Pelvic Pain | Vital Health Endometriosis Center

Miss USA contestant Joins the Fight for Endo Awareness

Vital Health Endometriosis Centers — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 19:51:06 +0000

Vital Health patient Justice Enlow, Miss Tennessee USA 2020 fights for endo awareness as she strives to empower other women with endometriosis to find life-changing treatment as she did at Vital Health Endometriosis Center.

“I believe that every woman deserves a life ruled by their passions, purpose, and dreams rather than by pain.” — Justice Enlow, Miss Tennessee USA 2020

Justice suffered for 10 years with symptoms of endometriosis, including painful periods, digestive issues, chronic abdominal and pelvic pain, and extreme fatigue. She says, “The pain got so bad that I ended up on prescription pain medication and missed a significant portion of my college classes.”

Misdiagnoses are too common, but you can get your life back

In those painful 10 years, Justice sought treatment from her doctors and was misdiagnosed several times. Her life changed when she found Vital Health Endometriosis Center and internationally renowned endometriosis specialist Dr. Andrew S. Cook, M.D.

“Dr. Cook and the entire staff at Vital Health Institute were an answer to my prayers,” she says. “They were the first medical professionals that I spoke with who validated my pain but also gave me hope for my future. I am now almost 3 years post-op and can honestly say that Dr. Cook gave me back my life.”

Living her dream and using her platform to empower women with endo

Today, Justice is spreading awareness and fighting for other women with endometriosis in her role as Miss Tennessee USA 2020. And now, by competing in Miss USA 2020 pageant, she feels she has an even greater opportunity to raise awareness. Her platform is empowering women with endometriosis to be their own health advocates in finding treatment.

“I am living out my dream of competing for Miss USA because of the amazing care that I received at Vital Health Institute,” she says. Justice is also the founder of Justice For Women, a non-profit that believes “no person, prejudice, or health concern should stand between a woman and her purpose.”

Understanding the difference an Endometriosis Specialist makes

Endometriosis is a leading cause of chronic pelvic pain in women, and it can have a dramatic effect on all aspects of a woman’s quality of life. In addition to being misdiagnosed, many women, before being treated by Dr. Cook, have undergone one, and sometimes multiple, failed surgeries that use outdated techniques such as ablation. Dr. Cook has created a hashtag on Instagram called #BanTheBurn in an effort to bring awareness to and save women from the pain and trauma they are experiencing in these failed surgeries. Justice remarked “I will forever be grateful that Dr. Cook was the one and only surgeon that I saw.” Her fight to raise awareness will help combat the many myths that exist regarding endometriosis. On her website, she talks about her treatment journey in more detail, here.

Next Steps

Read more about “What it Really Means to have Endometriosis” and download the full PDF guide to share with friends and family here.
You may also request a screen-share virtual consult to discuss your specific case with Dr. Cook.
The Vital Health team wants to help you get your life back, just as we were able to help Justice and many other women like her. Use this form to request a complimentary record review.

Help Justice raise awareness by spreading the word.

The post Miss USA contestant Joins the Fight for Endo Awareness appeared first on Vital Health Endometriosis Center.

Surgical Video: Adhesiolysis – Removal of Adhesions/Scar Tissue

Vital Health Endometriosis Centers — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 19:19:40 +0000

Surgical Video: Adhesiolysis - Removal of Adhesions/Scar Tissue

https://www.vitalhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/endosurgeryvideo.mp4

SOUND On!! Adhesions are scars that form within the body. They usually form in the abdomen or pelvis. Adhesions can develop after surgery as part of the healing process. If surgery is rough the chance is much higher than if good gentle techniques are used. They can also develop after infection or any other inflammatory process, such as Endometriosis. Lysis of adhesions is the process of cutting scar tissue within the body. This is done to restore normal function and reduce pain.

This clip shows how to remove scar tissue with minimal amount of trauma to the tissue. This patient developed adhesions (scar tissue) between the abdominal wall and the omentum, following a previous surgery. The abdominal wall or “tummy wall” appears at the top of the video (the ceiling if you will) since we are looking through the belly button inside of the abdomen. The omentum is a curtain of fat which is attached to the bottom part of the stomach near the level of our ribs. In this case the omentum became scarred to the abdominal wall following a general surgical procedure resulting in pain and discomfort.

Dr. Cook shows how to separate the adhesions using the Carbon 13 CO2 laser, which is one of the most precise and gentle surgical instruments available. He describes the procedure in detail and demonstrates important aspects of good surgical technique.
Did you develop adhesions from surgery?

