The Young and the Restless actress Lexie Stevenson (Mattie Ashby) has had a tough couple of weeks. The relatively new daytime performer took to her official website to explain that she has been admitted to the emergency room several times this year due to intense pain associated with endometriosis, a disease characterized by inflammation and abnormal growth of the lining of the uterus.
As Stevenson explains, "Endometriosis is when endometrial tissue grows outside of the uterus. The endometrial tissue attaches to organs and creates a blister type of effect. This causes an immense amount of pain that has landed me and many other women in emergency rooms around the world. Imagine having hundreds of blisters on your organs and there is nothing you can do to get rid of them or ease the pain. Bottom line is it sucks....a lot. For women reading this, the pain is relatable to having period cramps....but multiply that by 100. For men I'm assuming the pain is relatable to being kicked where it hurts...but multiply that by 100."
The actress shares that she was in so much "screaming pain" last week that she had to have morphine through an I.V. And the worst part? It's a situation that will likely continue to happen over the course of her life, and it also impacts the lives of women all over the world.
With March being Endometriosis Awareness month, Stevenson decided to share her story as well as the details of the difficult diagnosis process she experienced.
"I was in excruciating pain for four years before I was diagnosed," she writes. "The number of times I would have an ‘attack' in a month kept increasing with each year. Every time I went to the ER they told me it was stress and one time they even asked my parents if I was getting enough attention at home. About a year and a half ago I was with my boyfriend and all of a sudden I was on the floor in unbelievable pain. I was rushed to the emergency room where I had an internal ultra sound. They found that two ovarian cysts had ruptured and also found a growth on one of my ovaries. They wanted to make sure the growth wasn't/didn't become cancerous, so they told me I should see a specialist. When I went to the specialist in Boston [Massachusetts], he recommended surgery to have the growth removed. During the surgery my doctor found more than just the growth. He found a golf ball size of intestine that had been pinched off by endometrial tissue. He said it looked like it had been there for about three years. He also said I should have been in pain 24/7 because had my body not healed itself I would have likely died. This was scary to hear but I was also pretty proud of myself and my body."
She continues: "I am grateful for my doctor and continue to see him to this day as the same thing could happen again. I have also been referred to a new specialist in Los Angeles, so I'll keep you all updated on that. I have also found that cutting gluten out of my diet has helped immensely as far as making the pain easier to handle. That's as far as my story goes for now. Thanks for reading!"
Stevenson joined Y&R as Cane and Lily's SORAS'd daughter in the spring of 2017. She is not the first soap star to open up about having endometriosis. General Hospital's Kirsten Storms (Maxie Jones) was temporarily recast back in 2011 as she worked to recover from the painful disease.
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