If you have a sharp pain in your belly, chances are the thought of appendicitis crosses your mind. It’s exactly what 32-year-old Danielle Kettlewell thought when she began experiencing extreme discomfort in her stomach during the winter of 2013.
Danielle rushed to the hospital, where the doctors would learn that she didn’t have appendicitis at all. Rather, they concluded that her excruciating stomach pain was caused by pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).
The CDC explains that PID is an infection of a woman’s reproductive organs often caused by some STDs. Danielle was treated accordingly and sent home.
It was a fairly easy diagnosis, and the symptoms matched, so it initially made sense — until the pain began getting even worse.
She returned to the hospital, where doctors continued to say that they couldn’t find a source for her pain. Danielle underwent a whopping eight surgeries between 2013 and 2016, none of which seemed to work.
Danielle was informed by the surgeon general gynecologist that a few adhesions were located, but that her symptoms were “in her head.”
As you can imagine, Danielle felt extremely defeated. She tells SWNS:
I couldn’t believe that they were telling me that after everything that had happened. It really made me doubt myself. I started to think that it might be in my head. But I knew that something was wrong and the pain just wasn’t going away, so I knew I had to see someone else.
It’s a good thing that Danielle got a second opinion, because it turned out that the first doctors were mistaken.
Something was seriously wrong inside her body.
Danielle went to a specialist and paid £5,000 ($6,740) to have a procedure done that would eventually diagnose her with endometriosis and adhesion related disorder (ARD).
The disorder causes the growth of scar tissue called "adhesions" inside the body, which can lead organs to become glued together. The results can be extremely painful.
Danielle may know what is causing her agonizing pain now, but the discomfort remains.
This is all despite having undergone a total of 15 surgeries since the pain began in 2013.
In fact, the pain is still so serious that she had to give up her job as a groom at a racing stable.
Danielle also says she can barely leave the house for more than half an hour.
Danielle is lucky to have the support of her husband, Tom, whom she describes as “brilliant.”
He works in IT and stays by Danielle’s side. Even going out to dinner is not an option for the couple.
Danielle has sadly lost most of her friends due to her immobility, but she does find some comfort from ARD support groups on Facebook.
"I've actually made some really good friends and the support and human contact with people who have the same condition means the world to me," she said.
Danielle’s case is extremely rare. One surgeon says that he’s never seen scars grow back so quickly.
“I will just have to live with the pain and wait until it gets so serious that I need open surgery to possibly remove organs. That's the stage we're at," she said.
Be sure to SHARE Danielle's story to raise awareness about ARD!
