I Was In So Much Pain I Couldn't Stand Upright. It Took 17 Years For A Doctor To Listen

The author just after laparoscopic surgery in 2022.

At 8pm, a sold-out crowd was waiting for me to walk onstage. 

At 8:05pm, I had to stab a needle into my stomach. 

I was backstage, doubled over in pain, a heating pad taped to my lower back, trying to steady my hand long enough to inject an IVF trigger shot into a stomach already bruised from weeks of hormones. 

The audience was laughing, sipping drinks and waiting for a comedy show to start. I was trying to jab a needle...