My Endometriosis Story & What I've Learned That Helps Me in Business

Welcome to She's Crafted to Thrive. I'm your host Nikita Williams, and this show is for all the ladies who are making and creating things that they love. You will hear conversations about the real everyday struggles of juggling life and business while trying to maintain passion and harmony. As women, we have the skill of getting things done, but sometimes we get in our own way. It's here where you'll see that you're not alone. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection. Fear and negative Thoughts and challenges are all a part of the journey. And on this podcast, you'll find the inspiration and tools you need to have a life and business that thrives. Thanks for joining me on this solo cast, ladies. This is a really, um, dear and near to my heart conversation. Um, as you know, um, I have endometriosis. My last episode with Renee Hughes really talked about just how we cope with it in our life and business. So here I wanted to focus on my endometriosis story since it is Endometriosis Awareness Month. And I also wanted to share a different perspective that, um, I don't think a lot of women are sharing in, in the sense of what it has actually taught me in my life, especially when it comes to my business. Um, the things that I have learned with endometriosis has really shifted my mindset as far as how I handle my work, my clients, and I just can't wait to share with you this story. This is a raw story, guys, and I really hope you find some inspiration, and I also hope that you find some comfort in understanding that you're not alone in the feelings and emotions that you have if you have a chronic illness. I want to first tell you guys, before I decided to do this this solo cast, I decided to look back at my journal from 2008. And but I specifically got my journal, I took it out to kind of just kind of peruse through things. And you know how we look back at things because you are in a different place in your life in the future or in the present, you think, oh, I had this together and all this other things, because you have, you've kind of come to this place and you've made these decisions and you have have a clear understanding of how to handle things and everything. Well, um, that wasn't what happened in the past, right? And I think journals are really good for that. You know, I tell people a lot of times, you know, you can't look in the past, um, and stay there, but you can look in the past and grow from there. So for me, I decided before I even, you know, tell you guys my story and I just go off based on what I'm feeling, I said let me look back at my, my journal and kind of where my head and my heart was. And because before, let me tell you, before I decided to do that, I was trying to think about what can I talk about on this podcast without making this, you know, this show so long and drawn out and so depressing and all these other things. And to also give you some gems of insight and all that kind of stuff and really be real with you guys about it. And I was like struggling, I was really struggling of how to put all of this into like a cohesive less than an hour conversation with you guys. So let's just start off with the fact that no, in 2008 I did not have my act together. I was a hot mess, like straight up, emotionally, mentally, and all of the things in between when you don't know what's going on. Now I'm specifically talking about 2008, it was because that's around the time where things in my health life kind of went to a different level. Prior to 2008, you know, I don't think I realized it 'cause I was a teenager, I was living at home, and from all the knowledge that I knew, what I was experiencing with having a period was normal. And what I came to realize looking back at it is like, I didn't know that that was kind of the beginning signs of something isn't normal, even though everyone was saying it was normal and no one really knew. I mean, back when I was 15, 16, even when you're talking about health issues and you're going to the doctor, I never heard the word endometriosis until 2008. Wow, like, okay, so that's a long time, right? Um, so like I said, the doctors were telling me things were normal and all that stuff. And so I decide— I'm deciding to tell you guys, that was kind of the weirdness of things. I went to a gynecologist and things were kind of weird. They're like, we don't know why, and they put me on the pill when I was like 16. 16 or 17 to try to help regulate my periods and make them not so long and so heavy. That should have been a sign in my head, right? But like I said, I was a kid. I didn't know any different, and no one else knew any different to tell me, right? Because endometriosis, especially in the Black community, is not something that is even talked about. Um, so fast forward to 2008, I am married, and about a month after my honeymoon, I was in the hospital and didn't know why. I was having this pain that I, you know, I'm used to pain. I've had a knee surgery, for goodness sake, before this period of time because I had like torn my meniscus while I was playing volleyball. So I knew pain, you guys. And I've obviously, like I mentioned, my periods were really heavy and cramping and all that kind of stuff. But this pain was different. This was pain like grocery shopping, you collapse to the floor pain. Like out of the blue, nowhere, like someone just took a knife, stabbed you, and left you there to bleed to death. Like that's the kind of pain that I'm talking about. And for