• [Stoke-on-Trent Live Icon]
• News
• UK & World News
• NHS

Mum has 'life ruined' and chance of second child snatched away

Eloise Nicholson has endometriosis

[1_endometriosis-r-1580458.jpg]

View Image

Eloise Nicholson

A mum who developed endometriosis in her 30s says the condition has "ruined her life" after it caused her to need 13 surgeries including a hysterectomy and FIVE hernias. Eloise Nicholson, 43, first started getting pain in her womb area aged 34, nine years after the birth of her child, Jack, who is now 18.

Gynaecologists discovered she had an ovarian cyst alongside stage four endometriosis - a condition where the lining of the uterus grows elsewhere in the body and sticks organs together. She needed surgery to remove the cyst and lesions which had fused her bowel and womb, but she was left with a perforated bowel and needed a second surgery to give her a stoma bag as a result of the complications.

When she went to have her stoma reversed three years later, she was told that her endometriosis had returned, and now the only way to reverse the stoma was for her to have a full hysterectomy.

This meant Eloise and husband Neil Nicholson, now 46, were unable to give son Jack Nicholson, 18, a sibling as they had hoped to do one day. She needed further surgeries over the following years, including a nephrostomy - a bag on her back to drain urine directly from her kidney - after further endometrial lesions and another fluid-filled cyst caused the tube between her kidney and bladder to kink.

Alongside that, she also needed FIVE hernia repairs due to surgery damage causing her abdominal wall to become weak.

To this day, she still uses a nephrostomy bag, faces daily pain, is unable to work due to mobility issues it causes - and still has endometriosis despite a full hysterectomy.

Eloise told Sell Us Your Story: "I feel like my life could have been so much different. I could have had more children, spent more time with my son, and I could have more money because I wouldn't be out of work. I don't have a death sentence; this won't kill me - but it has had a huge impact on my life and what it could have been.

"I've had my stomach cut open from top to bottom three times - to the point I don't have a belly button any more. When I go to the hospital, when they bring out my file they need a whole trolley rather than just a folder. This is how bad endometriosis can be - it's not just painful periods. It has ruined my life."

Eloise had no menstrual or reproductive issues until she turned 34 - and the pain soon became so intense that she had to go home from work in her managerial education role at the time.

She said: "I was crippled, I couldn't move. It got to the point where I was ovulating on my hands and knees. But at first I was told I'm a woman and it's just painful periods. Eventually, a surgeon found an ovarian cyst the size of an orange, and substantial endometriosis which was sticking my bowel and womb together."

She underwent surgery to remove the lesions, and her bowel was perforated during the surgery. She underwent a second surgery to give her a stoma bag - and she was in hospital for a whole month before discharge due to several complications with the bag, plus two hernias which needed to be surgically fixed.

She was unable to continue her high-level managerial role due to her new medical issues taking up too much of her time, so she had to take a lower-paid and more flexible job as a carer.

By summer of 2021, she was ready for the stoma bag to be removed - but the endometriosis lesions had grown back, and stuck everything together again.

Eloise said: "The only way to reverse it, I was told, was a full hysterectomy. I wanted more children, but I'd had the stoma for four years, and I wanted to get rid of it. So I made that decision."

She underwent the 12-hour procedure to remove her ovaries, cervix, womb and fallopian tubes - putting her into menopause.

Since then she has had a number of problems including endometrial tissue growing back - despite the fact she had her ovaries removed - because of residual ovary tissue left behind. The lesions also disrupted the tube between her kidney and bladder, causing it to kink - and leading to her needing a tube to drain the fluid from her bladder into a bag on her back. She also had three more hernias due to the abdominal wall becoming weak from the previous surgeries.

Eloise said: "My stomach has been cut into that many times now, that the muscle is completely gone. It's like whack-a-mole - you catch one hernia and another one pops up."

While Eloise is in talks with urologists to have her nephrostomy bag removed, with a plan to insert a stent instead, she currently still uses it.

She has been unable to work at all because she can't operate hoists or push wheelchairs while she uses a bag, can't get the bag wet, and can't drive.

She said: "Even with a stent, my gynaecologist has told me the endometriosis will continue to grow out of control. I have to get my tube in my bag changed every few months, which is agony in itself, and I can't change the bag myself so my husband has to change it, and it's degrading.

"My son is now 18, and I've missed so many years of his life. He was nine when I had my first surgery, and it's no life for a kid visiting your mum in hospital every night. I'm 43 - all of my friends have well-paid happy jobs and I'm stuck like this. And people think it's just painful periods."

[Stoke-on-Trent Live Icon]

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Choose The Sentinel as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.