After spending some time researching different links, I am happy to say that I finally found that there is an actual Endometriosis Research Center. Its headquarters are located in Florida. I changed my Amazon Smile account to donate to them because they are more in line with what I care about. They have a website: http://www.endocenter.org/ that you can look at if you are interested. I looked around a fair amount but I plan on continuing to see what things are available through their site. For now, I am just glad to see this exists! I have looked for a lot of information on the internet but somehow I missed this site or didn't enter the correct search combination, so I was excited to find it.
There is a lot of information to be found there, but I found this page: http://www.endocenter.org/killercramps.htm contains a LOT of information from basic information to treatment options to even a quiz to help women who suspect they may have endometriosis. So for my post today, I would like you to take a moment and either look at that page since it probably contains one fact you do not know or just peruse the site in general. I did that myself and I think they have one of the better websites. (I will say I went looking to change my Amazon Smile donation site after I looked more into the foundation I had picked and found their website to be severely lacking, and the information outdated. I hope it's just the website, but wow. Not a good sign for people searching for information about endometriosis).
EDIT: There seems to be a formatting problem with this article when I publish it. I don't know why and I can't fix it because it only appears when published. Sorry for the weird look.
I didn't really know what to title this post. It feels intensely personal. It's just some thoughts and observations I've been having as I deal with endometriosis and as I also watch my mother deal (bravely) with breast cancer. It is wonderful how much support and how much of a sense of community they try to give to these women when they are newly diagnosed, as well as throughout the process. I've been impressed and surprised along the way with how much generosity there is for women with breast cancer. She has access to a nutritionist, to breast cancer gatherings, even to a garden, I believe. My mom received a hand-made blanket to have for her chemo treatment. These blankets are made by hand and donated to the hospitals for chemo patients. She received a free wig, which I have seen online at a cost of hundreds of dollars. Since losing your hair is one of the biggest fears for someone going through chemotherapy, I know a wig doesn't alleviate that fear but having someone available and not having to worry about cost are two less things to worry about and that's huge. There are even small handmade items throughout the process. Knitted caps, handmade bookmarks and bracelets.
I don't know if many of you are aware of Amazon Smile. I know I was not until I got a birthday gift from Amazon from my sister which included a card that said "A gift has been made in your name to the endometriosis society." That was just as good as a gift and very cool!! When I asked about it, she told me about Amazon Smile. If you have an account with Amazon.com, you find a cause you care about, pick one of the societies or foundations associated with that cause, and when you purchase anything from Smile.Amazon.Com, a donation will be made to the charity or cause you have chosen.