a while there, a lot of my doctors felt like it was my stomach, and I did. I started having a lot of stomach issues. I couldn't eat things. I was feeling nauseous a lot. It was just a lot of things. So my, my primary doctor referred me to a stomach doctor, a gastroenterologist. And I started going to them and we did all these tests, colonoscopies and cameras that like, you know, go through your body and different diets and elimination of diet, like foods that this and that. And nothing was helping this pain I was having. And not to mention, at that time my periods were even worse. They were so heavy. They were so long. There were so many clots, guys. I think there were times like maybe I, I like, I was afraid because I thought like maybe I had a miscarriage because also how big the clots were. Like, because they were— my period was irregular even though I was on the pill. How are you on the pill being irregular, having clots and having all these pains? Like, this is all of the things that are going through my head. And you guys, while I was looking through my journal like experience on this. I like to think to myself now in 2019 that, you know, oh man, I was like, you know, hardcore and I knew and I was all great and, you know, I was like, whatever, I know what's going on, I can handle this. I was a mess emotionally. I was a newlywed, I was 23 years old, 22, 23 years old. And I mean, not to mention what this does to your, your, you know, relationship with your new husband. Um, in a completely different lifestyle. I had so many things, not to mention life, right? What was going on in life, um, getting used to a new circumstance of being married, um, you know, being on my own in the sense of like being a grown person, like grown up, grown up, um, with, with, with a man. And, and it was, it was a lot to deal with. And, you know, it's kind of like when you're kid or a teenager, you think, oh, when I get married, things are gonna be so, you know, these rose-colored glasses and rainbows and lucky charm balls of fun, gooey nights, you know. And not to say, you guys, that I didn't have and I don't have an amazing husband, but for, you know, a lot of people get married and they may have like a lot of communication issues a lot of times about, you know, 'Your socks are on the floor,' or 'You left the toilet seat up.' A month after I got married, my husband was taking me to the hospital. Um, he was putting things in test tubes that I would prefer not him to ever have done, ever. Like, I mean, this— that's where we were. So it was so much emotional. And then on top of that, I had doctors telling me there's no way you could possibly be in this pain, there's no way that you could really be feeling it like this. I think you're exaggerating. I think you're lying. I've heard— I mean, all those kind of things people like doctors told me. Um, and I didn't know what to think because I didn't know what was wrong. I mean, I remember once talking to my mom and she's like, I'm so worried about you, and all this other stuff was going on because at this point, um, I had been in the house, in and out of the hospital like every other month for then like 6 months. It felt like for like 6 months, that's what was going on. And then I got to a specialist. I was going to a doctor or 2 doctor's visits every week. It was just a lot, a lot. And as I read through my journal, like back then, I was— I mean, I'm glad I kept a journal because I think that's probably what helped me stay sane, along with my personal relationship with my God and through all that with, you know, my husband. And just really honestly, you guys, that was a time where I had to really put my spiritual life like straight on face. I had to really dig deep in trusting in God, and I definitely feel that. And I saw that like going back and looking at my journal. But going back to what I was saying, you know, the doctors were telling me I was— it was in my head. And finally the stomach doctor said, you know, I think this is more reproductive. It has to be because we've done every test known to man and we don't see anything. Everything's clear. You, you definitely have IBS because, you know, you have stress. And if you don't know what that is, that's irritable bowel syndrome. And yes, I'm being that real with you guys. And it's something that's flared up. Usually it's caused by, um, stress, inflammation, all that kind of things. It can come and go. It gets irritated here and there. It could be this onset of something that has been there before, aka endometriosis. And I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a second. But yeah, so I'm going to the GYN and she's like, okay, well, let's get you on a different pill, let's try this. So we did a different pill for a few months, and I'm so sensitive to birth control pills at this point in my life. And it makes sense because I had been on birth control since I was like 16. So here I am at 23 years old and Yeah, my body was like, no more of that fake hormone crap. This is not working. And all the side effects that you— they say are unlikely to happen, they happen to me. Like, yeah, my husband used to— my husband and I used to joke like, yeah, I was a different person then. Like, just like mentally and hormonally, I was a completely different person. And I didn't even know that that's what was going on. That's how crazy it is, right? I just didn't know. And it's like a story that so many people that I hear that have that have this disease, that have this chronic illness, endometriosis, for so many years we