So why have I been so sick pretty much half of the year? I can say thank you to
ESSURE.
If you click on essure in the last sentence it will take you to the actual essure site.
Essure is the only non-surgical permanent birth control available
Essure is a permanent birth control option that can help you live without the worry of an unplanned pregnancy.
- Non-surgical—Essure is a short 10-minute procedure that can be performed right in your doctor’s office.
- There's no downtime to recover—most women go home within 45 minutes and resume normal activities within 1-2 days
- Non-hormonal -Essure inserts do not contain or release hormones
- Proven—Essure is over 99% effective*
- May be available at no cost—Essure may be covered by your health insurance plan at no cost†
- FDA-approved and has been available for over 10 years
So when I read the brochure at my doctors office I thought, "wow, I have four kids and this would be great. No down time and I wouldn't get pregnant again and hey the FDA has approved it and it's been available for over 10 years! And it's an in office procedure!"
So I talked with my OBGYN and we set the date! August 9, 2013! I was excited. I suffer from depression and after each child my postpartum depression got worse and worse. So this would help put my mind at ease. No more kids and such an easy procedure!
So August 9th came and I took the medication they told me to take before my appointment. I got there and they gave me some more medication and then it was time to go and get the Essure put in! My initial visit I had no pain. The right side went in smoothly. The left side was a little more trouble and my doctor wasn't sure if it was in all the way.
First let me say, the procedure did not take a mere 10 minutes. I was in there for 30 minutes.
Second there was no waiting time to go home, the procedure was done and I was sent on my way. No watching for any kind of a reaction or anything.
Afterwards I went home and I was able to go right back to what my normal routine was that night. No issues! At least, not at first.
In September, that following month (2013) I started noticing my depression was getting worse, my anxiety attacks started to come more easily. And as the months went on I had other symptoms. Painful periods, heavier periods, night sweats, my blood sugars were off (low), I had spotting and bleeding in between periods, I got dizzy more often, my chronic lower back pain got very worse, I bloated easier, I had GI issues, painful intercourse ect. I didn't put the two and two together for the longest time.
On 11/13/2013 I went in to get my
HSG confirmation test done. Right side was blocked, left was not and the coil was no where to be found. The test was very painful and caused very bad cramping.
After discussing with my OBGYN about how difficult it was to place the left side, she recommended I go back to Dr. Thurmond and have my left side redone with an x-ray technique.
In January of I noticed I was getting sharp sudden pains in my right side of my pelvic. It was random and didn't happen that often so I ignored it. How ever it started slowly getting worse. April it started becoming worrisome.
On 5/2/2014 I went back to Dr. Thurmonds office to make a second attempt to put in a coil in my left side. This experience was the exact opposite of my first.
I was give nothing for pain or to calm me. Essure reps were there to watch the procedure. I was in there for over 45 minutes. The pain was worse than labor pains. I was in tears and even though it hurt so bad, no attempt was made to stop. Finally she said she couldn't do it because my tube was bent over itself. That I should come back and do it under local anesthesia. I was baffled at why I never got anything before hand for pain management. In the middle of it all, they did give me 800mg of ibuprofen. But that was it. I was in so much pain that it took me over 10 minutes to get up after the procedure to get dressed and I almost wasn't able to walk out of the clinic. The pain was so immense I cried until sometime that evening when finally I passed out in bed. And that attempt, unsuccessful.
The pain didn't let up all weekend and I found myself back at my OBGYN's office. There she did an exam and diagnosed me with
PID and sent me home with two antibiotics. After a few days I started to feel better, but the pain only went away a little bit. Again the pain returned. It got to the point where I couldn't do anything. No house work, I couldn't even take care of my children. This resulted in my husband not being able to go to work with out pay. Again I saw my OBGYN who referred me to a GI specialist and gave me more pain pills.
I saw the GI specialist and as I was explaining everything to him, he honestly told me he didn't know why I was there, but still wanted a stool sample and sent me back to my OBGYN. In between I had two visits to the ER. One ER visit they did a cat scan that showed nothing, but some constipation. Little did I know later, that they DID in fact find something. One of the coils lodged in my uterus.
Stool sample came back normal and my OBGYN was calling me her mystery patient. So at my appointment surgery came up. I could do an exploratory surgery to see if it was my
endometriosis and go from there. Or since I had four kids and my postpartum depression was worse with each one, we could do a
hysterectomy . After much discussion and with the fact that I could not afford mentally to have anymore children and we couldn't afford my husband really to take off time for an exploratory surgery to only have to go back for another surgery, we made the final decision of a hysterectomy.
