Woman with ‘Stabbing’ Pelvic Pain Scheduled a Hysterectomy. A Chance Encounter at Her Waitressing Job Changed Everything

Dawn Jemison, 43, said she began experiencing symptoms when she was 11 years old

NEED TO KNOW

• Dawn Jemison, 43, lived with severe pelvic pain for decades and was preparing to undergo a hysterectomy after years without answers
• While working as a restaurant server, she overheard a medical presentation describing a patient with symptoms that sounded exactly like hers
• She approached the presenters after lunch, which ultimately led to a life-changing diagnosis

A restaurant server in Indiana said a chance encounter at work led to the diagnosis that finally explained years of debilitating pelvic pain — and helped her avoid a hysterectomy.

Dawn Jemison of Fort Wayne had been living with chronic pelvic pain since she was 11 years old, according to CBS News. Jemison, 43, said doctors had initially attributed the pain to puberty and later to things like anemia, lupus and potential endometritis. 

No treatments or medications ever seemed to help, and Jemison said she had simply come to expect “terrible, twisting, stabbing pains” that extended from her ribcage to pelvis and often affected her ability to perform basic daily tasks.

She went on to say that after years of struggling to find an explanation or lasting relief, she had reached the point where she had decided to undergo a hysterectomy.

“I’m like, ‘I’m done, I’m done with it all, let’s get rid of the organ that I thought was causing me the most problems,’ ” Jemison recalled while speaking to CBS News. “I was over it at this point.”  

However, just before she was scheduled to have the procedure, an unlikely encounter during a shift at her job changed the course of her life.

Jemison was serving a group of healthcare sales representatives and doctors who were holding a presentation in a private room at the restaurant where she worked.

As she listened, she said a representative discussed the case of a patient whose symptoms sounded remarkably similar to her own. That patient had experienced relief after a stent was placed in a pelvic vein.

“It was completely by chance that I was the server on this room, that I was actually paying attention to what they were discussing, and noticing that the person on screen was [like] me,” Jemison said. “I’m really happy I was there.”

After the meal, Jemison approached the group to ask about what she had heard, and she said interventional cardiologist Dr. Abigail Qin-Nelson offered to meet with her the following week. 

Jemison then called her other doctor and postponed the hysterectomy.

Qin-Nelson began evaluating Jemison for something called pelvic congestion syndrome, a chronic condition involving problems with blood flow through veins in the pelvis. 

Diagnosing pelvic congestion syndrome can be difficult because its symptoms can resemble those of other medical conditions, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Qin-Nelson performed a venogram, an imaging procedure that allowed her to examine Jemison’s veins.

The test revealed multiple areas of significant narrowing in Jemison’s iliac vein, which helps carry blood from the legs and pelvic organs toward the heart. One area was 76% compressed, while another had a 52% blockage, according to CBS News.

For Jemison, the findings finally provided an explanation for what she had been experiencing for years.

“It was like a breath you can finally take,” she said. “It was just validation, like, okay, I wasn’t lying, I wasn’t making this up, I wasn’t looking for attention. There really was a problem, and I just had to find the right doctor to fix it.”

After making the diagnosis, Qin-Nelson treated the narrowed veins by placing two stents using a catheter — one near Jemison’s kidney and another along the left side of her groin.

The stents opened the affected veins and allowed blood to flow more freely.

She described the treatment as a “game changer” and said the discomfort associated with the stents lasted only a few days.

A year after the procedures, Jemison said the difference has been dramatic, describing the outcome as a “complete 180 on [her] life.”

Her daily pain level is now “at a zero.”

Jemison said she is grateful she happened to overhear that presentation before undergoing a hysterectomy — which she added might not have addressed the actual cause of her pain.

“I would still probably be laying in my bed right now asking, ‘What did I do, what did I do wrong, how do I fix this, who do I talk to next?’ ” she said.

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Now, she said, she can enjoy everyday activities that her pain had previously often made feel impossible.

“It’s now like, ‘Oh, I want to go walk. I want to go to the park. I want to be in the garden. I want to do different things,” Jemison said. “I can do that without having to work around my pain.”

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