she was experiencing, about her miscarriages and loss. And in the end it was, oh my gosh, I don't even know. I can't even can't even think about what would have happened if you had not advocated for yourself. And we're going to just talk to her today and hear her story. So, Casey, thank you so much for being with us today. Tell us about the beginning of your journey back to 2017.

Do you mind if I go a little before that?

Oh no, please. Yeah, yeah. I would love to hear the whole framework of it. Yeah.

Well, first and foremost, I wanted to thank you so much, Erica Hoke, for inviting me to your channel. I appreciate and love that you're supporting self-advocacy. I believe it's very, very important that an individual should do so, and I'm humbled through this experience, and I hope that I can support someone through this, their journey, or just to figure out, you know, what the background or what medically possible I can now give them an idea what the problem could possibly be. Yeah. Well, I'll give you a little bit of myself and I'll go into it. I'm 39. I just turned 39. I'm married with a son who is 6 years old. He is our world. He is our second IUI. And I had a perfect pregnancy. It was full term. Delivery was a little rough. I just wanted to go back a little bit just to explain what happened. But first, I want to mention just growing up in general, I had received my menstruation when I was 10 years old. Now, my mother and I had to wrap our head around that, first of all. I remember I grew up in a very, very, very strong household with a community of women in general, strong women in my family. And they were very, very successful. But the only thing that I did not recall hearing was how I needed to self-advocate medically. So I was told to be strong. Everyone gets cramps. Cramps are normal. It's painful. Yes, you go through it. You take medication, you take over-the-counter medication. At that time, we had medication that were pink bottles and trying to promote their products. And that's what I did. And being in a holistic household, thankfully, my mother did not push much medication on me, but I felt like I could have had and found more information about what was the underlying reason.

Yeah, kind of a bootstrap mentality, like, oh, Okay.

Yeah, exactly. Yes. So that said, month after month, I was experiencing these painful periods, huddled over. I would miss school. I'll go to a nurse's office. I would have male and female doctors or nurses telling me everything was fine. In high school, I remember being huddled over. I literally fainted in the hallway. I was in so much pain. And the nurse there as well told me This is what we go through. Well, having that—

it's not normal. In case anybody wants to disagree, it's not normal to vomit on the first day of your period. It's not normal to pass out. It's not normal to not be able to stand up. That's not normal period pain, right? I think we can agree on that.

Yes, exactly. So with that said, that was— that was like you said, it was kind of the norm. And I remember in my 20s is when I had an inclination where I needed to just push a little more to find something out, just a little bit. I had went to emergency room. I remember working at the pediatric office and I was in so much pain. I was huddled over on the chair. My coworker said, "You're so pale. Something's wrong." The doctors were proactive in my, my workplace and they told me, "No, you're going to the hospital." They thought it was appendicitis. So I was rushed to the hospital. I was given morphine because I was in so much pain. Wow. I had a sono. Everything was perfectly fine. Of course, this is what I was thinking.

Great.

Another thing I didn't want to hear. I actually want to hear what's going on.

Right. And then you start to feel a lot of different things, right? I've been through this myself. And so you start to feel ashamed. You start to feel like you're crazy. You start to feel like less than, like, why can't I cope with this? If everything's normal, like, why can't I? Right.

Just daily life. Why can't I get through the day? Why is it always a medication? Why is it? So at that point, the gynecologist on call told my mother— mother being holistic, I'm being holistic— mentioned, your daughter needs to go on birth control. That's— this is what's going to be able to have her function daily, have her not have pain. And I have to say, it was a Band-Aid in which years had passed. My period, my cramps subsided. It wasn't as horrific as it was. But then once I had gotten off the birth control pill, it came back within a few, a few months, I would say. It wasn't as bad, but I would say every other month I would have the pain. And then again, there I was taking over-the-counter medication. So now moving forward, when my husband and I had started trying, we had— I went to my primary doctor and they mentioned everything was fine, blood work was fine. I told them, can you please do me a favor and just check my thyroid levels? Because I remember my mother, for example, she was in a lot of pain and she had found out it was— she had hypothyroidism. And I was scared for that for myself. And I read that it can increase miscarriages if you don't have proper levels. So then my primary said it was fine, not until I saw my fertility specialist. They mentioned you need to be placed on Synthroid or thyroid medication, generic something. And I had seen an endocrinologist and I was prescribed medication. I had my son, perfect full-term pregnancy. Everything was wonderful. The only thing was The delivery. Delivery wasn't so great, you know, and you try to be positive. And I had a birthing protocol plan for myself. I printed out— I took an online holistic course on hypnosis and how to go through labor pains, and I went to all the classes. It's just, you know, the first time mom, you're just going out there and just trying to have the best possible delivery possible, right?

