More on me and Essure good news bad news

As I was getting up and grabbing my morning coffee, I was getting ready to post a sad and "poor me" kind of post.  But then I saw something in my news feed on Facebook that made me happy . . . well, a little happier . . .

FDA will consider banning dangerous Esssure device

Click on the text above to read the full story, but in summary it sounds like the FDA is really listening to the voices of the women who have been suffering due to this device.

Okay . . . now about me personally . . .

This week I started going back into the office full time.  I worked a little bit last Sunday in case there was a day that I was too tired or sore to do a full day, then I had a few hours "banked".  I think that Monday or Tuesday I left around an hour early, so it was good that I did this.  I was listening to my body and when it hurt, I said "I am done".

As the week went on, I was noticing that I was doing better every day.  YEAH!!!!!  There was one day that a co-worker even mentioned that I was not moving as slow as a turtle any more.  Not back up to my old "Shawn speed" but at least snails, turtles and old ladies in walkers were not passing me up any more.  Thursday we had a training meeting that required us to walk around to look at how some things are built . . . lots of walking and standing . . . and I noticed by half way through that I was leaning on things or needed to sit down every once in a while.  Then the really dumb thing came . . . I was talking with people and was not taking my time going up the steps like I should have . . . went a little too fast I think and I was just out of breath.  Even MORE stupid, since I was talking with people I just kept talking and moving with them, when I really should have said "I cannot do the stairs.  I am taking the elevator and we can talk when we get back up to our desks." I was not sore, just feeling out of breath, so I figured no harm no foul.

Friday . . . I was tired, but I figured that was due to doing a little too much the day before.  No big deal.  I left work around 2:30pm because Beth had a lacrosse game and a hockey game that night.  While at the lacrosse game I noticed I just could not get comfortable.  I would switch between sitting and standing.  Once we got to the ice rink . . . yes, we went STRAIGHT from the lacrosse game to the hockey game . . . yes, we are nuts . . . the game was at the Blaine Super Rink . . . 8 rinks in one building.  Drop Beths stuff off at the rink she is playing at, then she needed a Gatorade so we go up the stairs (no elevator at the end we were at) to the skyway/walkway and over 4 rinks to a Concession Stand . . . back DOWN the stairs to the stand.  Now she has to go back to the rink where her game is and a parent needs to fill out paperwork.  Well, Jeff and I still needed to eat something also so we wanted to hit the main concession stand that has a full dinner menu.  So Jeff goes back to rink 7 with Beth to do paperwork while I slowly make my way from rink 5 to rink 1 where the main concession stand is so I could sit and just wait for Jeff.

I am tired, but not in pain . . . still doing okay.

After we had dinner it was time to walk BACK to rink 7, back down the stairs and find a place to sit.  I had a hoodie on the entire time, but I did not have it zipped up.  Once we are in the rink for the game, I zip up and put on my winter coat and zip that up too.  It was around the end of the first period that I started to feel "weird".  Light headed, dizzy and like I wanted to throw up.  Between the 2nd and 3rd period when they were cleaning the ice Jeff (who had been standing behind me during the game) sat down and that is when he noticed something was wrong . . . he could just see it in my eyes.  When I leaned back against him in more of a reclined position things got a little better.  I ended up watching the 3rd period reclined back against the side of the bleachers.

Once we got back to the car I THINK I figured out what the problem was!  I was taking off my winter coat and unzipping my hoodie, and that is when I noticed that the bottom of the zippers hit me right at the spot of the lowest incision!  I had 2 layers of stiff metal zippers right at that incision!  Once I unzipped I noticed the dizzy and nauseous feels went away pretty quick .  Jeff said "that is why reclining helped . . . took the pressure off".  But things still felt sore.

By the time we got home, I was in a lot of pain.  I ended up taking a pain pill.  This is the first time in over a WEEK that I have taken pain meds in the EVENING.  That kind of made me sad.  Felt like a set back.

So here is the part of all of this that makes me REALLY SAD . . . .

