My Sitzi's Eulogy

Oh my Sitzi. Here we are, together today, to celebrate your amazing life and the legacy of love you've left behind in each of the people in this room. To know you was to love you and to be so loved in return. It's hard to express the way your unending love has supported me in every new path my life has taken, and I know I am only one of many who can say the same thing. Your belief in me, and in my sisters, and in each of my cousins has never failed us. Through your actions, through your words, through your faith and through your encouragement we have all done things we thought were impossible. You have helped us see a side of ourselves that only you and our Giddoo could see. And with that gift of sight, through the eyes of complete and utter love- where there is no judgement, or comparison, or disappointment- pure unerring LOVE that you gave us always- we learned to love ourselves and those around us in ways most 30 somethings and 20 somethings will never know. THANK YOU!

Your belief in us also gave us a secret power that we now are blessed to pass on in each generation after us- whether it be to our own children, our nieces or nephews, or baby cousins- we will continue to love like our Sitzi taught us. Not blindly, but completely. Not fool hardy, but straight and sure. Not half heartedly, but with all of ourselves. 

We are so beyond thankful for that foundation of love as we make our way in the world, as we fall in love with our own soul mates. I know when I say you and Giddoo's love is the kind they write stories about, everyone in this room agrees. That's where OUR story, OUR history begins. With a "rug salesman"!! Your stories of love and struggle and grace, or maybe not always Grace, but definitely courage and always faith are our building blocks of what love means to each of us. We couldn't have asked for a better example, a better teacher, for that pure, overflowing, unending love. Thank you Sitzi, from all of your family, for leading by example, by faith, and by love. 

RIP Helen Haddad 3/25/2014
Written and Read by Alia Renee Capodici 

The Sins Doctors Make

As a woman with Endometriosis I have to say there are some seriously ridiculously low points in our lives as we deal with this disease. There’s the never ending surgeries, the constant opiate pain killers to fight the pain that the surgeries never seem to beat for long, the continuous birth controls or if you actually do successfully get pregnant the multiple miscarriages. There’s also the complete disregard for your suffering from the medical community with very few exceptions! I can’t tell you how many medical doctors tell us Endo Sisters our pain is all in our heads, that we’re making it up for attention, that there’s no way we’re back in pain after only a few weeks since they, such talented doctors, had performed surgery, that since you no longer have a uterus you shouldn’t have any pain left and here’s a prescription for Motrin! But I think the worst sin our doctors perpetrate on us is after one of these traumatic surgeries, either a D&C whichis a surgery to clean out your uterus of your lost baby, or the after losing an ovary and tube is to then let us be placed in rooms ON THE MATERNITY WARD to recover or to spend the night in recovery!!!! Let me tell you how horrible this is for us please! Many women with Endometriosis never have children because our doctors, whom we put our trust in being that they’re the professionals, convince many of us that a hysterectomy will end our suffering and the pain is so bad we are then faced with the choice of having children or a life without pain…but its a lie! The pain doesn’t end! And then for those who achieve the miracle of conception, many of those pregnancies end in loss…I myself have had 3, my third just on May 6 at 11 weeks along after my refusal to go through with it after my doctor told me our baby never formed after implanting. But when you’ve had these kind of loses that no words can adequetly describe, to then find yourself on the floor of the hospital where you can clearly hear birth struggles and a few baby’s first cries as they enter the world, it may be the worst kind of hell anyone can imagine! THIS MUST STOP!!!! I don’t care if every other bed in that hospital is full! We’d rather go home or sleep in the fucking hallway in the ER or the ICU than have our hearts ripped apart by an unwanted and cruel stay in the maternity ward! What kind of sick assholes are you people? Do no harm? Bullshit! It seems, at least once a day, I hear of the harm our doctors are doing to us sisters and it boils my blood! When does it stop? What must we do to stop it? We need, no we must stand up to these doctors! Demand what you want and don’t take any less from YOUR doctors! They work for YOU! You owe them NOTHING! Remember, you are your own doctor first and you need to follow your heart and instincts! When they tell you the “best treatment” for your incurable disease, take some time and investigate this treatment yourself! Why am I always asked for my opinion on things your doctors are telling you? Especially if you’ve no intention of listening to Me or the research I’ve done for you? I’ve literally gone out of my way to find great doctors for sisters and they go to someone else and get shit care and then have the nerve to bitch to me about it! Seriously? Did I do all that work for fun?! You have every right to ask questions, to demand answers and if they don’t have them, go somewhere else immediately! So what if you have to drive 2 hours to see an expert? Its worth it! There’s so much at stake ladies when you have Endometriosis so never settle for second or third best! And if you wake up in a maternity ward demand to be moved at once! In fact, inform your doctor BEFORE your surgery you will not set foot on it’s floor thank you very much! That’s all for now, but seriously girls, stop being doormats and start being your own advocates! Because no matter how much we love you, no one else can do it but you and you’ll only have yourself to blame when you don’t receive the care you deserve! Prove you deserve it! Stand up for yourselves! We need you to! End Rant! #EndEndo #EndoWarriors #EndoSisters