You don't know what you don't know, right?

Yes. Yeah. So then I mean, he was late and my water did not break, so I had— they were telling me I had to be induced. Now that was not one thing that I wanted to go through. I heard it's more excruciating being induced. I'm not sure, as a first-time mom, never been through it. That's why I just, you know, you hear what you hear, right? It comes down to— and I remember I went to the living room, I was in pain, I was having contractions but not dilating enough. The doctor on call from my clinic, the gynecologist, mentioned, in order for you to relax, you're going to need an epidural. My husband and I looked at each other and we thought, you know, we've been here for 9 or 10 hours. Let's just— I thought, okay, let me just do this.

Yeah, you're trying to do the right thing. Like, you've done your research, but, you know, yeah, you're trying to— yeah, I, I'm super passionate about helping first-time moms too. That's like also my heart, you know, because I want people to have good birth outcomes. So how many interventions? So we've, we've now gone induction.

Well, I wasn't induced because my water broke that weekend.

Oh, okay.

But when I went to the clinic, I was placed on epidural and then it all of a sudden, I involuntarily just fell backwards and a nurse told me, what are you doing? You can't, you can't do that. I told her I have no control. And I remembered That's when it starts. Something was wrong. I had— I believe in my mind I was given too much epidural or too much something, and I had blacked out. I remember just waking up and seeing the blue sheet. Now, growing up watching movies, what do you see? The blue sheet, you know, surgery is coming right up. And I thought, who is she? This emergency C-section. Why am I getting a C-section? I wanted to be natural and it didn't work out that way. And unfortunately, my dad had passed away. It's going to be 11 years. And I thought in my mind, just get through this. Just be strong. My family members told me, just be strong. I had woken up listening to my son crying. And I thought, keep on fighting. I was placed in the recovery room and All I wanted to do was just live for him. So being a first-time mom, you put your place on the back burner. You just, you just want to just provide for your child and provide for your family.

Yeah.

And that's what I did. I pushed through it. I thought, oh, this C-section pain, this is normal. You know, this is what normally happens. Again, first-time mom, I have no idea.

Right.

And I feel— I felt that I was just going through the motions of everything. And months had passed, a year had passed. Now we're in 2017, in which my husband and I said, try for another one. I said, sure.

But none of this pain from your C-section has subsided at all. Like, you're still in daily pain. And it was—

I feel it was every few days or so it'll just come back. And I felt something was not right. It felt as if someone was pinching me in the stomach.

Or they—

or sometimes I would just be in that cramping pain and I was thinking, maybe it's— maybe I have keloids. Maybe it's my scarring from my section maybe just didn't heal 100%. But I thought, okay, well, nothing has came up previously in blood work because I had a— we saw a fertility specialist once again and I had, to my surprise, we had gotten pregnant right away. First IUI, we were ecstatic, we were happy they were having another baby. And but unfortunately that November I had a miscarriage. And simultaneously, my grandmother had passed away.

Oh my God.

So I felt like my world came crumbling down once again. Because going through a C-section is not easy. So at that point, you kind of like, through that middle phase, everything's wonderful. And then now, you know, this happens. So what I do recall was I was placed on Sayota. That was my choice. But unfortunately, it did not work. And I was going to have a required D&C surgery in December. When I was teaching in the public school, it was so difficult. I would have random headaches, pelvic pain. I took Tylenol on a daily basis, aspirin. I had no idea what was going on with my body. My body was just telling me, you need to figure something out. You have to.

Right, right. Something's wrong. Like you're getting all the signals on a daily basis that Right. Something's going on.