Beth has lacrosse and hockey games again today.  First game should be starting any minute.  Jeff knew I needed my rest and that if I was awake I would have pushed myself to get ready in time to go to the games, so he let me sleep.  I did not realize this until I heard Beth said "Time to go!" as she always does when she is ready but one of us are not downstairs at the door.  So now I am home, resting, and missing seeing her play.  Watching her play sports is something that brings great joy to both Jeff and myself, but due to the pain I have to miss it today.  That makes me said.

Also, I was planning on trying to start to wear "real clothes" to work next week, instead of the yoga pants.  Well, if the zipper from the hoodie and the jacket put me in that much pain there is NO WAY I am wearing pants with a zipper any time soon.  Looks like it is yoga pants for another week for me.

#Essure #EssureProblems

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5th Birthday

The rhinestone sticker sheets are perfect to use for ANY of your crafting projects.  I love to use them to add some glamour and sparkle to my cards and scrapbook layouts.  I made this card for my nephews 5th birthday.  His mother has a pair of pants with some rhinestones on them, and she told me he always comments on how they sparkle . . . so I decided he needed a sparkly card for his birthday!  Since he was turning 5 years old, I decided to make a number shaped card.

I used the number 5 from the Animal Antics Cricut cartridge.  I liked how large and bold the number was, and that there were several different layers so that I could create the base of the shaped card with a shadow of the number font.

I cut the 5 from the paint splatter pattern from the Tween Quad rhinestone sticker sheet from Marisa Pawelkos line with The Buckle Boutique.  This product cuts the best if you cut through the backing side, with the rhinestones face down on your cutting mat.  There are more detailed cutting directions HERE.

After I had the card base and the rhinestone 5 cut, all I had to do is peel off the backing from the 5 to expose the adhesive . . . yes, these rhinestone sticker sheets already have adhesive on the back!

I love how the rhinestones sparkle on these sheets!

For a finishing touch, I added some dots with Viva Decor around the outside edge of the 5.

If you would like to add these rhinestone sticker sheets to your crafting supplies then hurry over to The Buckle Boutique!  They just lowered their prices on these sheets, so it is a great time to stock up!

The Buckle Boutiques Website // Blog // Facebook Page // Twitter // Pinterest

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Cricut Explore One

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking through my links.

If youre new to the wonderful world of crafting -- or even if you consider yourself to be more of a "basic" crafter -- then Cricuts brand new machine is just for you! This nifty new machine is called the Cricut Explore One™ and its perfect for crafing beginners and basic crafters because it offers a simplified design-and-cut system that is incredibly user-friendly. The Explore One™ actually offers most of the same features as Cricuts other Explore machines, its just priced lower!



In addition to its affordable price, here are a few other things about the Cricut Explore One™ that youre sure to love:

• It can cut over 60 different materials, from the most delicate materials like vellum to thicker things like leather. It can also cut cardstock, vinyl, fabric, balsa wood, leather, and more…without complicated settings.
• Youll have free access to Cricuts Design Space™ online software and iPad® app so youll able to design on your computer or your Pad®. Youll also be able to use a Bluetooth® adapter for wireless cutting.
• The Explore One allows you to cut a wide range of shapes and sizes with exceptional precision, from ¼" tall up to 11½" wide x 23½" tall. You just select the material that youre using on the Smart Set® dial. From there, the machines Cut Smart® technology will deliver a clean, professional cut.
• You can upload your own images and use your own fonts -- for free!
• Each machine comes with over 25 free 1-click projects and 50+ free images to get them started right away.
• If you want to use the machine to write or score, you can easily swap out the cutting cartridge with the Cricut Explore One™ Accessory Adapter and Pen.

The Cricut Explore One™ makes it easy, fast, and affordable for you to explore your creativity and delight your loved ones with personal handmade projects and gifts! And if you purchase your very own Cricut Explore One™ before the end of May - youll get free shipping when you use code MAYSHIP!

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Mothers warning others about Essure

I was honored to be a part of a new story recently about Minnesota Mothers warning others about the side effects of Essure.  Here is a link to the story.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/07/15/minnesota-mothers-warn-of-permanent-birth-control-product/

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The FDA responds

For those of you following my Essure story, I wanted to let you know that I just found out that the petition that I asked all of you to sign has gotten the attention of the FDA!

