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Thursday, July 22, 2010

you need to know

i have avoided writing about this subject, seeing as it hits so very close to home for me, however i was prompted by some people's comments the other day to bite the bullet and put my beliefs and thoughts out there for all to read...

i pray your heart is open to the truth and you won't get mad, but regardless it doesn't make the facts any less real and true. it is important to have all the information when it comes to protecting life, especially the life of the those too little to speak out on their own behalf. so from a heart of love for those who read this, i want to tell you a bit more about why i have suffered with much sickness and pain for the last two years and how it could have been avoided, how innocent life should have been protected and why i feel it's my need to help protect other women & babes...

~~i finally stopped nursing 'K' when he was about 7 months old, my cycle finally started up again and so i began talking with my ob/gyn about birth control options. the pill or the shots aren't an option for me due to increased migraines & blood pressure, quite frankly it's not safe for me to take anything that contains artifical hormones or alters my hormones. so the only alternative my doctor said that i had other than condoms was the ParaGard IUD. he said it didn't contain hormones and worked for up to 10 years. my initial thought was great! my ob/gyn had always been very upfront, so caring, he delivered all three of my kiddos.... i trusted his judgement. i didn't research the IUD, infact when we had tried other birth control pills in the past i didn't ever spend time researching them either, that's what i had a good Christian ob/gyn for, right?
within a week of having the procedure to implant the IUD i was sick: severe abdominal pain, constant nausea, heartburn, diareaha, and within the next 7 weeks i would lose 35 pounds. i had gone back to my ob/gyn, to the ER, to my regular doctor and every single one of them said there was no way that the IUD could have made me that ill.~~
here's the safety information insert that patients should receive, but i got this from their website:
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID): Uncommonly, ParaGard and other IUDs are associated with PID. PID is an infection of the uterus, tubes, and nearby organs. PID is most likelly to occur in the first 20 days after placement..... (emphasis is mine)
when i read this info almost 13 months after all my sickness had begun(and still being very sick) i cried, long and hard... but i cried harder and with such grief when i read this in the same insert from ParaGard:
How does ParaGard work?
Ideas about how ParaGard works include preventing sperm from reaching the egg, preventing the sperm from fertilizing the egg, and preventing the egg from attaching (implanting) in the uterus. (emphasis all mine)
wah?! ideas? so we don't exactly know how it will work, it's just an idea?! it prevents the egg from attaching?! so each month i have the chance of getting pregnant but my "birth control" keeps that from happening by aborting my baby?! wah?! you have to be kidding me!! my ob/gyn didn't say that! he's a Christian, how could he offer this? why didn't i research this for myself?
so i did further research at contracpt.org and it spelled out the same horrific things associated with the IUDs: abdominal infections resulting in adhesions, severe pelvic pain, and the worst of all: aborting the baby.
~~my doctors 7 weeks into my sickness simply thought i had reflux, a possible hital hernia and irritable bowel. but i continued to get more & more ill, what my Man wouldn't tell me then but will say now "you looked like you were dying..." and yet we had no answers. so it was decided after a nuclear test to look at my insides (again) that my gall bladder had some flucuations so let's take that out, they said that would fix it.
gall bladder out.... 2 weeks later, sicker than before. you've read this before here and here so i won't repeat my woes, because God's grace is more than enough for me!! and while i have thought several times before i have received complete healing, that hasn't happened but it is NOT too hard or too big for my God, He sustains me each day and i know He never leaves me.
but i turned to natural medicine, organic eating and while that helped i was still suffering often. but it wasn't until i finally got in with a GI specialist to have a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy done to check for cancer that he followed up on our hunch that the IUD was the source of this sickness. and after he explained what an IUD does as far as making the uterus "inhospitable" for babies and the inflammation that it causes. six days later after the procedures (which were clear, PTL!) i had the IUD removed.... within 7 days the nausea and vomiting were gone.
and while i still have terrible pain and some additional complications due to the infection and it has resulted in severe endometriosis, another side effect that would have been nice to know, i wish i had known then what i know now~~
this whole recount of 2 1/2 years to say this: are we asking the right questions when we are at the doctor's office? or are we trusting that they are telling us all the fine print?! doctors are people, imperfect people, and we have to ask the questions and get the answers!
did you ever assume that a form of over-the-counter birth control makes it possible for an early abortion? i'm not talking about the morning after pill (which is just a high dose of regular birth control)... am i the only woman how didn't know that that's how an IUD works? why is this okay?!
yes, i am completely, 100%, from the moment of fertilization a believer it is a baby, no question! and i was heartbroken to know that i had that IUD and what if....
did you know that creating a "thinned and shriveled endometrial lining" or in layman's terms: a uterus that a fertilized egg couldn't implant into is also a function of the typical birth control pill?
well, i've done some research for you:
try any of these links and see for yourself. disagree if you want, it doesn't change the truth. now first and foremost i want to protect and cherish life, no matter 2 days since fertilized or 39 weeks into gestation, and oh my gracious i simply can't take a pill or insert a device that will abort that baby.
and the damage that i have physically sustained due to complications is obscene! the lack of answers, refusing to link it back to the IUD, well i just have an adversion to typically western medicine now; yes an antibiotic is definitely necessary from time to time, but taking a pill each day to alter my body's hormonal balance and how it was designed to function, nope!
for you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
i praise you because i am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, i know that full well. psalm 139.13-14
this is not to condemn or judge any woman who is currently on birth control, be it the pill or IUD or the shot. please hear my heart, please! i love ya! i have not been carried through this trial by the Lord to let it go to the wayside... i want you to have the true, real information to make a prayful decision for yourself.
you might look at the evidence and feel that the chances of an egg not implanting is so slight that you're comfortable with the pill or the shot or the nuva ring and such. and if after much prayer and discussion with your hubby and doctor, that's your choice then be blessed!! you might still think that an IUD sounds like a great option... i sure hope for your own physical well-being and possible baby's well-being that it's not the choice; not because i'm condemning you but rather i want wonderful blessing and favor for you!
so while we might use a more natural family planning approach and that's what works for us, it's not for everyone and it does require a little more forethought, but it's our plan for our family right now.
my prayer is you learned something you might not have known before, i hope that my struggles will touch your heart, by faith i believe your desire to protect life will be strengthened and unwaivering, that you will search for yourself and work it out with the Lord....
i'd love to hear your thoughts, good or bad
much love to you....

1 comment:

  1. Oh Heather, my heart breaks with yours. I am so glad you were able to find the truth (there is a lot of misinformation out there!), and thank you for being so brave to share it with us! Thank you for caring enough to show us where to find info to protect our own lives and the precious little lives we might not even know about yet.

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