So once again, through my primary doctor, my gynecologist, bloodwork, I had 2 chemical pregnancies after that. I was placed on metformin, placed on Clomid from my doctor. What I do recall was having the nurse tell me, bring me to the office and tell me, "This just happens." I told her, "You're telling me this just happens?" when the doctor is pushing all this medication on me. I understand he's trying to help me, but there's an underlying reason why this is happening and no one's figuring this out besides me. So I felt like I was lost and I turned to my friends talking about my miscarriage. And once again, I was isolated. They did not— no one came forward about even an experience they heard. I was thinking maybe I should go to support group. I was still scared. I was still scared of, I guess, finding one. I don't know, speaking to strangers about it. I spoke to my family about it. It was just a really tough time for me. And did you get a lot of—

sorry, I, I just want to ask you before you go on, did you— were you hesitant because the people that you did talk to got a lot of pushback because you already had your son? Because I hear that a lot from people suffering from secondary infertility. It's like that toxic positivity where people are like, well, you've got like, just be happy with your one. You've got a healthy son. What, like, what's your problem? You know? And it's so devastating because they can't express the grief that they're feeling because they're having miscarriages. They're having the secondary infertility. It's so confusing, you know? Did you feel a lot of that? Do you feel like that maybe is why you didn't reach out to—

I did. And I felt also that they were trying to be positive and they were telling me, you know, you had your son and you can possibly have another one.

Yeah.

You know, it was just that little rainbow after the storm that you're hoping for, you know?

Yeah. Absolutely.

So that December 2017, I was at home and I was rushed to the hospital because I had severe pain in my pelvic area again. And my son was home with me and he was just the sweetest. He brought me bananas. That's what I remember. I was in the bathroom and I was in a lot of pain in the bathroom. And all I remember, I don't mean to be graphic, but I had saw blood clots passed this big. And I'm not even exaggerating. It was about, I don't know, a tennis ball, bigger than a tennis ball size. And I knew something was wrong. Once again, I was rushed to the hospital. My mother, thankfully, she came and she watched my son for me. I went to the hospital and I was given Sano's. I told them what I had seen. I took a picture of it. And they said, "Everything looks fine in the Sano." I was discharged like nothing, nothing had ever happened. January— and this is again while I'm still teaching, going through this, being rushed to the hospital, you know, on the weekend. It happened during the week. I had to call my job and tell them. January, the same exact thing happened. I felt that honestly, that was my change and my pivot point where I had to push myself. Like, to not give up. And that was 2018, 2019 is when I really started. My friends finally came forward and told me their stories. But I felt like this whole thing is a taboo. Why is no one speaking about this? It's, it's something that I feel that just recently celebrities are finally reaching out or just coming out on social media and talking about this. You know, this is not growing up when I used to see celebrities come out having a C-section, having or having any surgery. They will look fabulous. I was, you know, when I had my C-section, I was so swollen. My pelvic area was so swollen. I appeared 5 months pregnant, as if, you know, I feel that it's just, again, a Band-Aid masking what really happens until you go through it yourself. Yeah. And that was my pivot point. My friends were sharing their stories with me and what had occurred. And in 2019, I thought maybe this is ulcer-related. All the pain I'm going through, it's ulcers. Yes. Okay. I had— I know I have an umbilical hernia. I have friends that told me they don't go through this pain, but okay, maybe it's ulcers. My mother had ulcers. She had pain. I went to a gastrologist and I had an MRI done. I found out I had umbilical hernia at that time as well, which I kind of maybe knew. I had endoscopy done ruling out no ulcers. Then in 2019, I saw my gynecologist again. This is the second gynecologist. This is new gynecologist. They had given me a saline infusion. It's also a sonohystography. And that— it's basically— it's how they put saline inside and they can get a better picture of your uterus. Yeah. So I was also given a biopsy and the biopsy was endometriosis. So I thought, is this endometriosis? The doctor said it wasn't. It was inflammation. I thought The UTIs are finally gone. Hopefully this, this will be it. All that pelvic pain. And this is why. I was given an antibiotic. I was called back a few months later and it was gone. They said that everything was fine. No inflammation. I thought this was wonderful. I finally figured this out.

How did you feel though, after the antibiotic and after the diagnosis? Were you still— were your physical symptoms gone?

I felt as if it was just another Band-Aid. It was just temporary healing. It was maybe about a piece of the pie, but not the whole—

like, not the whole pie, not the whole big picture.

Right.

Okay.

So I went to the sauna. I mean, I'm sorry, I had a sauna done and everything was fine. And then I saw my gynecologist once again. And people, people will not believe what he told me, but he told me that my symptoms are all in my head. He said, "Your symptoms are all in your head." I sat there dumbfounded. How can a person with a medical background issue this advice to a patient that has been in pain, has been coming here consistently trying to figure something out, and you're telling the person that they're basically crazy? I went again for a regular follow-up and the nurse told me, I think it can possibly be that you're working out your abs too much. I thought, hmm, no, this is—

and this is your second opinion, right? This is like, this is not like your regular doctor. Yeah. And you're basically being told you're a hypochondriac or you're working out too much. That's why you're having chronic UTI, debilitating pain, all these things, right?