Here is a link to an article all about it.

http://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/fda-responds-to-petition-to-recall-essure-permanent-birth-control-agency-will-investigate

I hope that this means that the FDA will do something about this dangerous product!

Also, I found this information from a member of the Essure Problems Facebook group I am a part of

Although ESSURE has preemption status which prohibits you from suing Bayer or Conceptus, if your doctor does not follow the standards of care of medicine, they can be liable.

1. Failure to Diagnosis: the most common reason to sue a doctor is for failure to diagnosis a problem.If a doctor continues to insist that the ESSURE is not responsible for your medical condition and you have surgery to remove the ESSURE with another doctor and your symptoms disappear, this may be grounds for failure to diagnosis.http://www.livescience.com/38289-malpractice-claims-missed-diagnoses.html

2. Failure to Treat: If a doctor refuses or delays in treating a patient for problems, these is considered below the standard of care and grounds for a malpractice lawsuit. Again, if there is a delay in treatment or a total failure to treat and the ESSURE is removed and you have improvement, your previous doctor may have acted below the standard of care.

3. Failure to Obtain Informed Consent: If a doctor fails to obtain a patient’s valid consent before performing an invasive procedure, this will subject the doctor to liability for battery. • Valid consent by a patient to medical treatment may be either express or implied. • Express consent may be either oral or in writing. • Consent may not be valid if the patient is mistaken as to the essential character of the treatment due to a misrepresentation by the doctor.

• In other words, if the doctor states something that is not true, an exaggeration of the truth, or left out information that fundamentally would have changed your mind about doing the procedure, they could be liable regarding obtaining Informed Consent.

In the case of the ESSURE, there are a number of possibilities regarding this complaint.

Here is an example of a legal appeal regarding Informed Consent following the death of a patient who had a pulmonary embolus following a surgery (NOT ESSURE).

http://www.outpatientsurgery.net/outpatient-surgery-news-and-trends/surgical-malpractice/pulmonary-embolism-after-acl-surgery-results-in-patient-death-lawsuit--02-28-14

4. Pain and Suffering: this is a legal term for physical and emotional effects caused from an injury. In the case of ESSURE, it could include aches, temporary and permanent limitations on activities, depressing, scarring, etc…

5. Loss of consortium: this is a legal term in tort law that refers to the deprivation of the benefits of family life and relationships due to injuries. In the case of ESSURE, this is associated with the inability to function at the level prior to the insertion of the ESSURE. This also applies to the ability to have sex and often includes a suit filed on behalf of husbands when the couple is unable to have intercourse due to pain associated with the ESSURE.

Sincerely,

Dr. Julio Novoa

#EssureProblems

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Monochromatic Scrapbook Layout

I always feel like I need a theme, color, color combination or some sort of item to be my inspiration to make a scrapbook layout come together.  It helps me to find pieces and elements that work together.  For this layout, I decided to go with a monochromatic look . . . cream colored background and shades of blue.

Now, I knew that I had enough pictures that this would have to be a two page layout, but I only had one sheet of this paper.  So I decided to split it and use only a portion on each page.  I made the split slightly off center, so then it would not look like I was trying to do a perfect center cut and just missed.  :)

For the next part, the nice thing was that I was able to go to my scraps piles and use up some of those papers.  I cut strips of paper in various shades of blue.  I also cut several butterfly shapes out of the same blue papers.

As I built my layout, I was able to use these strips of paper and butterflies as accents to tie things together.

I also cut the word laugh out of the same blue paper.

See how running the strips of paper from one side of the layout to the other helps to tie both pages together.  The flowers from the main background piece of paper are in the corners of the overall two page layout, and the butterflies are just scattered around.

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FDA review of Essure

Earlier this year I spoke here about my struggle with Essure and how many of the physical and emotional problems I have been seeing since 2008 could be attributed to the device.  Today I saw an update on the news about the FDA review of this product.  I truely hope that the FDA can do something about this issue.

