“It’s textbook,” Dr. Ionescu murmured, almost with wonder. “See these micro-hemorrhages? That’s the bleeding. And here, the cyclical thickening of the stroma.”
The treatment was a surgery called an umbilical excision. Dr. Ionescu explained it simply: “We cut out the bad tissue, down to the fascia of the abdominal wall, and sew the healthy skin back together. You’ll lose the deep shape of your navel, but you’ll gain your life back.” navel endometriosis
She left with a prescription for antibiotic cream and a feeling of profound loneliness. “It’s textbook,” Dr
The image on the screen was tiny, but unmistakable. A small, irregular pocket of tissue, distinct from the abdominal wall, sitting just beneath Clara’s navel like a buried seed. It was surrounded by a haze of inflammation. That’s the bleeding
The second doctor, a dermatologist with impeccable eyebrows, diagnosed a “recalcitrant umbilical granuloma” and froze it with liquid nitrogen. The bruise turned black and scabbed over, and Clara wept with relief. For two months, her navel was just a navel.
The first time Clara saw the tiny bruise just below her navel, she barely registered it. She was twenty-three, a graduate student in marine biology, and her body was a map of small, inexplicable marks—scrapes from coral samples, the faint grid of a yoga mat pressed into her back, the occasional pimple.