are going through knowing something is wrong, being told that something isn't, and yet knowing deep within our hearts and our bodies that something is off. We know something is off, but can't explain it, can't tell you why, we just don't know. So while I'm seeing the new GYN doctor, She suggests that I have a laparoscopy, 'cause at this point she had mentioned to me that you might have endometriosis. She had prior, you know, diagnosed me with PCOS, which is polycystic ovarian cyst syndrome, where you get multiple cysts that come and go on your ovaries and they, you know, burst and things like that. So that was something I had been thinking that it was, but the type of pain was just more intense than they thought, and they couldn't see that many cysts. There were some cysts on the ultrasound, but not that many. So we decided to do the exploratory, and that's when we found, you know, the endometriosis. I have a very— like, if you look at the pictures, I don't have a lot of, um, adhesions. I have them in weird places, um, like— and I say weird places, I have them places where they can't really excise really well without irritating like some things like the bowel or at the time my, my uterus and things like that. So they were being very careful in certain things and she was not a specialist when it came to endometriosis when she was in there. So after that I was like, okay, well now I know I have this thing called endometriosis. I had never heard of it before. I had asked my mom, you know, does any of our family have it? They're like, no, not that they know of. I asked my dad, he has sisters, He's like, "Nope, not that I know of." So here I was, the only person that I had ever heard and ever in our family had this thing called endometriosis. And then I started Googling and realizing this is not like, you know, a bad period for a period of time. This is a lifelong basic chronic illness. It increases, it gets worse if they don't, if they don't like have some type of treatment pain plan, which is hard because at that time not a lot of people were talking about endometriosis. Even my GYN, she's like, I mean, we can try all these things that are out there, that are here. And guys, let me tell you, I tried everything. I had— I've tried literally every pill on the planet known to man. I'm pretty sure I've tried every pill. I'm pretty sure, like, I'm definitely sure I've tried every birth control pill. Then I tried the shot, the Lupron, which by the way, you guys, no one really tells you all the details about it. Even when you read online, it's very confusing. My suggestion for you, if you're considering doing any of the shots, is just know that once it's in your system, it, it doesn't just go away. It takes years for the effects of that to go away. And I did not understand that, um, because I didn't know. Honestly, I feel like my doctor, she did tell me, she was like, oh yeah, you know, once you have it, you can just stop taking the shot, but it will be in your system for another 6 months, but actually longer. Like, they didn't tell me that part, right? And so just dealing with endometriosis after that, you know, 2009 was when I was officially diagnosed with endometriosis. So here we are 10 years later. I still struggle with, you know, stomach issues. I still have endometriosis. You still have endometriosis after you have the surgery. I know you guys heard that in my past podcast with Renee, but just so you know that, you know, that's true. The reason why I decided to have the hysterectomy, um, one, like I said, I have been dealing with this since 2008, and actually now that I know, I've been dealing with this since I was 16 years old. That's a long time. Um, here's a, here's a story that I don't think I've really talked about often, but you know, my husband and I, when we got married we didn't want kids, you know, we had our own thoughts about that. And then we went back and forth because that's what happens when you get married, you have friends who have kids. And at one point, you know, we really did consider it about having kids. And I had just thought to myself, you know, there have been multiple times where I thought we were pregnant like I thought we were pregnant because of the different pills. When you go off and on, like, it really messes things up with your hormones and how things work. And there were times I swore I was like, I'm pregnant, I know I'm pregnant. We would buy birth— we would buy pregnancy tests like often because I was like, that's how irregular, even with hormonal pills and treatments, I was— that's how crazy irregular things were. But You know, even with that, I was like, you know, all of this pain is just really hard to deal with, and I can't imagine bringing a kid into this world where, for me, I'd have to deal with that as well. Even though multiple doctors told me to have a baby multiple times, I would tell them, no, I think I want to have a surgery. I think I want you to take whatever this is out of me, take my ovaries, take everything out. Take them out, take them out, take them out, take them out, cuz this pain is crazy. I just can't deal with it. I don't want to deal with it. It's been too long. It's affecting so many other things. I just want it to go away. I just want the pain to go away. And then the answer would be, well, you're too young, so we're not going to do it, but if you have a baby, sometimes it will go away. And that's a lie. Endometriosis doesn't go away when you have a baby. It suppresses certain hormones, which allows the endometriosis to