on Dec 27th 2006, my Dr induced me, and 6 hours later my little 6lb nothing second son was born. Healthy as my first, after the cord being wrapped around his neck 2x, and almost killing him, with strangulation during each contraction, to the point we stopped hearing his heart beat for 2 seconds, but then by the grace of God after the contraction stopped his heartbeat returned. The Dr came in told me, ok Karen 1 big push and he'll be out. And that he was, and he was okay. But at 6 months old I began seeing development issues, biting, anger, plus the way he would play, was very different, every car had to be exactly in the right line and colors, his blocks the same, I talked to the Dr, I was brushed off, told when he goes to kindergarten and if I still see the issues, talk to the school.!, I'm like, what! Really! Then when he was in kindergarten the school brushed us off, told talk to the Dr. It was rediculous, every year I brought it up to the school and the Dr to test my son. Nope, no one would help. He is now 15, and only now it seems easier to get him help, it's completely rediculous. Now the want him to see neuropsychology, why couldn't this have happened years ago, when I was always inquiring, we were just given the run around, Drs and the schools failed. Miserably. But atleast we are getting somewhere now, even though it took all this time, and by help from my dad, as he won't let anyone give him the runaround. He's too smart and medically schooled for that. My parents are helping out with him, so he can get the help he needs. My poor kiddo. In June 2007, 4 days from turning 25 I was finally allowed to get a "full hysterectomy", yeah so we thought, that Dr failed me, he left my cervix, appendix, a large fallopian tube piece, 2 decent ovary remineces behind, which was only found by my very talented, sweet gyn specialist. He is amazing. But with everything I have been through, this is allowing me to write my book, and stand up against this disease, standup against the wrongs that are being done to us all, by doctors, politics, insurance companies, to try and fix things and make it right, people I've spoken with, research I've done, has given me so much insight at so many different levels, that I'm putting it all into a book, then I'm going to work on actual changes, speaking with whomever is needed to make these changes happen, for all of us, and even others being mistreated with other diseases too. And I'm still looking for a handful or more who would want to share their stories, and insights in my book as well. Help get changes made for the better.

Today he is 16, and such a wonderful young man, I tell him he has an old soul, he's so mature for his age. So smart. But after having him, my periods were even worse, after that pregnancy I was too afraid to go through this again, but if course being only 23, and 1 child, it wasn't my choice, it was the insurances choice. And the only way was to have one more child. When nick was 6 months old my husband returned from deployment, whole, but severe PTSD. I told him everything, and he said well let's go talk to a few other Drs here, see what they say. Same scenario. So we decided to give me the best chance at motherhood, and a normal life to get pregnant, and literally a month later, so quickly, I was pregnant. And that pregnancy thank god was not as nightmarish as my first, but still really bad, some cramping, but soooo much back pain. Just turned out he liked kicking my spine. That was his favorite pass time. Lol.

By the beginning of October of 2004, we decided maybe we should a fertility Dr, see if they can help us, without birth control pills, the pain was sooooo much worse, which made a lot of things sooooo much worse, then mid October, I missed my period, I took a pregnancy test, it came out positive, I took 2 more to be sure. Yup, I was pregnant, then 2 weeks later I began bleeding oneday at work, and was in such misery, I had him pick me up, take me to the e.r, I had lost the baby, sooooo we thought. Turned out I was pregnant with twins. Lost one. Which today I'm thankful for because just being pregnant with my first son the pain was more unbearable than my 1.5 weeks total around my period time. This is where I wish I had gotten a lap to remove adhesions before getting pregnant, because this wouldn't have happened. My husband was deployed when I was 4 months a long. But Drs kept measuring me at 3 months, but I began going into ful Labor end of July, which was the right timing, I kept telling them he right on time let it happen, they wouldn't so they made me take meds to stop the anor, it lasted only one week, then on Aug.6th, It couldn't be stopped. And at 1145a, on August 7th, he finally came after hours and hours and hours of just pushing, he just wouldn't come out, finding out, when he did, his head was too big for my birth canal. My pelvic bone ripped skin from his skull, I told the nurse, but they brushed it off, said he's fine, and covered his head with a hat, I was too out of it to say anything more. I was swollen 3x my normal weight, I had been on pain killers due to such a horrible nightmare of a pregnancy, I was watched very carefully the whole time. My son was perfectly ok, thank god. No symptoms at all! I and the Drs were amazed. He was perfect. My little monkey boy.