And previously, and I had mentioned to that, I had sent all my findings. I had went to a gastrologist before that. I went to a gastric surgeon before that and what I had already found. So this is, they're, they're not, not helping. They were not helpful at all. And at that point, I saw my fertility specialist and I just was thinking, well, if a regular gynecologist cannot issue certain blood work done, maybe my fertility specialist can. So he issued, um, it's MTHR, which rules out blood clots, and it was negative. I didn't know what to think. I was thinking maybe it was blood clotting disorder or something that was causing all this pain. So he then issued a hysterosalpingogram, and my— and that's HSG. And I looked— Right. And they were open. So I was thinking, okay, well, I don't have an obstruction there. It's not no blockage not causing the pain. So my husband and I, through all this, we had paid out of pocket.

Right.

We had to compromise and we thought I was researching and I was looking up other— because my husband, his insurance is wonderful, but they do not have fertility insurance. And I was a fertility specialist trying to figure everything out, and I came across this video from Starbucks. Now—

oh, right, right, right. Yes, right.

I'm sorry, I'm a part-time barista at Starbucks, and this is how this came about. I solely believe in their mission statement, which is to nurture, to inspire and to nurture the human spirit. And I believe in a way, in my personal perception, that it's being self-advocating to nurture your own spirit.

Yeah.

So, right. And we came— I came across this video from this woman working at Starbucks, and she had mentioned that they offer fertility insurance. And I have to say, I do love the company and It has been a blessing working for the company.

And that's how we continued to be able to go see the specialist and move forward.

That's right. So in December 2019, 2020, that was another whirlwind. I had seen a urologist and they had given me medication and we were thinking that it could be some type of infection that cannot be treated with regular, you know, the regular, the first antibiotics, right? Antibiotics that were given to my primary doctor. And then COVID hadn't happened. COVID happened and things were shut down. So there I was lost, not knowing where to go. I'm still having this pain and not—

Did you lose your insurance? Did you lose your Starbucks insurance coverage? Okay.

That's done. Thankfully I, um, They were wonderful in the blessing which they had provided during that time period. We were shut down, and it's a— within a cafe, and I was able to maintain my insurance. And during 2021, I remember in the beginning I thought, okay, I still need to figure this out. Things are starting to open up again. I'm feeling comfortable. About starting to go to clinics. I was terrified. Terrified. Everyone else had been. And in— I had seen an acupuncturist and I was thinking, well, maybe the fertility specialist had forgotten to do something in the bloodwork panel. A hematologist to try to figure out if it's something with my blood, a blood clotting disorder, some blood disorder. I had gotten the results. Everything came in normal range. The only thing he had mentioned was, "I would, I would like for you to be placed on an iron supplement." And that was not a big deal to me. So I went on iron supplement. I was still having the same pain. I kept on thinking about the history and the background behind this, and I kept on telling myself Don't accept what they're telling you. It's not iron supplements. It's not. It's, you know, in your heart it wasn't normal, right?

Yeah.

So then I had my neighbor, she had placed on her Facebook page about this certain doctor, endometriosis specialist, and I began researching about it and I was thinking, hmm. When I was 10 years old, going through this experience of having— being huddled over in pain or having all these horrible, horrific cramps. Maybe I had endometriosis. And back then, when I was growing up, it was not a common diagnosis. I feel at least it wasn't out there being delivered or being mentioned to gynecologists when I was growing up, at least.

And it's really hard to diagnose in its own right, too.

Yes, you're 100% correct because it can go undetected. Women do not know until they are trying to go to, I guess, conceiving a child. And then they're told you have unexplained secondary infertility. And I was thinking it's possibly that. So I had seen specialist, and he was just amazing. I'm not sure if I can mention his name on here.

Yeah, sure.

His name is Dr. Anjura Baidali. He is located in Manhattan, and he has— well, his, uh, the surgery was done in New Jersey. But when I had seen him, he had a wonderful bedside manner. He had done a sonogram in his office And he said, I kind of see something there, but I feel that we should issue— have you issue an MRI. And I wanted to go to a location near me. And he said, no, I would prefer if you go to a location near this office because I believe— he believes that they have better media house imaging. I'm not sure. Now, when I had went there, that was another ordeal.