regress, which makes it dormant for a while, but it doesn't cure it. So my answer to them was like, okay, so when it comes back and I have a 2 or 3-year-old and I'm in agonizing pain, are you gonna take care of my kid? Exactly. So that's just my personal— that's just my personal thing. And so for a while, um, you know, that was a struggle. Like, should we have kids? Should we not have? And, um, when we moved to Florida in 2000— and yeah, 2000— and, uh, 2017, excuse me, um, we found a doctor and I was telling her, I was like, yeah, I think I'm ready for it to come out. I'm just— we've gone through so many different therapies and so many different things that it's just not working for me. And at point, just based on the struggle of what things have gone— I mean, there were times that I wasn't on a pill and I thought I could get pregnant. And but I really— if I really want— if we really wanted to get pregnant, we would have gone through the whole fertility and all that kind of stuff. But it just wasn't something we wanted, and we felt like if it was going to happen by accident, it should have happened by now. And so after talking to this doctor currently in Florida, she was like, after looking at everything, I think it would be really hard for you you guys to even have a kid. And after this, you know, looking at your history, if you want to have it out and you feel like it might help you, let's take it out. So, um, that was a big part of, part of my decision. It was like, I just want to see if this is going to give me some relief of some kind. Guys, I am very anemic. I was very anemic. I would be going to the doctor and getting iron infusions often. Like, I would go and they would test me and they'd be like, "I don't know how you're walking." Like, that's how bad my iron was. I would get them, you know, the older I got, the more my iron and hemoglobin levels and all that kind of stuff was really low. And it was because that's how heavy my periods were. And I was just like, I— there's got to be something. And, you know, the suggestion was like, you can have a partial hysterectomy or or a full hysterectomy technically, because you, you, you know, they take out your cervix and your, your uterus, which they did for me. And that would help, you know, with the bleeding aspect of things. And so I was like, okay, let's see if that happens, if that helps. And you know, guys, when I, when I first went into discussing this surgery, I was, I was so confident about doing it. And at the same time, I was sad, right? Like, I don't know how else to explain it, but I was sad because, you know, for years we didn't want kids because we didn't want kids. But now it's like, okay, there's a piece of being a woman is coming out of my body. Like, the very thing that helps me be me and create what I want to create, um, should it be a child it's no longer going to be there for now. It's no longer gonna be there. And I don't think I recognized what kind of emotional roller coaster that was going to put me on. And it did, it totally did, and it still does. You know, I know I can't have kids right now, like I know I can't have kids, and it, it's so interesting. It shifts your mind when you're, when you're told and when you know you can't have something.. It's crazy. Like, you literally cannot— I mean, have— you cannot birth a child yourself. I, you know, my husband and I have always said if we would like to adopt, we would. We might, you know, you never know. But having a kid myself, not— it's not gonna happen. So that's something to consider. If you are so dead set on doing the hysterectomy, just know that even though you're very confident, which I am and which I was, you will still have to deal with the emotional aspect of, okay, you no longer can carry a child yourself, by accident or planned. So keep that in mind, ladies, when you're considering the surgery. So when I went to have my surgery in 2017, I was hoping that— I felt like something else was wrong. I don't know how to explain this, and I've been so attune, I should say, over the past 10 years while dealing with all this. I'm so in tune with my body sometimes it's weird. Like, it's weird and wonderful in a weird kind of way. Like, I can pretty much gauge when, okay, I know that this action or that action or that pain or that pain or that activity means that this is going to happen or something is going to happen. You become really in tune with your body when people for a decade told you that you were wrong, that you were making it up, and then to be, you know, validated throughout the process that, oh no, you do have something, oh no, you do have these issues, because they don't understand. To this day, I can go into an emergency room and talk to a nurse and tell them what is going on, and they are like, well, do you know? I'm like, woman, or man, nurse man, whoever you are, I know more about my body than you can ever know because you are not living in it. You're not living in my body. You're just not. And you can't— you can look on paper and see all the tests and all the surgeries and da da da, but I know my body. And that is something that I've become very confident in, in saying and being really clear when I'm speaking to doctors and people, um, that are trying to help me or not help me, that I am so clear on what is affecting my body in the sense of I know how I feel and you cannot talk me out of it. I am not going to be ashamed for feeling this way. I am not going to feel like I'm crazy for feeling this way. All I want to know is what can you do to help me? So