One day in March of 2004, he called me while he was in Iraq, and proposed over the phone, while black hawk helicopters flying over, and mortars going off in the back ground, they sounded so close, but he said they were far enough from his base, the just sound close, because they are loud. I found it interesting to say the least. But I first asked him, are you sure? Are you positive you want to take my type of life on.? He said yes, I love you, we're finally both at the same place and he wanted to be with me., So I said yes. At this time I already knew I would have to have children by time I'm in my mid 20's, or not be able to have children at all. But I figured I'm 21 I have maybe 1.5-2 years before we have to try for our first child, then we could wait the 2 years to have our second. At this time I did not know about the genetics, but I quickly learned that in our family, and in most cases it does not skip, or miss, passing from mother to daughter, this is pretty much the case with this disease. I wanted a daughter and son, in that order, until I learned this, then I began to pray to have 2 healthy baby boys, when the time came. Figured we had time together before we needed to have our 1st. Well the pain was always so bad, and we began seeing Drs, to see how they could help me relieve this pain. I couldn't tolerate it anymore. Heck I couldn't tolerate it from the 1st time it ever started, on my 2nd day my period began. But the 3 doctors we saw, their answer...well we have found having a child will put the endometriosis into a doement stage, and you will get better after. All 3 said the same thing. So for 2 months my husband and I pondered over this idea, and in July we decided we would try for our first child, so we began trying to conceive, even with the fertility tests, It hadn't happened, guess we just missed the perfect day every month.

One thing I would like to add is, also being able to get pregnant depends on your case, if you've hit your late 20's it will be very hard to conceive, when you hit 30 it's pretty much impossible, to concieve or impossible without IVF treatment, all depends on your stage of Endometriosis, 1-2 you'll have a better chance with IVF, 3-4 unfortunately you may never concieve. Example my sister in law found out she has stage 2, tried in her late 20's, never happened, when she was 30, she had the lap, found out she had it, which when she was 18 I told her, her symptoms of her period, I was pretty sure she had it, she needed to see a specialist. When she was 31 she did IVF treatment and had 3 egg implants, 1 held, she had a healthy baby boy, when she was 34 she went through IVF treatment again, 3 egg implants, had 1 baby boy again just this past Christmas. But if she was stage 3-4, even the IVF treatment would have failed. At age 30+, I've met and talked to many women with different stages over the years, these are the results unfortunately, my cousins didn't try to conceive until late 20's, and with the severity in our family, they were unable to do so, IVF failed them all. So learning all this, I was lucky enough to have received a call from my childhood love, he had a 2 week leave from Baghdad Iraq in 2003, I was 21, and my family sat him down when he had asked if he could marry me, things kind of progressed very fast with us in those 2 weeks, I hadn't seen him in 4 years talked to him in 3 years prior to his phone call in Dec 2003, he found my number in an old email, luckily we were using the same number. I've known my husband since I was 10, fell in love with him at first sight. But never dated in middle school or high school, but we were very good friends, and he had a girlfriend and I had a boyfriend, and before he left for the military after graduation, he was still " technically with his highschool girlfriend" and we promised eachother one day when the time is right, we're free from relationships, we would get together. and in Jan 2004, we made it official, then before he left back for deployment he had asked my parents if he could marry me, after that we sat him down and told him what he would have to think about, the life he would have with me is very un normal because of my disease with endometriosis, it was very bad, and what he would have to handle, I asked him to take it all in, think about everything we told him and if I. A couple months if he still wants to marry me, then to propose.