Why start another pain clinic when some already exist in the city?
I was diagnosed with endometriosis when I was 29, after 15 years of suffering with painful periods. The birth control pill kept the pain at bay for most of those years, but I keeled over in agony every 28 days with heavy bleeding, cramping and clotting. After my official diagnosis through a laparoscopic ablation, sheering the endometriosis off many organs, I was given three painless months until the disease would grow back. It did. And I suffered along the way using narcotics as pain medications. Yet as the disease continued to grow back, my cyclic pain turned into chronic pain, and nobody at any hospital I went to was able to see the disease or do anything to help me. Five agonizing years of this torment until I was able to have another laparoscopic surgery. This time, with a skilled endometriosis surgeon the procedure was an excision; cutting the disease right from its root. Endometriosis lesions were removed from my pelvic area, my bladder, colon, and my diaphragm.
Leading up to that surgery, in the mere months before, I was bedridden with what I thought was the flu. 2 weeks of dehydration and inability to keep anything inside my body, I went to the hospital to get some fluids. What I thought would be a quick process turned into a 10 day stay and a confirmation that I had severe Ulcerative Colitis - a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. This came out of nowhere. At the age of 34 I had assumed for 20 years that my diarrhea and digestive issues were caused by endometriosis. But this! This was a shock to say the least.
Following my surgery in March of 2018, my whole life changed. Adhesions started to form in my body, causing chronic pain once again. This, on top of the swelling, diarrhea, and very reduced diet due to the colitis, was no way to live. I struggled for a long time. I moved in that time, on top of it all, back to Ottawa to be with my partner. Moving also meant finding new doctors, and hoping that they would take a complicated case like mine. I was very fortunate to get into see a reputable endometriosis specialist within a few short months. He and I worked together to really address all of my symptoms, including central sensitization; the idea that the nervous system is in a heightened mode, protecting the body from pain long after the stimulus is gone. One treatment he provided was a nerve block which really helped the first time. But the second one…
I flared.
And, my specialist went on vacation (as he’s allowed to do). My whole body cramped. My muscles ached. I was exhausted. And I hit what I like to call the ‘tipping point’: the point at which the burden is finally too heavy and causes a change. That change was the instinctual need to source other types of treatment other than what my doctors could offer me. I went to a nearby wellness clinic to talk about my symptoms. The staff told me about osteopathic medicine which I was skeptical about but went ahead and booked an appointment. Carolyn Smith was my osteopathic therapist’s name. We sat there and I described to her the flare, but she asked me about every painful point in my body. This was the first time I was allowed to talk to a specialist about more than one ailment. This was the first time I was to think of my body as a whole body.
That day, Carolyn worked on opening up all five gastric sphincters that had rotated and closed on me. This was causing ‘blockages’ in my digestive system that was exacerbating the colitis symptoms. Next, she worked on the area that was tight due to the nerve block. She worked on the ribs that I described as being sticky from the endometriosis. And all the while, she barely pressed on me, barely touched me. That day, walking in as a skeptic, I walked out with a smile on my face because manual therapy encouraged my body to work as one again. That day, I found more reprieve than I had in months. This wasn’t to say I was about to throw out anything my doctors had prescribed, or change my course of medical treatment. But this process of seeking ‘alternative’ treatments in parallel to my allopathic treatment, and this idea of focusing on the root cause with a whole body approach just made perfect sense.
I stared hard at the blog I created when all of these diseases came colliding down at me. My logo for crampmystyleblog was the reuleaux triangle - the triangle that forms with three intersecting circles (see image below). I was chronically suffering from endometriosis, ulcerative colitis, and acute pancreatitis (another really painful disease). The more I studied about individuals who suffered from chronic pain - either from one disease or multiple - the more it glared at me that those with a female reproductive and endocrine system were often gaslighted or underserved due to the complexity of their bodies and the lack of understanding of the female made body. So, bringing all of this information together, I knew I was destined to open a pain clinic for those individuals with a female made body (anyone with female reproductive organs and/or endocrine system) suffering from chronic pain.
The Reuleaux Triangle
What do your diseases have in common?
Female made = Femade. It just made sense.
So why open another pain clinic when there are a few here in the city already? These pain clinics are serving patients who are referred to them by another doctor. The referral process by nature causes a backlog issue, and therefore patients are waiting years to be seen by a doctor who is educated in pain. Sadly though, many patients who finally see one of those doctors is ultimately sent home with no treatment options because their invisible illness or female-prevalent chronic pain is not within the specialization of these doctors. This system is broken!
Femade - as a concept - allows a client to walk through our doors and have an intake with a group of specialists. This client will be seen as a person; a whole body, with interconnecting systems and symptoms. Femade will be staffed with a variety of specialists who will build a personalized plan for a client with the goal to 1) work in conjunction with allopathic treatment 2) reduce pain in any way possible and 3) improve quality of life; even if just a little.
Femade is a work in progress. We will be opening our doors in early 2022 but political reform needs to happen to be able to bring our clients continued care. We also need to educate modern medicine doctors about the benefits of combined treatments so that these physicians can have that noteworthy conversation with their patients. Without that inclusion, these practices will remain siloed and confusing.
It is 2021 and it is time for change. Please keep following us as we go on this journey to provide a whole new level of care to those suffering in silence.
Anusha