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FDA to investigate Essure!

If you have been following my struggles with pain due to Essure you will be happy to hear that as of today the FDA announced they are launching an official investigation into Essure!  Here is a video on the news




Please share this post, and the post I did about my Essure struggles in order to help raise awareness about this dangerous product!

#EssureProblems

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My Essure Story

Yesterday I posted about my recent discovery that the back pain issues I am having are related to the Essure procedure that I had done back in 2009.  I now want to journal my entire journey.  Looking back, I see that some of the issues I was having a YEAR ago are related to Essure . . . I just had not connected the dots yet.

Here is my new Facebook header, telling others that I have seen the evils of Essure.

In 2009 my husband and I decided that we wanted to take measures to ensure that we never became pregnant again.  Early that year I missed my period and we thought I might be pregnant for the 3rd time, but testing proved that to not be the case.  But it was the wake up call to the fact that we knew we were done having children.  I wanted my husband to go in and get that taken care of, since I knew that having my tubes tied was major surgery.  He heard about a procedure called Essure, which is permanent birth control for women.  At the time, it was described as an simple in office procedure with very little down time.  10 minutes to do the procedure, heading home in less than an hour, with the biggest mentioned issue being that you need someone to drive you home since they do give you some drugs to relax you, and you cannot drive on those.

How does it work?  Go to the OB/GYN, get into the typical "check up" position, and they go in and insert a coil into your tubes.  The coils then cause the tubes to scar up and close off.  A few months later you go in for a test to make sure that things closed off like they were supposed to.

I still did not really want to do it, but since it was a non-surgery option I finally decided that we would go that way.  It was the Spring of 2009.

{Since the time of the original posting, I have obtained my medical records.  There were things in there that I had forgotten about over the years.  Now that I have that information, I am adding it to this record}

The day of Essure insertion
April 24th, 2009
I had been given some pain meds to take before I got to the doctors office to relax me.  I honestly do not remember what medication it was.  I do remember that the directions said to take 1 - 2 pills an hour before the procedure, so that the medication had time to kick in before the procedure.  Now, I am a small woman . . . under 5-0" tall and at that time I was probably around 110 pounds.  I took 2 pills.  I did not want to feel ANYTHING and I knew my husband would be with me so I did not have to worry about driving.  Heck, if I was too dopey from the drugs, he could carry me back to the car if needed.

Inserting the left coil went relatively smooth.  It hurt/was uncomfortable, but I was able to tolerate it.  The the right one was inserted . . . OMG!  I wanted to die!  I guess my right tube started to spasm while the doctor was trying to insert the coil, so it made it harder to get in.  She had to try a few times.  The pain got so bad I almost told her to stop.  I was in tears.  The pain was worse than childbirth.  Once it was all over, I told her it was a good thing she did not do right side first since I would have told her to stop.  The only reason I did not was because the left one was already in, and I did not want to go through that pain for only half of the procedure.

She gave me so medication to take home and also gave me a prescription saying "No cooking, cleaning, housework of any kind for one week."  So my husband was in charge of all of that.  I spent the rest of the weekend in bed or on the couch and medicated.  When I went back to my doctor for my follow up she said she has never seen an Essure procedure go like that.  We joked that I was now her example when she talked to other people and said she would say "I did have one patient who had trouble with one of the coils going in".  I think there was a "I was your first bad one and you always remember your first" kind of joke in there too.

April 29th, 2009
I went in to my OB/GYN complaining of back pain and I was running a temperature of 100.1 and my doctor said that is was probably from the "trauma" of the experience of from the way things went with the right tube.

I went back for my check up to see that the coils were in place and had done their job of blocking things off.  Those all came back fine . . . in place, even the right side which was hard to get in, and everything blocked.  So I thought the "nightmare" of Essure was over.

WRONG!!!!!

2010 
As I mentioned in the above information, at the time of having this done I was around 110 pounds.  By the spring of 2010 I was up to 122 pounds.  I know for most people 122 pounds is not  a log, but on a woman who is under 5 feet tall, it is not a good weight to be at.  That is a 12 pound weight gain in a year.  The strange thing was I had not changed my eating habits at all.