Ladies, if you're feeling like when you go to the doctor that you should cower or that you should just like listen because they know better and they've been to school and they've done all these things, guess what? They haven't been in the school of you. They haven't lived in your body and gone through the pain and sensations that you have gone through. Only you have. So they can only go based on textbooks and what other people are telling them, but they are not you. They are not living in your pain. They are not living in your reality. So make it a point to get really in tune with what's going on. Be able to describe things in ways that they can understand, even if they can't understand it. So for example, my husband— I love him to death, but he's like an iron steel. Like, he has— he doesn't get sick often. He has little aches and pains once in a while, but he doesn't understand pain pain. He just really doesn't. So I'm thankful for that because, thank goodness, because I feel like I got enough pain for us combined, right? So, um, when I'm trying to explain something to him, I tried to give him a visual of something affecting him in a certain way, like, that's where I'm at, you know, that's where I'm at. So try to give people a good way when, especially when you're describing your pain, how you feel about something, and If they can't understand it, just tell them, look, it's a lot of pain and I'm at a 10, so let's do something about it. To be clear, all of this is to say my endo story is not— it's unique to me, but it's not unique in the sense that no one else is experiencing random things and have multiple chronic illnesses that they're dealing with. I know I'm not. I know that's not true. And I— if you go online, you will see Millions of women, thousands of women are dealing with something chronic and still pushing through, right? So the story I wanted to tell you earlier about, you know, family not knowing what was going on, all that kind of stuff— I just found out 2 years ago that my dad's sisters, they all pretty much have endometriosis. Now guys, I got this, I got this diagnosis for endometriosis back in 2009, and I'm just finding out 2 years ago, so 2017, that all of my dad's sisters have it, have endometriosis. We need to talk more, right? We need to really talk more about what is affecting our lives so that we can share it with our family and So what has all of this taught me about life or business? Well, one of the biggest things— and I wrote a list like of tons of things that having endometriosis has taught me about running a business or even starting a business— and one of those things is know thyself. So as I've been saying, I went back through my journal and there's one thing that just yells and continues to yell at me now. One of the things that I really wanted was to have something of my own, or have some control of something of my own, and to create something, or to be a creative person. Um, why? And it was so interesting to read this to look back and read my journal and see like literally over the past 3 years I had this understanding for myself without looking back, but now that I look back it's like it's been, it's been begging to come out. It's been begging to make its appearance and that is even though I have what I consider a debilitating chronic hard as heck, um, lot in life. Knowing myself, knowing what I like, knowing how to express myself, knowing what I want, um, knowing who I care about, knowing how things affect me— just the act of knowing all these things about myself has helped me to make the decisions that I've made to get to where I am today. Know thyself, guys. Like, ladies, we have to know what affects us. We have to know what we want. We have to know, do we want to be a creative entrepreneur? Do you want to create or make something for someone else? Do you want to bake for someone? Do you want to do a marketing campaign for someone? Is that even something you really want to do? Like, really? I mean, we have so many things in our lives— in case in point, endometriosis— that I don't want, but I have it. That I can choose what I want outside of that. I can choose if I want to work with amazing creative entrepreneurs entrepreneurs. I can choose that if today is a bad day and I'm having a flare-up, guess what? I can give myself the grace to accept it and be thankful and grateful for the fact that I'm living and doing all that I can, and take the next day to do the same thing if I have to. But also knowing that, hey, later I get to work with wonderful women, or later I to be able to shoot these beautiful couples, or later when you get to make the choice of what you want to know or what you want to do, it makes things so much easier to deal with. So knowing thyself is not— it's not easy when you're so stuck at looking at the pain, right? Like I said, I looked at this— I'm looking at the my, um, my notebook, and I'm like, man, I was in a bad place. Like, I was in a bad place. And what happened was that I was starving to get out of just knowing like, this life sucks because I'm in so much pain, things are not the way I wanted to. And then what happened was that I reached out to do more. I reached out to help others. Um, that was one of the biggest shifts I had, which was, hey, I'm gonna go and do some more volunteer work. I am going to do something completely out of the ordinary. I remember the things that I really loved and cared about, which was creative things like photography and then language. I used to be in a Croatian group when I was a teenager in my