HELP ! How to get parents to understand symptoms are here to stay

[luthien]

Hey all,

For those of you following me you'll know my story, for those whom aren't here's a brief summary:

I've been diagnosed with endo, had two laps to excise it over a year ago since the last one. I had extensive endo all over my bladder and uterus, plus a bit on my bowel, with all stuck together. All fine now. My endo specialist expected symptoms to improve by 50%, we're at 90% improvement which I'm more than happy with. I don't want medication / hormones / painkillers. My most severe symptoms are now just the 2 days of my period with really heavy period, period pains, bloating, kidney pain, lower back and coccyx aches. My trigger is stress, I get stressed easily so we manage by having a work from home day and keeping the weekends social / public venture free. Basically relax at home with comfort / healthy food, tv, heat patches, peppermint teas and my hot water bottle.

I have regular monthy physio after my period, to help me cope the next few weeks, and aromatherapy massage just before my period to help relax me and my body. I'll be looking into accupunctre.

Basically my dilemma is my parents would like to visit / want me to visit them - it's about a 200 mile round trip - so 3 hours in the car there and 3 hours back. If they visit they'd only stay for a few hours - they say. We have tried on many occasions to tell them when it's my period we don't do anything social, as stress is my main trigger, but they seem to think because I've had my lap my symptoms should be better so they can't seem to understand how they can't just pop in.

How do I get them to understand it's up to us whether we see people? That it's down to how I'm feeling / how I know I'll feel? My hubby has explained it to them too from his view and they keep coming back to me saying it should be all better now. I hate feeling pressured to "just accept a visit". I gave them a book but I don't think they've read it. Is there any website that just says it explicitly or a information leaflet I can print out / point them to - something that says we have to manage our symptoms once specialist have done as much as they can.

HELP!