I blew this off to getting older and my metabolism is not what it used to be.  I started to exercise, which I have NEVER done in my adult life, and in 9 months I was able to get back down to around 112 pounds.  At the time I did not see this as a side effect of Essure, but now that I am reading the stories of other women I see that weight gain is one of the symptoms. Hindsight is 20/20

June 2010
At my annual check up I reported to my OB/GYN that I was having my periods 2 times every month, and I had a very low libido.

2011 - 2014
I started to notice I was a LOT more gassy . . . ask my family . . . it was not fun to use the bathroom after me.  Sometimes it would get to the point that I just could not hold it in and I would be farting all the time.  I also began to notice I had less energy and my sex drive was totally gone.

I also noticed that occasionally just before I was going to get my period my lower back would get sore.  It was not "OMG . . . I cannot think" kind of pain but more of a "I feel like I have a bruise there" kind of sore.  This would come on before my period, and then start to go away when my period started.  It was almost like I was getting low back pain INSTEAD of cramps with my period.  My periods were short, only about 3 days, so all of this was not "life altering" so I again just blew it off.

I also had been noticing that sometimes, before I would have my period I would get flu like symptoms.  I would wake up at night in a feverish sweat.  I would get that weird foggy head feeling that you get just a few days before you end up getting a full blown cold/flu.

All of my life, my periods had been anywhere from 3 - 5 days in length.  (I know . . . all of my friends HATED that I was so lucky to have such SHORT periods) Now I had noticed they had started to get longer.  At first it was just that they were about 5 - 7 days . . . that is still "normal" so I did not think anything of it.  But when I had one that lasted almost 2 weeks I thought this was a problem.

January 2014
At one of my annual OB/GYN appointments I mentioned some of these issues and it was determined that I was probably in the early stages of menopause.  Yes, I know that early 40s sounds young to be going through menopause, but from what I have been told early menopause kind of runs in my family.

 At the time I did not see this as a side effect of Essure, but now that I am reading the stories of other women I see that weight gain is one of the symptoms. I figured my body was going through "the change".  Hindsight is 20/20.  

May 2014
Spring of 2014 we decided we were going to move.  We were packing up boxes and moving furniture around to make the house ready to go on the market.  When the back pain got worse, I blew it off to the fact that I was lifting/packing/moving stuff around.  I probably just strained something, right?

(anyone see a pattern starting to form here)

This continued all through the summer and info the fall of 2014, but again each time I would say "we are moving/packing/lifting . . . of course I am sore".  Summer of 2014 the basement of the house we were selling flooded and we had to have that repaired before we could sell it.  So of course my back hurts, and I have headaches . . . I am stressed.

September 2014
We finally moved.  By now the back pain was REALLY BAD!  But, say it with me everyone, I blew it off to stress and moving.

November 2014
Back into the doctor . . . now I am skipping periods.  Probably stress related with all that happened with the house and the move.

(yeah, I know . . . why the heck did I not see the pattern yet!)

During all of this I tried chiropractics.  It helped for the day I was adjusted, but then the pain would be back.  I tried essential oils . . . they felt good when I first rubbed them on, and the warmth of some of them was good, but they really did not help the pain at all.  I tried yoga and stretching.  I did not really see any change in the pain with that either.  The ONLY time that I was not noticing the pain was when I was asleep, so I would take a lot of naps.  Great . . . now I dont notice the pain for 2 or 3 hours day, but I am not getting anything done since I am napping my day away.

