SUFFERING from endometriosis since the age of 14, Mount Gambier woman Lynette Heiming will have her pain eased as she prepares for extensive surgery at a Victorian hospital.
The insufferable pain Ms Heiming has endured over decades has impacted her life in many ways, including her wedding day.
“My husband and I had to plan our wedding around when I was expected to be in the most pain,” Ms Heiming said.
Ms Heiming highlighted her plight to Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt during his brief visit to Mount Gambier last month.
Explaining her condition, she requested for a follow-up of the hospital decision be taken due to originally being rejected.
“I found a suitable specialist in a Victorian town who referred me to the hospital there, yet because of reasons out of my control, they later informed me they couldn’t perform the surgery with me because I don’t live within the proximity.”
Ms Heiming was thrilled learn the issue had been resolved with surgery and pain relief in sight.
“Mr Hunt spoke to higher-ups of the hospital and the resolution was yes, I could be put on the waiting list,” Ms Heiming said.
The medial procedure aims to reduce the severity of symptoms which can only be performed by experienced excision specialists.
The complex surgery aims to remove the tissue associated with endometriosis to ease the pain.
Ms Heiming will also need a hysterectomy for adenomyosis, a condition seen as a “cousin” of endometriosis.
“There is only a handful of specialists who can do the surgery because it is quite a complex one,” Ms Heiming said.
At the tender age of 14, Ms Heiming started showing symptoms of the condition, which was referred as “growing pains” by doctors.
With the pain growing considerably worse over the years, internal exams were taken, with Ms Heiming recalling how she “screamed the clinic down”.
“After being referred to the specialist I had another internal examination where once again I screamed the clinic down because of the pain,” she said.
“The doctor told me I was uptight and to relax, and come and see him once I had children.
“I was 18 years old.”
It was not until after her mother watched a documentary on Marilyn Monroe’s experience with endometriosis that the family believed the source of the pain had been revealed.
“My mother was watching the documentary and was learning about the symptoms and she just said ‘that is my daughter,'” Ms Heiming said.
Finding a specialist in Millicent at the age of 20, Ms Heiming and her mother told the doctor of their suspicions on her symptoms.
The doctor initially downplayed the correlation between the symptoms and endometriosis, but after another exam, he apologised.
“The specialist said that he doesn’t think I do have it, but he had a look anyway,” Ms Heiming explained.
“Once we got out of the surgery, he apologised and informed my mother and I that he was wrong and I do in fact have endometriosis.”
Ms Heiming’s doctor found five large areas of tissue around her body as well as many smaller scattered growths.
She also discovered her right ovary did not function properly.
“He told me that I may never have children purely because it is so severe,” Ms Heiming said.
“I have had two children since then.”
With no solution or treatment for the disease, Ms Heiming said she has attempted any and all pain relief she can find.
“I have tried chiropractic treatment, acupuncture, massage therapy and have seen a naturopath but I can’t even take certain medication because of it.
“Nothing is really working for the pain.”
“This condition, people need to understand there is no baseline for it, some women may have a lot of pain and a little bit or some may have a lot of it and a little pain.
“And those who are suffering from the disease need to understand that doctors are learning alongside us, so we do need to be patient with them.”