ministry, and I was like telling my husband I really wanted to do something else like that. And so then we started to learn Bulgarian in our ministry as well. So I when I decided to like shift the focus and get back to what I knew, what I wanted, knew past or knew beyond the pain, things changed. It was a shift, and I'm just really thankful for that. And I think I'm, I'm really thankful for getting the answer to my prayers in so many different ways with that. And then when we moved to Florida, I met some— some people came into my life that had disconnected with, and I'm so grateful for them. And they were another answer to my prayers that I just can't be more thankful for. So know thyself, ladies. Know thyself. The second thing that I've learned is patience. When I was a kid, my mom used to hate— she said I could tell she used to hate that I was so— I was such an impatient person. It's very impatient, and I was also very wishy-washy. I couldn't make up my mind about things. I was very like uncertain about things when I was younger. And then when I became a teenager, I became less wishy-washy, became very set in knowing what I wanted to do, and then the patience part didn't follow that. So that's something that I've had to learn with endometriosis, is that even though that I know myself and I know what affects me, other people don't, you know, they just don't. Even doctors, they don't really understand if they don't have this illness or illnesses like this, they don't know. And so I have to be patient with what I can do, and I have to be patient with my own body, right? Like, I have to be patient knowing that okay, today is not a good day, you know, or today I'm not able to do this because this is what's happening, so I'm gonna take care of me. Or the fact that I would love to do so many more activities out and about with, you know, friends and networking and all that kind of thing, and that's not always the case. So I have to be patient with my, with my certain circumstances. And it takes time. You know, what's interesting about my story, ladies, is that I have like these periods of time where I have like really good months, like a good 2, maybe like 1 or 2 months where I'm like feeling relatively good, like from my usual really bad times. Like sometimes it could be longer, sometimes it's 3 months, and I'm like, wow, it's like, what in the world? You know, I'm excited about it.. And in those times I do what I can. And even if it's during the bad periods of times where I'm just like going through just thing after thing after thing, um, I am, I have been trying to focus on the good pieces of things or the days that I can do something. And that takes patience to realize that not every day is going to be how I want it to be. And in business, that's how it is, guys. Like you can start a business, and we're so used to having everything gratified to us right now. You know, we order from Amazon, we get a shipment tomorrow. Like, we are so used to getting things that we want, but in real life, like, real talk, real circumstances, especially if you have a chronic illness, you have to be patient, right? So, and business is no different. There are so many things you have to learn, so many shifts you have to do in your, in your life, in your business. To try to make it work out and finding the right clients, finding your brand voice, finding who you want to serve, finding all these different things. It takes time, which requires patience. So thanks, endometriosis, for teaching me some patience. I'm not gonna lie, I still am working on it, but it's definitely teaching me, teaching me that. One of the last things, like I said, there's a whole list. I could talk about all the things that I've learned when I look back and look right now about how endometriosis has taught me things. But in, in business, it has taught me about the importance of community. Now, looking back, when I look back at my journey of dealing with this endometriosis from 2008 till now, I've always had friends, right? I've always had friends along the way. I specifically have the closest friendships to people who suffered in a similar way, not the same way, but had similar circumstances with me. And then I also have friends that have no idea what I'm talking about, but that just continue to, you know, cheer me on, support me, check in on me, and vice versa. I'm a very— like, that's just my personality. You can ask my friends. I do that to other people. I'll send text messages, text, you know, check on them, call them, drop by if I'm feeling well, all that kind of stuff. That's— those are the things that really gave me umph, right? It gave me more umph in my life. It gave me more courage. It gave me more strength. It gave me more happiness and joy. I have a really good friend. She's now in North Carolina, and We became so close. She deals with a lot of health issues, and we're completely different in age, like completely different in age, but it's, it's a beautiful thing to talk to someone and know that they know what you mean by what you say. And if you listen to my podcast with Renee, who is another dear, dear friend who is also a fellow endometriosis sister, it's just something wonderful about having community behind you, having a community not even behind you, beside you really, having a community beside you. Because having a community beside you and in front of you and behind you, from all different directions, if you fall to the side, someone will catch you. If you fall forward, someone will catch you. If you fall backwards, someone