Because you're not catching any breaks at this point. You're—

no.

Yeah.

And I just want to mention this because there I am pushing through and pushing forward, so just trudging along.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I have— I was basically told by the tech, did you get your period? When did your period do? I told her I was actually due any day now. It's due to today or tomorrow. I'm supposed to be getting it because My cycles are regular. They're on point. I know when and where I'm going to receive. I know when to be prepared. So I've never had a problem with that. So I told her, well, it's due any day now. She said, oh, well, just to be on the safe side, we cannot give you contrast because we don't want— it may cause a miscarriage, or we're not sure. We just don't want— you'll feel safe. So she said, you may have to come back for another day for the contrast. And I just was dumbfounded again. I told her, wait, so I live in Long Island, very far from that. It's not, it's not a state away. It's not. But at the same time, I had to go off of work. You know, everyone has had to recreate their schedules.

It was problematic for you. Right.

Already my mindset was just wrapping my head around, you know, trying to find someone to pick up my son and start trying to find— so that was my first priority, was to make sure that he was okay. So I told her no. I said, you want me to come back? Like, is there any way that I— at this point I began crying. I began telling her part of my story, and I just said, is there any way that I can just sign a liability form that it'll be placed on myself and no one else? I'm like, I will sign pregnant. This should be an option, I feel, in medical fields because it's just— I'm pushing myself trying to figure out what's going on and you're telling me no. This person's telling me no. So she had mentioned, okay, I'm going to speak to your doctor and I'm going to see what we can do. So she approached me and she told me, okay, I want you to take a pregnancy test. At this point I was thinking, this is a slap in the face. This is just telling me to find your negative, you know? But I understand protocol and I appreciate their being— she was professional. So that's what I did. I took it to the front. There's a bathroom right by the front. I just didn't realize there's another one closer. I've never been to the clinic before. I had went to the restroom. I did the pregnancy test and to my amazing surprise, it was like a blessing. I— there I saw it. I had just gotten my period. So I went to the front desk and I left it in the toilet because I at this point needed this to be done today. MRI with contrast done and that's it.

Right.

And I told the receptionist, I said, okay, I'm not sure if you were ever asked this. And it's not a horrific— she's on a horror show there. But I need a witness so the tech believes in me. I just want someone to believe in me.

Right.

And she said, okay. So she had confirmed and she called the tech. I saw the tech, I came into the room once again and I seen the tech speaking to someone. And then she told me, I told her what had happened. She mentions, "Oh, so is this— so you didn't take your pregnancy test?" I said, "No, actually I did. So here it is. Here's the negative that you require, and I have my period." In my mind, I'm like, "Let's get this done." Right.

Let's get this show on the road, right?

Yes, exactly. A few days had passed and Dr. Vaidaly had called me and he mentioned he had spoken to the urologist that he works with and they wanted to issue the laparoscopy surgery. I thought, "It's a couple of weeks away. I have time to think about this." But lo and behold, it was the next day and I was thinking that little negative inside of me. People were telling me everything is okay. I was scared. I was scared of the surgery, going to the hospital.

Of course. Yeah. And so let me just pause you for a second. When he called you on the phone, what did, what did he actually say to you about why you needed the surgery?

He mentioned, I mean, I believe that we have technology that can be helpful, and it helps. It's definitely a long way from where we have originally started, but he had mentioned that there appeared to be a cyst or a polyp beneath your bladder.

Mm-hmm.

So I thought, oh, you know what? My coworker just went through that and she had the polyp removed. So I was thinking, okay, this can't be too bad. And I thought, okay, you know what? Shut that person down that's in your head telling you not to go forward with this. Because I was so nervous and scared. Like, I'm actually thinking I'm shaking right now.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a big deal. Like, anesthesia is a big deal. Surgery is a big deal. Even if it's laparoscopic, you worry about your son and then you're like, oh my gosh, I just spent the whole day doing this and now tomorrow I'm having surgery. I mean, after going through this for so many years, you're now— now it's like instantaneous, right? Like you're going to get an answer.