It was an easy, but hard decision. At the age of 32 I never thought I'd have to have a hysterectomy. I mean when I was diagnosed with endometriosis back in 2005, I knew having a hysterectomy might be a possibility if the pain from it got worse. But never did I think I would ever have to go through one. Luckily she had an appointment open the next week for a robotic assisted surgery, also known as
a da vinci surgery. An in patient surgery, will minimal surgical openings and the recovery time is much shorter than a normal abdominal hysterectomy.
So that week with the help of pain pills, I hurried to prep my house and my family for my surgery. I was scared and nervous, but I was hopeful that the pain would finally go away. And hey, no more periods with out pregnancy? That was a plus I have to say! Surgery was May 30, 2014!
I am thankful for my family. My mom and dad came down the day before my surgery to stay with the children so my husband could stay with me. I only slept maybe 45 minutes that night. We arrived, I checked in and slowly they prepared me for surgery. I had some wonderful people that as I sat in the operating room crying waiting for the anesthesia to kick in, they held my hands and talked nothing but positive words to me.
Before I knew it I was in the recovery room. I do remember that they had to watch me extra closely because I would stop breathing in my sleep. I remember alarms going off and nurses coming over and telling me to breathe. Eventually I went to the recovery floor and they called my husband in. I was feeling pretty good and was so happy to see my husband. (The poor thing worked the night before and slept while waiting for me to come out of surgery). Surgery only took about two hours. The recovery nurses (everyone there at the hospital) were great. I had to be able to drink, eat and pee before going home. So after proving I could do all of those, I was released to go home.
I got home to my kids and parents waiting for me. Husband helped me up the stairs and into bed. I slept most of the rest of the day. My parents surprised me and took the kids that weekend (surgery was a Friday) so that Matt and I could rest. And my mom, bless her heart, took a week of vacation for the next week to be able to come down with my grandma so that Matt could work that week and I had someone taking care of me and the household. (Because of all the previous time missed, he could barely afford a week off.) I slept most of the weekend off. It was nice to be able to spend some one on one time with my mom and grandma. I am so blessed for them. My mom and dad spent their anniversary away from each other to help me out. Blessed I am I tell you!
At my two week check up, things looked great and I was told I could SLOWLY get back into my routine. I went for my six week check up, but had to postpone it for another week since a birth came up for my OBGYN. So that following Monday I saw my doctor. She checked and said still nothing vaginally (may be TMI but so what) for another two weeks. But other than that things were looking fine. She did say they found the first coil, from my left side embedded in my uterus. She sent my uterus out for testing and even though NO endometriosis was found and all tests came back fine, she couldn't confirm that is what was causing my pain.
So I was happy to be feeling good, in recovery and getting my life back. The vaginal exam was painful and I had cramping afterwards that continued into the night. Tuesday morning, I started not feeling well and had pain still. But I chalked it up to just being sore from being examined. By that evening my fever had spiked to 104. Even when my fever started at 99, I was having the shivers and sweats. So Tylenol was every 4-6 hours along with ibuprofen and some pain pills for the cramping.
Wednesday morning I was feeling worse. I was dizzy and even with Tylenol and ibuprofen in me, my temperature was staying at a 104 even. I was dizzy, nauseated, sleepy, in pain and have the shivers and sweats. So I called my OB's office. I can't say I was very pleased with my OB's assistant. When I told her how high my fever was she questioned that my thermometer was broken. Saying I'd feel like death if my fever was in fact that high. I (not in a very nice way) told her that I did feel like death (I actually said shit) and that I took my children's temperatures and there's were normal and taking mine again it was back at 104. By this time I had woken up my husband who was suppose to work that night. After waiting for my OB to call back, my husband was worried. They called me back saying they'd called in pain pills, and that I needed to rest more and that more than likely my thermometer was broken. At this point, I didn't have the energy to fight. I was exhausted. When my husband heard this news, he was not happy and decided to stay home to keep an eye on me.
Thursday morning he went to bed just in case he could go to work that night. I however was feeling much worse than the day before. I remember my feet, hands, arms and legs feeling tingling and thinking I was cutting off circulation due to laying on the couch so much. I sat up and just started bawling. But kept thinking to myself "knock it off, you have some sort of cold, get over it." I remember my dog Boo, nudging my hands and feet. After awhile of sitting up, the tingling in my hands, feet arms and legs was not going away. So I pulled the blankets off of myself and saw that they were purple and blue. That's when I knew something was very wrong.
