Saturday, August 21, 2010

Slumber Party

Kaitlyn had her first Slumber Party. Her friends Mom and I are good friends so we all spent the night together. We did pedicures, manicures, facials, made neclaces, watched a princess movie and went on a firefly hunt. Unfortunately our AC decided to die that night so our house was super hot and humid but we still had fun. And of course no slumber party is complete without a pillow fight! The girls had fun, they slept well and we look forward to more slumber parties.






This is the popular play time activity lately at our house. Make a train out of whatever they can find.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Who would of thought..



..that this little thing could have changed my life. Let me preface this post by saying that I usually would not write for everyone to see things that might be considered too "personal". My intent is to provide information for other woman who may suffer the same way from having the Mirena IUD placed. I know for many woman the Mirena IUD works great. To you I say, AWESOME! I although had a different experience. 4 weeks ago I went in to have the IUD placed. The midwife who placed it said she wanted me to be on my period when they put the IUD in so to be sure I was not pregnant. After placement I had severe cramping and bleeding. I went home and took some pain medication and went to bed. The next day at noon I was hit by some intense nausea with NO stomach cramping and shortly after started throwing up constantly. Despite throwing up the nausea would not subside, it was constant and felt like morning sickness times 10. I started to get severely light headed and at this point very scared. Nothing made sense. If I was sick or eat something weird, my stomach should have hurt at least a little. But my stomach was fine this seemed to all be up in my chest and head. We called the nurses line, they were unsure of the cause and had never heard of the IUD causing these symptoms. I was instructed to stay hydrated. I suffered through the night and woke up the next morning with the same thing only the lightheadedness turned into episodes of tingling running up through my chest and into my head and than feeling like I was going to pass out. It was very scary. Fortunately I had an amazing neighbor who helped me throughout this process and came to my rescue that morning until Joseph could get home from school. He took me into the doctor where I was prescribed Phenergen for the nausea and was told to take an easy. My doctors office was a OBGYN. The midwife I was seeing had a hard time believing this was due to the IUD. She had never heard of it before and apparently did not want to look more into it. She did get out the brochure and read the fine print which did say a side effect of the Mirena was nausea. The whole week with the Mirena in was THE WORST WEEK OF MY LIFE! by the weekend I was losing my mind. I was hormonal like nothing I have ever felt before and trust me..I have PMS so I know what hormonal feels like. I was pacing the room ready to admit myself. Monday exactly one week later, I still had the nausea (despite being on the phenergen) and the lightheadedness. I asked to have it removed. My midwife walked in the room abruptly, said.."so we're taking it out now?"..and than without waiting for a response said.."this was quite the expensive experiment!" I replied taken back by her sassiness.."this was not an experiment." She removed the IUD very easily, signed her paper, and walked out of the room. I felt totally violated. She did not ask me how my symptoms were, she had no concern for my well being. I left the clinic and hoped I would start to feel better now the IUD was out. One week later with the same symptoms, woke up to a bad episode of lightheadedness and tingling in my chest and face. It was so scary I went to the Urgent Care Clinic, where was than sent on to the ER as they needed to do tests they could not do at the clinic. They wanted me to go by ambulance but I declined, I've only been dealing with this for two weeks I was pretty sure I could handle a car ride to the ER. They did a whole slew of tests..EKG, blood, urine etc. My heart rate was perfect, no heavy breathing no NOTHING! Just the nausea and lightheadedness. No one had an explanation. None of the doctors would even come close to relating it to the IUD. I was told to see my Regular Doctor within 2 days to follow up and to get my thyroid tests back. At this point I was so discouraged. The only thing that gave me hope was the testimonies of woman online that I found when I googled.."mirena nausea and lightheadedness"..there are hundreds of woman who have gone through exactly what I have gone through. I decided it was time to humble myself and go see my Chiropractor who had told me several times how awful the IUD was and how the hormones mess with woman's bodies. I was trying to avoid confessing I had tried it but knew he would be able to help me recover. Of course he was totally understanding and knew exactly what was going on with my body. Because he understood the body and how it works he knew how the hormone in the Mirena was causing me the symptoms I was feeling and knew how to help me get better. He adjusted me and got my nervous system reset and gave me some supplements to help de-tox my body and get my hormones back where they should be. Within two day of seeing him I was 80% better. Now two weeks later I am a changed woman. Not only because I'm not nauseous or dizzy all the time anymore but because this whole experience changed me in so many different aspects of my life. I love and appreciate my children so much more. They were the only thing that kept me going and they were so comforting when I felt literally like I was dying. I have a new found LOVE for service. So many people offered help to our family. There is nothing like accepting help and humbling yourself enough to ask for it that helps you see how amazing service is and how much I want to be the type of person who freely gives it. My husband and I bonded so much, he was there when I needed him and I learned to appreciate him so much more. I was humbled to my knees before the Lord. I had become so distant from Him and had not even realized how horrible my life had become because of it. I reflected a lot on my life while I was sick and chose to make some changes. I am determined now to turn to my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ FIRST when I am faced with a challenge instead of the world. I have been praying a lot lately and have been finding that The Lord is ALWAYS there when I need him. He can comfort me in the darkest moments and help the bright moments seem brighter. I am so excited to have Him back in my life and am grateful for this experience if only to say that it saved me from being spiritually numb! So for those of you out there who feel like crap it just might be your IUD. I am still getting my body back to health, I am determined to treat my body better. I got to THINK better...EAT better and MOVE better. I am a NEW woman determined to make my 30's Healthy so my 40's and 50's are wonderful. On to the next challenge. Moving Home! Yay....

Growing Up

Growing Up