Yeah, I felt that this just came like a train. It just went moving forward so quickly from one month to the next month. Okay, surgery. So wrapping my head around this whole thing was just nerve-wracking. So then all I remember— I have to say, I really do in my heart, I absolutely loved Dr. Vaidaly and his clinic. And the MRI location, being proactive still, being at least— you're professional. And this was my good experience. This was my aha moment. Um, the hospital, the staff was so friendly. They were informative. The anesthesiologist was wonderful. He, you know, he told me his experience and how his wife had went through something similar. Dr. Vaidaly was also his wife's doctor and had removed endometriosis. So I felt so comforted being there. And I just— that was also helpful to push me through the surgery. So they also gave me the step-by-step protocol, what was going to happen. And I remember surgery. I was in surgery. I remember it was just being very cold.

Yeah.

And I had woken up to Dr. Vaidaly. He had a mask and he had approached me this close to my face and he said, 'Your bladder was in your uterus.' I was thinking, I just had woken up. I had anesthesia and medication and I was thinking, 'What? What did he just say? What?' I just chuckled and I thought, 'He's joking. What is he talking about?' He said, 'Okay, we'll talk about that later,' so calmly. And I was thinking, 'Okay.' I remember falling asleep. And him, you know, I went to the recovery room and I was thinking, okay, I don't want to pass this up.

There is no way your bladder was sewn inside your uterus during your C-section, right?

So he came in the office, he came into my room, the hospital room, and he told me that he Every day of my life, this is going to be, I believe, a story, maybe an icebreaker. Like, guess what? I don't know. I mean, it's just— I still can't wrap my head around it.

Yeah, it's, it's mind-blowing that that can even be a possibility. Like, I don't even—

So I thought, okay, what did you have to do to remove it from there? Because at this point I'm thinking medically curious. I'm just curious how So he said, oh, we had— he was so calm and nonchalant. Oh, well, the urologist that was assisting me, we had to deflate and inflate your bladder. I was like, what? I was so baffled by this and thankful about how long we have come in the medical field. And then he had mentioned that he had— oh, I'm trying to recall, sorry. He had opened up a bigger entryway so I can, I guess, have a much more better flow of my menstrual cycles.

Maybe some scar tissue in your cervix or something like that.

Right. Open me here. And then my next question was, well, of course I gave Melissa questions. Yeah, good. Prior to the surgery, I said, woohoo, here you go. Another question I had asked him was, "Did you find endometriosis there?" He just found a small, very small area. It was stage 1. I was thinking, "Okay." But he did also find endometriosis. Going back to when I was 10, that's what I wanted to hear. I didn't want to hear, "Be strong," or having commercials tell you or magazines tell you, "Let's I'm going to give you medication, like over-the-counter medication, put a Band-Aid over it. No, I wanted to hear you have an endometriosis. So that's something.

That validation after all those years.

After all, it wasn't just one surgery for one specific thing. I found multiple things. So I'm just thankful for the medical field and for the doctors for assisting me during this process.

And this just happened a very short amount of time ago, right?

Yes, that April 27th.

And how's your recovery been? How are you feeling now?

I'm just going day by day, getting stronger. I just, um, I have to sit. I can't, you know, walk too, too far, too long. I'm just sitting sporadically. Um, you know what I've learned? During this whole time is just honestly listen to your body. Yeah, your body will tell you what's going on. And before, when I was going through the pelvic pain, your body will tell you in different ways. Like, I had broken out, I had cysts, you know, um, antibiotics cleared up. At the same time, I honestly feel a lot more different since having the surgery. I feel my body is healing. I'm not— I don't have pain in that area. It's my, you know, it's something that I wanted for so long.

Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine living all those years. I mean, I can because I lived it too with the endometriosis, but, you know, to, to have all those years of painful periods and then this whole situation, and now you're just like oh my gosh, I can just live my life without having to cope with all that all the time, right? Right.

And I, I read your story, and you know, you're an amazing woman. You're a strong woman through what you have went through. And I have to say, it's women and people like you that we, that we need, you know, like that I needed. And when I had that dark time when 'None of my friends came forward,' but then they came forward a year later. Like, what? This is not taboo anymore. This is something that we have to just have a mindset and be open to talk about it.

Yes, absolutely. Advocating for yourself, advocating in the medical world, getting second, third, fourth opinions. I don't know if you've had an opportunity to watch any of the other Hope for Healing talks, but some of these women, I mean, you know, put me to shame for how many doctors they went. They went to dozens of doctors until they got the answer that they were looking for because they knew in their hearts that something was wrong and they just weren't being taken seriously, you know. Um, so thank God, you know, you didn't have to and I didn't have to go to any more than we did, but, um, Yeah, thank you so much for that. I really appreciate that. Um, and speaking of that too, if you're watching and you're not part of Flourishing Through Infertility on Facebook, that's our group, um, for advocacy and mentoring through the infertility process. Um, so you can drop a comment and I'll put a link, um, below this video. Um, Casey, how do you feel now about your about your future, about your chances of conception again? How do you feel? What did the doctor say?