Once we moved, my husband and I finally had time to think and start looking at some of the patterns.  This is the pattern that we saw that would happen EVERY MONTH

• 3 - 5 days of feeling like I am getting sick/flu/cold
• After that, a week of back pain for the full week before my period.  The back pain had gotten worse by now and I was wearing a heat wrap on my back.  I was also taking some pain meds that I had left over from a biopsy of a cyst I had done.  My husband did not really like that I was taking prescription pain meds every day for a week, so I started to hide them in my purse and bring them in to work with me and take them here so he would not see me taking them.  Weekends I slept a lot and was on the couch with a heating pad so I could save the pain meds for during the work week.
• The pain will start to reduce when my period starts

While talking to my daughter about all of this just yesterday, she said "So really, you get about one "good" week per month if you have the cold feeling, then the pain, then your period . . . one good week and it all starts again."  Yep . . . that pretty much sums it up.

So once we saw this clear pattern and that it always revolved around my period I made an OB/GYN appointment.  At first she thought that I might have a cyst.  I ended up having an ultrasound . . . no cyst.  Then she said she could put me on the pill to control my periods and then hopefully end/reduce the amount of time I am in pain.

My sister stopped by the house one night, and I was filling her in on my recent ultra sound and that it was all clear, so I was now on the pill to see if that would help.  She said "Did you hear about that thing on the news about all of the women who had problems after having Essure?"  I said no I didnt.

That started my research.

I started to find story after story of women having the exact same issues I am having, and all of them have had Essure done!  Now, at first I thought that these women must have had it more recently, or their issues came on just after they had the procedure . . . NOPE!  When I joined an Essure Facebook group there were stories of women who had the procedure done in 2008 or 2009 (same time as me) and their back pain issues only came on last summer (same time as me).  The more I read, the more I was sure that Essure was the source of my problems.  The only difference between the stories I was reading was the state the woman lived in and her name . . . it was like reading my own story!

I checked the Essure website today, and they now list chronic pain as a possible side effect, but they say it is rare.  I am now a part of a Facebook group of women who are having problems related to Essure.  There are OVER 15,000 women in this group!  Sorry, but that does not sound like a "rare" side effect to me!

As of Friday, March 13th 2015 I have contacted my OB/GYN to let her know I now believe that Essure is the source of my pain.  She replied saying that she is not aware of any side effect from Essure that would explain what I am going through.  I then emailed her the links to a couple news articles on the topic and the Erin Brockovich page about Essure.  She then replied that I should call the nurse line to schedule an appointment so that we can begin the process for scheduling my hysterectomy.

If you know anyone who has had Essure, please share this information with them!
If you have Essure and are suffering, please reach out to the groups that I placed links for in this story.

If you are disgusted that Bayer/Essure and the FDA have not done anything about this matter to date, please sign the following petitions.

http://www.essureprocedure.net/petition/

and

https://www.change.org/p/u-s-house-of-representatives-repeal-the-biomaterials-access-assurance-act-of-98?after_sign_exp=member_sponsored_donation

I will continue to update you on my journey.

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Here are direct links to more recent blog posts on my journey.  I will continue to add links as I post more info.

Update - The Next Step . . . posted March 19th, 2015

The FDA responds to the petition . . . posted March 27th, 2015

The Road to Recovery . . . posted April 3rd, 2015

One Day At a Time . . . posted April 12th, 2015

not going to lie . . . I am sore . . . posted April 22nd, 2015 (Essure Problems Commercial)

More on me and Essure . . . good news/bad news . . . posted May 2nd, 2015

My story was aired on WCCO news 

Stories about the battle against Essure

Medication Side Effect Lawsuit

More from the FDA on the complaints from Essure victims

FDA officially opens an investigation on Essure!!!!!

Women share concerns

FDA to investigate Bayer

Thousands of Complaints against Essure

FDA investigating

Fifth death related to Essure  (Death should not be a side effect of birth control)

#EssureProblems

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Bella Craft Connections Mall Of America

This weekend is the Bella Craft Connections Event at the Mall of America!  This even is brought to you by Bella Crafts Publishing.

I just stopped by to pick up my badge, and look at the SWAG bag I got!

Actually, there is even MORE stuff on the floor . . . I could not get it all in one photo!

I also got to say hi to Theresa Cifali and Beth Watson.  Normally I only get to see my crafty friends when I go to CHA in January . . . it was so nice to see their smiling faces here in Minnesota!

I have workshops I am attending Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I will take photos and share them with you.

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