Essure Procedure

Hi,

My name is Leigha Jenkins. I am a full time mother of three beautiful children. Two little girls who are 8 1/2 and 7 1/2, and one precious baby boy, (well I still call him my baby), but he actually just turned 3 on September 1st. My life went on a downward spiral about three months after having my son on September 1st, 2010. My OBGYN had told me about this new procedure called Essure, along with telling me how wonderful it was(little did I know…) .So I had done some research prior to deciding to have this surgical procedure done. From what I could tell everything at that time that I could find was very positive, but with it being such a new procedure, there really hadn’t been enough time for anything to go wrong. I went along with getting it done, my OB had told me that he would feel more comfortable doing the procedure at an outpatient, so I agreed. I remember immediatelywaking up from surgery with these electrical shocks going down my legs! I had notified the Dr. about it and he had told me that it was probably just the anesthesia wearing off. My problems went from bad to worse from that day on for almost a whole year!! My symptoms ranged from extreme leg pain to the point that I had to stay off of them, extreme spine and cervical pain along with the tingling sensations, I also had breathing problems among many other problems. I really thought I was dying. I am not one to take pain medication but the Dr. had me on muscle relaxers along with different kinds of pain medications (even the pain patches) and I still felt the pain! I went from specialists to nerve specialists, even having a nerve test on my legs and arms done, and for those of you who have had that done, you know how painful that can be! I had all kinds of x-rays, MRIs, you name it, and no one could figure out what was going on with me. When I first started having the symptoms I posted a blog of the symptoms that I was having since I had the Essure procedure, and little by little over time I began to get responses by other woman who were having some of the same symptoms. I went and told my OB about that ,and he assured me that he didn’t think that the Essure could be causing all of the symptoms that I was having. I tried getting other OB’s to take it out of me and none of them would because they weren’t the Dr. that done the procedure. After begging and pleading with my OB to remove it, he told me that he would have to do a partial hysterectomy and that I would never be able to have anymore children after that. I told him that I was slowly dying( I truly felt that) so I proceeded to tell him to take it out A.S.A.P. He then scheduled the surgery, and I remember waking up from having the Essure removed, and the extreme leg pain that I had been feeling prior was gone! I knew that my body was having an allergic reaction to that nickel inside the Essure, but no one would listen to me. The unfortunate part is, my body will never be the same after having this procedure, I still have leg pain, but it’s not constant like it was when the Essure was implanted, and my cervical and spine issues are permanent as well! The reason that I am writing this is to hopefully spread awareness to this issue! I don’t want any other woman to have to endure what I had to go through, and still have to struggle with at times  because of this horrible invention!