Dr. Badaly mentioned that it is possible. I had endometriosis, and I'm thankful for hearing that. That was one of the questions I did ask him. At this point, I feel that I'm just healing, just trying to go through the motions around it. But when I'm ready, I believe I want to try. I will try again.

But also— I'm voting your victory, friend.

Going through secondary, unexplained secondary infertility, I, in my mind, going through this, believe that it's not an actual diagnosis. I'm not a doctor, but I feel going through this that there's an underlying reason that we need to find within our bodies to figure out what is really the problem. It's saying— I believe that we can coincide and correlate like Western and Eastern medicine to, yeah, you know, try to find a solution. It's, it's not, you don't have to only choose one side of it to find an answer.

Right. I mean, in the end I had tons of surgery, um, before they couldn't, you know, I had all the surgeries I could have and then I went to Eastern medicine because at that point I couldn't do IVF. I couldn't do anything else. So the doctors had helped me to the, you know, to the maximum of their capabilities. And so then I started pursuing, you know, other ways to help myself. But certainly without my very— I had some really aggressive surgeries myself. I had stage 4 endometriosis was one of the first. That excision surgery was one of the first that I had. And And the surgeon was quite, you know, quite direct in saying that she did as aggressive of a surgery as she could and probably more than other people would have done. So, you know, I'm grateful for the surgeons that were able to help me remove my fibroids. I had that saline-infused ultrasound surgery as well where they took out so many fibroids out of my uterus that looked like aquarium gravel. They couldn't see any of them. They literally couldn't see any of them until they did that surgery. I had, um, I had hysteroscopies and they said, no, you don't have any fibroids. And then I had that saline-infused surgery and there were dozens.

It's unfortunate that all this goes undetected, right? I feel that since— I feel that we just need to do— apply our own research, right? Because if it wasn't for my neighbor, for mentioning her and her younger daughter, she, she's— I believe she's about 17, 18, and she went through a lot with— during— went through endometriosis. And that had me thinking if I had an underlying And Demetrius, underlying reason for all this. And without hearing your story, without hearing her story, how other women coming out and tell and speaking about it, that's the only way you're going to, we're going to help someone else.

Yes. Yeah. And if you have time, um, go and listen to the other ladies' stories because we are, we are now a mouthpiece for this movement. Right. And I've got an amazing, another amazing woman coming on next week who is coming from, she's, she works in an OB-GYN office. She is a nurse herself and she still experienced the kind of things, even with her own medical background that we're experiencing. And so what my ultimate passion is, and I'm sharing this for the first time publicly, what my ultimate passion is, is to change the system. I really want want to see protocols put in place for these reproductive endocrinologists. And we're going to talk about more of this with, um, in her video, but protocols for the reproductive endocrinologist to go through, um, before IUIs and IVFs. There's some things in place, but, um, if you've listened to Erin's story about the $10 antibiotic that changed her fertility story, if you listen to your story, like there are things, um, there are things that they're not doing before they're moving on to very expensive and very invasive procedures. And that's got to stop because it's, um, it's predatory at this point, um, because people are having to pay this money out of their pocket.

So that's what we're doing. I 100% agree. And our compromise was for me to find another physician that was going to offer fertility insurance.

Right. But it's still not free, right? I mean, it might be cheaper, but it's still not free and it's, it's devastating. And women deserve, women deserve better care. Let's just say that like as a blanket statement in this area, women deserve better care. So that's, that's my big mission is to change the way that, that that's handled. By these specialists.

A better rubric, something, a better rubric.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for joining us. If you have questions for Casey or myself, just drop them in the comments. Again, we're going to have another guest speaker next week. And if you like this content and you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that like button, that subscribe button so that you get notified notified when I go live again. Casey, I'm voting your victory. I can't wait to hear from you, um, with that big fat positive. And, um, I wish you continued healing and, um, yeah, let's, let's definitely stay in touch.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

All right. Thanks. Good. Have a, have a great day, everyone. Health and blessings.

Have a good day.