Patient Contributor
Melissa Merick, 23 from the Gold Coast, Australia started experiencing stomach pains in June 2023, which resulted in emergency surgery. After enduring rounds of tests and scans, it wasn’t until July 2024 that Melissa was finally diagnosed with endometriosis. Unfortunately, the exploratory surgery needed to diagnose her endometriosis also triggered a rare condition called Fowler’s Syndrome, in which the bladder goes into retention and you’re unable to pass urine.
Both of these conditions affect females only and are rarely talked about, so Melissa wanted to take the opportunity to tell Bladder and Bowel Community her story.
“In June 2023, I became unwell with stomach pains. I went and saw my doctor and he arranged for me to have some blood tests. Some of the tests came back abnormal, so I had to have them repeated. I was then sent to hospital and ended up having emergency surgery. A week later, I was back in hospital needing surgery again, followed by a barrage of scans and other tests that left doctors telling me that I have ‘regular stomach issues’.
This was the start of my health journey.
“It wasn’t until July 2024, that I first met a gynaecologist who suspected that I might have endometriosis. After having an initial meeting with the consultant, I was booked in for exploratory surgery in October 2024. After I came round from the surgery, I was told I had extensive endometriosis in my uterus and around my bowel.
It was such a relief to find out what was wrong
“I felt validated, after doctors had made me feel like I was making up all the pain I was experiencing. Unfortunately, the relief was short lived after I lost the ability to pass urine after the surgery. I was fitted with an indwelling catheter for a week, and that week was one of the hardest of my life. I struggled to get my head around living with a catheter. After the week, I had a TWOC (trial without a catheter), which I unfortunately failed.
“I was referred on to a urologist, who started mentioning Fowler’s Syndrome, but wasn’t keen to put a label on the condition so early. I was taught how to self catheterise and then around December time, both my consultants agreed that I might benefit from a round of botox to the bladder, which didn’t really help me at all.
I continued to experience bladder pain, spasms, and recurring UTIs, so I was sent to have a urodynamics test that measures your bladder capacity, bladder pressure, urine flow and electrical activity of the pelvic floor muscles, which revealed that I did in fact have Fowler’s Syndrome.
I’m lucky in that I have a lot of support
“I’ve undergone several treatments for Fowler’s Syndrome including botox, medications, physiotherapy and I’m now waiting to receive a trial SNS (sacral nerve stimulation) implant to see if this can alleviate the need for me to self catheterise. At the moment, I still experience pain from the catheters, bladder spasms, UTIs and kidney infections. This can make planning a social life or holidays difficult as one minute I can be fine and the next bedridden with bladder spasms.
“I’m lucky in that I have a lot of support with my conditions. I’m in regular contact with my urologist, and I have a very understanding family, as well as friends and partner. My team at work are also great, and very understanding about my health.
The ability to talk about it puts everything into perspective
“What helps me to cope with my illnesses is having the ability to talk about it as it helps me to put everything into perspective. I think having a positive outlook and maintaining a healthy diet and exercise is going to go a long way into helping me through my recovery,”
There is more information and other patient stories available on endometriosis and Fowler’s Syndrome on our website.