will catch you. And I have learned that with endometriosis, that is so important in general. Like, make sure you have a good health health team. I'm still looking for that health team, to be honest. You know, I'm just thankful. For example, with my hysterectomy, I had one of the most amazing surgeons I have ever encountered in my life, and I've had like 6 surgeries at this point. Um, she's been a— she was amazing, like amazing, and I'm just thankful for that. And she gave me that feeling of a community in the sense of like someone there who's there to answer your questions. Even her team and everything, they were there to answer my questions. Even at the hospital, people were there to answer my questions and all those kind of things. So I'm still looking for myself personally, like a holistic and regular doctor, like, team. But outside of that, your friends and the support that you get for, like, the encouragement where you can reach out and just be like, today's a bad day, or emotionally. Because of what happens a lot with with endometriosis or any chronic illness is that depression can set in because we are dealing with a lot every single day, emotionally, mentally, and every type of realm you can think of. We are dealing with it. So having a community is important, and that is so important in business. If you listen to any of my episodes, um, The Numbers Are People, or Who, What, Why, I think that's what it's called, my first episode where you'll see that my hit, my background, it comes for, for, for my own entrepreneur business, has been working in a networking space like connecting people to people. Those, that's very true in your business. You need a community of people who are like-minded and then people who are in different spaces in your life. So you need someone who has gone ahead of you, who's done some of the work. They're, they're ahead of you and they're doing more than you. You need someone that's doing the same as you. You need someone that's just starting. You need to have a community that comes from all directions and in different fields of perspectives, right? So not just someone that is an endometriosis a survivor, or not just a photographer, or not just a jewelry maker, or not just a candle maker, or not just anything. You need to have all of them, right? So in my friends or in my community circle of all the women that are dealing with different things such as endometriosis, fibroids, adenomyosis, PCOS— oh, there's so many, right? Um, there's a lot of different chronic illnesses MS, lupus, whatever. When you get the different perspectives of all these different women and we're all trying to help each other just cope and support each other, you, you just get so much relief and you are able to give back to them as well. And it just makes you happy, right? It just makes you happy and it fulfills you in a way that you never know. And in your business, you're going to need that. In a business, you need a community of people who are on all different levels in all different places for you to grow, for you to find comfort, for you to get a kick in the butt, for you to get inspired. All those things, you need that in a business. So in a nutshell, thank you endometriosis for teaching me, um, some patience, teaching me the importance even more so of community, and thank you for helping me to get to know thyselv. So I hope this episode, ladies, really inspires you. I hope you kind of felt where I was coming from when it comes to this story. It's really hard story for me to tell in a very concise way and not being all over the place because that was the experience for me. It was all over the place. Even looking back at my journal, it was like all over the place. And only till the last 3 years have I kind of come to a place where where I'm really good at knowing what works for me, and I'm really good at knowing when, when to keep going and when to slow down or when to stop and doing what I really care about and being intentional, like being very intentional about the things that I do. So I hope that you are inspired by it. I hope that you feel like you're included, that you're not alone dealing with whatever it is. Even if you don't have a chronic illness and you're just like, girl, this is a lot, can't believe you're dealing with that. But you are dealing with something. You might have— you might be doing a side hustle, you know, you might be a mom and you have kids to take care of, or you might be a newlywed trying to get used to the ups and downs of figuring things out, or you might be a new single mom or there's so many different situations in life where you're, you're having to figure out who you are and make it all work. So I really hope that this episode brings you guys some smiles and giggles, some, some food for thought, for sure. So thanks again. And if you're listening to this and you've gotten to the end, I just want to say thank you for listening to me rant about myself and share my little story, because it's little. And I say it's little because I do believe— I mean, I've met women and their stories are huge. They're amazing and they're inspiring. So I just hope that I can bring a little bit of light to your world. Thanks for listening in, ladies. I would love to hear more about your stories, especially if you're a creative entrepreneur dealing with a chronic chronic illness, I'd love to know the things that you have learned throughout the process. In the meantime, be sure to share with your friends, subscribe, review, and don't forget, you're crafted to thrive.