Tyla

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Not now
OK
Advert
Advert
Advert

Mum’s Endometriosis Was So Severe She Would Burn Herself With Hot Water Bottle

Lucy Devine

Published 
| Last updated 

Mum’s Endometriosis Was So Severe She Would Burn Herself With Hot Water Bottle

Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media

A mum has recalled how her endometriosis was so severe that she felt she was constantly in labour.

Michaela Abenson, 28, from Manchester, says the only relief from the pain would come from clutching a burning hot water bottle that she says left her with a 'cooked stomach'.

Michaela says the pain is like being constantly in labour (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)
Michaela says the pain is like being constantly in labour (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)

Michaela first started suffering at the age of 12 when she would experience 'very heavy and painful' periods which left her bedridden, passing out, and forced her to leave school at the age of 15, achieving four GCSEs from hospital.

Advert

The mum claims her symptoms were dismissed as 'just what women go through' but was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis at the age of 18 - an illness which has 'taken over' her life.

After 11 surgeries - including a £25,000 private hysterectomy - the condition has even spread to other organs including her bowel, bladder and appendix.

Struggling to cope with the excruciating pain, Michaela explained the only thing that helps distract her is a burning hot water bottle on her stomach.

However the water bottle is so hot that it's slowly burned the skin over time and left her stomach badly marked - something Michaela says is 'easier' to bear than the pain of the endometriosis.

Advert
Michaela says the only relief is a burning hot water bottle on her stomach (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)
Michaela says the only relief is a burning hot water bottle on her stomach (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)

"I've read stories from women about doctors telling them it's a 'form of self-harm' and that's not fair because we're not self-harming," said Michaela.

"It's helping us with our other pain, and yes burns really hurt but shouldn't that show how much pain we're in that we're burning ourselves to get rid of that other pain?

"I get aches and pains in my stomach, all my muscles and joints and the heat helps with that. I think the best way of explaining it is that it gives comfort through the pain.

Advert

"I started using it from my first period when I was 12 and have pretty much been using it every day since. It's like the only thing that helps but it's burnt my stomach and sides.

Michaela is mum to Dalia and Saul (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)
Michaela is mum to Dalia and Saul (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)

"A doctor took it off me and told my husband 'she can't use it for the next two weeks' [before Michaela's hysterectomy]. It was really, really hard. I struggled sleeping a lot at night. I can't sleep without it.

"Doctors tell me 'don't use it' and then I say 'you do something that helps the pain' and then they understand that I've had chronic pelvic pain since the age of 12, and it's not that easy to get rid of.

Advert

"When doctors say 'don't use it' it makes me quite angry. I feel that a lot of the things they advise is very easy for them to say, but what would they do in our situation?

"They're happy to prescribe us morphine, oxycodone and all of this stuff, then it comes to a hot water bottle. If we found something that helps, I think they need to understand that.

"My husband spends his day filling up a hot water bottle - he could do it blindfolded and in his sleep sometimes.

"I'll wake up crying at night, poke him and he'll go downstairs half asleep to make me one because I can't actually do it on my own, the pain is so bad."

Advert
Michaela has had 11 surgeries (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)
Michaela has had 11 surgeries (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)

Michaela explains how, after suffering with the pain for years, she was told she may never have children.

"I had very heavy painful periods to the point where I was passing out," she recalls.

"They were heavy to the point where if I stood up I would just pour with blood. They started when I was in school and I was sent home and I just had to spend a week in bed with a hot water bottle.

"The pain is very much like labour-type pains which I didn't realise until I later had a baby. When I went into labour I was like 'this is the pain I've been going through since I was 12'. The contractions, that's really the only way I can explain it to people.

"I was kind of just told that it was normal and 'that's what women go through'.

"It was bittersweet because you finally have the diagnosis and there's a reason for all these symptoms that you feel like you're going crazy about.

Michaela explains how, after suffering with the pain for years, she was told she may never have children (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)
Michaela explains how, after suffering with the pain for years, she was told she may never have children (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)

"But then the more you look into it, the more you realise that it's a complicated illness with no cure, the treatments are very difficult to live with and there's no research or awareness about it.

"The more I realised what endometriosis was, the more I felt less relieved by that diagnosis. For the past 10 years it's kind of taken over our lives.

"It causes me a lot of pain. I'm under pain clinics and have been under all different pain management from medical cannabis, medical ketamine to morphine, and then those also make you tired."

After getting married, a scan revealed Michaela's endometriosis had grown back and four months after tying the knot, Michaela had another operation to remove it from her ovaries and fallopian tube.

The pair discovered they were expecting their first child, seven-year-old Dalia Abenson, near their first wedding anniversary.

Knowing she would eventually have to have a hysterectomy the couple tried for another with the help of fertility treatment, and it took five and a half years for Michaela to fall pregnant with Saul, now 22 months.

Michaela struggles without the hot water bottle (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)
Michaela struggles without the hot water bottle (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)

Michaela said: "From a young age I had dreams of not a big family, but I always knew I wanted my daughters to have sisters and my sons to have brothers.

"People say 'you have the perfect family' but everyone has different dreams and mine was to have a bigger family, and I had to let go of that dream - I'm only 28 and that's really difficult.

"I went through so many surgeries and infertility treatments and I have two children, and I'm so lucky and grateful."

Michaela had her hysterectomy this January and said that although her 'constant labour-type' pain has now gone, she now suffers with other issues.

She says during the surgery, it was discovered that deep infiltrating endometriosis had been left, which has 'taken over' her bowel and bladder.

Michaela said: "It's like learning to be human again and learning to get dressed every day because I just had no quality of life for so long.

"There's a lot of scars on my stomach and it's hard to look at so I don't want to scare them [children]. They feel it and my daughter's like 'is it getting better mummy?' but it's not a normal stomach to look at. When I do I'm reminded of everything that I've gone through.

Michaela wants to help others who are struggling (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)
Michaela wants to help others who are struggling (Credit: Kennedy News and Media)

"Twice a day when I'm changing I glance at it and I get this lump in my throat because it's a constant reminder, but now I try to look at it as 'let's try and make me stronger, let's try and not break me'."

Michaela has set up a blog called Pretty in Pain to reveal 'the truth' about endometriosis and tackle its misconceptions, which has amassed more than 7,500 likes and followers.

"My life passion and mission is now to help other women go through the diagnosis, treatment and surgeries, giving all the information they deserve to know like I wasn't," she said.

"And just help them know that they're not alone.

"For the first time in my life I said to my husband that I can see a future. It sounds a bit silly, but it's kind of given my pain some purpose.

"If my pain and suffering helps just one other person, then I guess it wasn't a complete waste."

Topics: Health

Lucy Devine
More like this
Advert
Advert
Advert

Chosen for YouChosen for You

Entertainment

Rihanna shares plans for baby number three with A$AP Rocky

13 hours ago

Most Read StoriesMost Read

Rebel Wilson opens up on losing her virginity at age 35 as she says others 'shouldn’t feel pressured'

20 hours ago