my yiayia is a symbol of warmth.
since i was a little girl, she would wrap me in her arms and hold me and make me feel safe. at her house she always keeps my favorite non-greek cookies in a drawer (but also pushes the kouroulakia) just because she knows i love them. she always has homemade spanakopita ready on the side for me when she makes any other kind of pita because she knows i only like the spanakopita. she would make me french toast in the mornings that i stayed over and she always made sure there was ice cream in the house for me. she teases me for not knowing how to drive to her house, and she comforts me when i’m upset. she always wants what’s best for me and celebrates all of my achievements with me. she is truly one of the most important people in my life, and i am so grateful for every day i get to spend with her.
she’s eighty-seven today, but don’t worry, she’s still bossing us around as if she were forty. happy birthday yiayia, i love you so so much ❤️
march marks #endometriosisawarenessmonth, so i decided to take part in georgie wileman’s #thisisendometriosis campaign. i first started experiencing endo pain when i was six years old. i was sitting in my first grade class when suddenly i experienced sharp pain right at my ovary. being only six, i panicked, and ran to the nurse’s office crying. i was a regular in her office, but she later said that that was the first time she truly saw me in a lot of pain.
getting my period at eleven only meant more pain, this time more frequently. my blood flow was so heavy that i would have to change my pad every twenty minutes. i couldn’t move on my period, couldn’t eat, stand, pee, anything. once a month, i would be completely out of commission and in more pain than imaginable; no fifteen year old should be taking four advil every four hours to ease pain. after seven years and two different gynecologists, i finally got the official diagnosis of endometriosis, and that same summer i had the surgery that changed my life. the surgery left me with three scars (mapped out in this photo), but no endo. periods became a minor nuisance instead of a the most painful experience of my life. my quality of life got exponentially better.
less than a year after my surgery, the pain began to come back. i know that my endometriosis will and most likely has started to come back. i know that i will have to have my surgery again. but with growing awareness towards endometriosis, and with georgie wileman’s campaign, i know that when the time comes, i will be fighting the battle with millions of warriors just like me by myself.
endometriosis affects one in ten people with a uterus. let’s start raising awareness so that no one has to go through years of misdiagnoses again.
