It was the best of times…it was the worst of times- or would that be too cliche?
In February 2008 I delivered my youngest child, a preemie, after an induction due to preeclampsia. He was enroute to the NICU and I was following behind in a wheelchair. I recall telling the nurse pushing me that I was gushing blood. She said, “Of course dear, you just had a child.”
I knew it was abnormal, I had delivered three children at this point. Others tell me my eyes rolled back into my head. I was unconscious for some time. I recall at one point the ceiling tiles flying by as the rushed me on a gurney to the OR to find a way to stop the hemorrhaging. At one point, I had to be resuscitated.
All of these events made the tubal ligation I was to undergo the next morning, an option of the past. Instead, we were doing the Essure implant. Permanent sterilization but without the risk of such blood loss. Easier recovery. Less to worry about for a new NICU mom. No one told me it would control my life, and be the very thing that sometimes stole the mother my kids needed.
Fast forward a few years and we have testing begin for Lupus, MS, numerous MRI’s and scans. Numbness and tingling in all extremities, repeated cases of Shingles, migraines that left me in bed for days, and hip pain that was so severe my insurance ordered me a motorized chair to be able to stay working. I have a foggy memory, numerous pains in which I have to take tramadol daily, hardly any appetite and about 50lbs of weight gain.
At one point I had to take 12 pills of gabapentin a day, on top of treximet daily for migraines, Vitamin D for the deficiency it caused. On top of several others.
I have been through lumbar punctures (sometimes the after effect is worse than the pain of the initial spinal tap) and Solumedrol IV drips to control the inflammation. I was a non-cancer patient getting a medicine that is part of a Chemo cocktail to try to help give me some relief because the doctors were stumped. I spent the better part of my sons toddler time with an IV hanging out of my arm.
I suffer from constant hot and cold flashes, and my irritability and mood swings is beyond insane.
At two points, I bled so profusely, I went to the hospital for heavy periods only to find out I had miscarried once large clots of tissue expelled from my body.
No one could tell me what was wrong with me, and no one would listen when I told them in my heart of hearts I knew it was the coils.
To this day my pain is intense- stabbing when I sit up, drive, etc and the only relief is to lay down but even then it feels like contractions from this darn thing. I am already allergic to Nickel so finding out the device has nickel in it after the fact scares the heck out of me. I want them out, however with insurance gone, it’s a waiting game.
I am 31. I am begging for a hysterectomy.
If you are considering getting an Essure, I invite you to spend a day with me. I won’t talk to you about the side effects, or complain about ‘what they have done to me’. But once you live a day in my shoes and see the complexity of life with Essure, and the severity of the sickness, I am pretty sure you will make the choice to forgo the procedure without me trying to get a word in edgewise.