Advocacy for PBC - Autoimmune Liver Disease

About 30 years ago, I was diagnosed with endometriosis.

I was in my early 20s, newly out of college, trying to begin life as a real adult.

Within one year, I had several surgeries, including an emergency appendectomy.

It was so scary.

I also had a full hysterectomy at the end of that year.

I felt so very alone and I had no idea what my future would look like.

Questions swirled in my mind.

Would I create a loving family with someone that somehow included children? So many questions that I decided to give myself some grace and do the only thing that I could, dust myself off, pick myself up, and keep going, keep my life going.

I did something big.

I moved to the West Coast, found a new job and started discovering a new version of myself.

I worked very hard, met all sorts of people and explored a new city that I fell madly in love with.

And I built a life that still felt full.

In the fall of 1999, I ended up in the ER.

with a horrific abdominal pain that reminded me of the appendicitis episode.

I later learned that my gallbladder had stopped working and I needed surgery to remove it.

But the surgery was delayed because I had mono.

I had severe fatigue and I was in bed for months before they could remove it.

I healed and I returned back to work, working long hours and overtime to catch up, just as I had done before.