From our Instagram

View this post on Instagram

SOUND On!! Adhesions are scars that form within the body. They usually form in the abdomen or pelvis. Adhesions can develop after surgery as part of the healing process. If surgery is rough the chance is much higher than if good gentle techniques are used. They can also develop after infection or any other inflammatory process, such as Endometriosis. Lysis of adhesions is the process of cutting scar tissue within the body. This is done to restore normal function and reduce pain. This clip shows how to remove scar tissue with minimal amount of trauma to the tissue. This patient developed adhesions (scar tissue) between the abdominal wall and the omentum, following a previous surgery. The abdominal wall or “tummy wall” appears at the top of the video (the ceiling if you will) since we are looking through the belly button inside of the abdomen. The omentum is a curtain of fat which is attached to the bottom part of the stomach near the level of our ribs. In this case the omentum became scarred to the abdominal wall following a general surgical procedure resulting in pain and discomfort. Dr. Cook shows how to separate the adhesions using the Carbon 13 CO2 laser, which is one of the most precise and gentle surgical instruments available. He describes the procedure in detail and demonstrates important aspects of good surgical technique. Did you develop adhesions from surgery?

A post shared by Dr. Andrew Cook | Vital Health (@vitalhealthendometriosis) on Aug 19, 2020 at 10:57am PDT

The post Surgical Video: Adhesiolysis – Removal of Adhesions/Scar Tissue appeared first on Vital Health Endometriosis Center.

Video: Key cause of pelvic pain for women with endometriosis discovered

Vital Health Endometriosis Centers — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 02:42:31 +0000

TRANSCRIPT: Key cause of pelvic pain for women with endometriosis discovered

Hi, I’m here with some exciting news. There was actually a study published earlier this month, that is showing one of the key causes of the reason for pelvic pain in women with endometriosis.

This team focused on the type of immune cell; a white blood cell called the macrophage. And macrophage comes from Greek term, big eater, “macro,” big “phage” eater. And really, they’re kind of the garbage collectors, or they eat up different things, actually I have a picture here of one eating some bacteria.

And so, they’ll eat bacteria cells as they’re dying off, and a variety of other things, they kind of clean up the place. And then, depending on where in the body and what the role is, they’ll actually release different substances that help, so in the case if there’s not enough oxygen and a tissue is trying to heal it will stimulate new blood vessel growth. So, they can really be good and helpful in the body. But it turns out that the local environment, the signals can change the behavior of these macrophages. And it turns out that they’re actually drawn into the endometriosis lesions, so if you look in the endometriosis lesions themselves they are packed full of these macrophages.

And It turns out, they’re kind of macrophages gone bad. Because it turns out that what they’ve discovered is that under the influence of endometriosis the macrophages are then producing what’s called insulin like growth factor 1 or IGF-1. And what that does is stimulate the nerve cells to grow and culture and actually become more sensitive. So it’s a way of creating oversensitivity, kind of like a sunburn inside. And so, this is a great understanding and again, macrophages, if you don’t remember the word, you’ve got “MGB” macrophages gone bad. So, you know, they can be good, but these are kind of turned into juvenile delinquents, and they’re raising havoc in the pelvis.

But part of the good news is that this information allows us a new venue of study, to better understand and hopefully provide better treatment. So, both pain relief and maybe even as a way to tag the endo so we can find it and get rid of it one way or another.

So for you, geekoids out there, the title of the article:

Macrophage-derived insulin-like growth factor-1 is a key neurotrophic and nerve-sensitizing factor in pain associated with endometriosis.

So, let me know what you think. I know this is getting a little bit more technical, but I’ve always been of the belief that women with endo are very educated, very smart, and very capable. So just trying to pass this information on to you and I think it’s a great study. All right. Take care.

Click here to read the study

The post Video: Key cause of pelvic pain for women with endometriosis discovered appeared first on Vital Health Endometriosis Center.

Pelvic Pain Solutions ~ Products

Margaret Sterner — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 22:58:02 +0000

" class="vc_single_image-img attachment-full ld-lazyload" alt="" srcset="" sizes="(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" data-src="https://www.vitalhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Pelvic-Therapy-HotCold.jpg" data-srcset="https://www.vitalhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Pelvic-Therapy-HotCold.jpg 680w, https://www.vitalhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Pelvic-Therapy-HotCold-768x555.png 768w, https://www.vitalhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Pelvic-Therapy-HotCold-600x434.png 600w" data-aspect="1.38211382114" />

Announcing ~If you are in need of convenient travel aids or just looking for general comfort with some of your pelvic pain, please check out the great products at Pelvic Pain Solutions … they were a well-received co-sponsor for the Endo What? film in SF recently. So happy to share these great products with you …. Visit Pelvic Pain Solutions

The post Pelvic Pain Solutions ~ Products appeared first on Vital Health Endometriosis Center.