I had my daughter Lilly wake up my husband who said we were going to the ER. So off to the ER we went. I will say this is the first time ever, that after taking my vitals, they didn't even tell me what they were. The nurse took my vitals, got me a wheel chair and with in two minutes I was back in a room in the ER. (Later I found out my blood pressure was 74/53 and my temp was 106, so maybe my thermometer was in fact broken...) I had a nurse on each side putting and IV in each arm. They informed me they were giving me fluids and antibiotics. With in five minutes of being in that room a doctor came back and told me they suspected
sepsis and that they needed to find where the infection was. At this time, I had no clue how serious sepsis was. I figured they'd find the infection, finish the fluids and antibiotics and send me home with more antibiotics. How wrong I was. This was just the beginning of it.
I had a vaginal exam and the infection was found in my vaginal cuff area. A CT scan luckily showed not abscess, but still where some of the infection was. At this point it was when the nurse informed me I'd be admitted. So my husband and children were called back so I could tell them. My husband, was freaking out at this point. He tried hiding it, but being with him for 10 years, I knew he was frantic. And after asking more questions, is when I realized that they were admitting me into the ICU. Even at this point, I didn't grasp how bad this really was. So husband left with the kids to figure out what to do with them (who they could stay with) so he could get back to me. They admitted me into the ICU. And then I got to have IV in my neck. (That was not fun, but necessary.) When my husband finally returned, in walked him and behind him my dad. When Matt sent my sister a text, she told my parents and they immediately came down. I had went into
septic shock!
They stayed with the kids while Matt stayed with me. I stayed in ICU for two days before I was able to go into a regular hospital room. Saturday, the children came to see me along with my parents. That is when the doctors came in to tell me I had gotten a strep A infection and that I'd probably be in the hospital for another 3-4 days. So after hearing that, my mom and dad took the girl back home with them and Matt drove the boys up to his parents.
I was feeling better, but I was still exhausted. Some how I was able to go home that Sunday. My in laws and parents kept the kids the rest of the week so I could rest, relax and regain my strength. I was given a antibiotic for ten days.
During my hospital stay I found out that a friend from high school was also in the hospital for the same thing. We chatted back and forth on face book. And since I pulled through, she would pull through just fine, or so I thought. We picked up the kids the following Sunday and when we arrived home, I found out that my friend Catie had passed away from complications of surgery and sepsis. That is when it hit me just how serious it was.
After those antibiotics I still wasn't feeling 100%, and had diarrhea. So I went back to my OB and was diagnosed with
c diff. And so I was put on yet another antibiotic. And medicine for a yeast infection. This is beginning of August now.
I just now finished that antibiotic. I'm still pretty weak and dizzy. My immune system is weak and I am weak from not being able to really do much anymore. And to think, this all started with Essure.
I can only hope, I am finally on the road to recovering my health.
When I got Essure the
warning labels did not have nearly as much as they have on them now. After my hysterectomy I decided I needed to find other women who may have had the same issues as I did. So I looked it up. I found the page
Essure Problems. I read and I was in shock. I wasn't alone and there were so many that were still suffering and had way worse reactions to Essure. I found their face book group and joined and read the posts. The list of what people had from Essure was shocking and scary. I got off easy compared to the other women.
The list of
side effects is a list that is long and keeps having things added to it. And what is even more scary, women are getting pregnant a lot even after this procedure has been done and confirmed to "have worked." That is putting their unborn babies lives at danger but their lives as well.
Here's a news article on the Essure lawsuit that was recently done.
Erin Brochovich has started an essure website and has a petition started to get Essure taken off of the market. I believe it needs to be done. Too many women are suffering from this terrible device. I get that any medical item will have side effects, but this is far worse than some simple side effects.
Please sign the petition and visit Erin Brochovich's page
HERE.
The word needs to get out about Essure and the issues it is causing and how the FDA is ignoring the thousands of women who are now having issues due to this device.
To learn more, or to talk to women about what has happened to them since having the Essure device put in, please visit
the Essure Problems face book group and ask to join. At least this way you can see it, ask questions for us that have been there and make an informed decision.
Not only I, but the thousands of women who are in pain ect from Essure want to get the word out and to educate women of this awful device.
If you have any questions or anything, please join the face book group above or I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have also.
-The Gaffney Family
