Birth Control Disasters

A friend of mine recently had a very scary experience with birth control. She was bleeding for about two months non-stop and was suffering from chronic headaches. One day out of nowhere she blacked out and was rushed to the emergency room. They told her that she had lost a lot of blood and a blood transfusion was needed. After three days in the hospital the doctors finally discharged her and prescribed she take Loestrin 24(a type of birth control pill which is supposed to have a lower dosage of hormones and is advertised to give you shorter, lighter periods) to help regulate her period. A little less than one month later she suffered four seizers in a matter of a few hours. She passed out and still to this day have no recollection of what happened. When she woke up in the hospital bed about two weeks later, she was told she that she was in a coma and was on life support for over a week. There was a blood clot the size of a tennis ball in her brain. The doctors tried to remove it but deemed it to be too risky. She lost her short term memory and was receiving oxygen from a tube inserted to her nose. Apparently, in a very short period of time, the birth control pills that were prescribed to her four weeks earlier caused a series of blood clots leading up to this frightening and life threatening disaster. My friend, a young, energetic and very sweet girl now has to spend a considerable amount of time visiting OBGYNs, Neurologists and a series of other specialists in order for her to regain some sense of normalcy. She also has to take six pills every day to thin her blood and constantly check her blood level to make sure it is neither too think nor too thin.


Birth control pills have always been a pretty scary thought for me. I’ve used the NuvaRing for about six months and although I liked it, I became paranoid after hearing too many stories similar to my friends.’ I got off of it and well what do you know 3 months later I was pregnant! But what’s meant to be will be. After giving birth, my gynie recommended me use the “mini pill” since I was breastfeeding because it supposedly has no estrogen, which is known to slow down and sometimes even stop your milk supply . However, after about 2 weeks on the pill I started noticing a difference in my body which resulted in constant break through bleeding and unbelievable discomfort in my breasts. Without much thought, I stopped taking the pill immediately. Doctors have been recommending birth control to me since I started having my period at nine years old!!! YES I said NINE years old! My cycle was always irregular and my hormones were always imbalanced. I’ve been hearing the pros and cons of BC for about 17 years now and I still am not convinced that it’s a safe form of contraceptive. I know that every woman’s body is different and what works for one may not work for the other. I’ve always been suspicious of altering our natural state of being. Although there are tons of safe medications out there that are intended to help alleviate whatever symptoms and pains we may have, when it comes to birth control I’ve cannot help but be skeptical.

I know this may be a lot to ask, but if any of you have had any good or bad experience with any birth control, would you mind sharing? I would like to bring some sort of awareness to what happened to my friend and what I know has happened to many other women out there. I’m very interested to know what kind of effects these hormone pills have on our female bodies. Thank you in advance if you chose to share your stories.

For more information on Loestrin 24: http://www.loestrin24.com/loestrin/birth-control-faq.jsp

How to help bring your period down?

For all of the women out there with irregular periods (which I'm sure is a decent handful) and those fortunate ones whose bodies operate like clock-work, I'm sure at one point or the other you or someone you know have had this problem. Your period is late! It's nearly 8 days since your monthly visitor was expected but it's not showing up. Sometimes your body shows no signs of it while others you're PMSing full force. You know you're not pregnant and you're for the most part relatively healthy. I don't know about you guys but personally I think it's healthy to have your period and I actually, believe it or not, LIKE getting mine regularly. I think of it as natures' monthly cleanse. So here you are frustrated and confused, waiting, waiting, waiting for it to show up. Wondering to yourself," is there anything I can do to bring it down?" Well that's my question to your guys today. What are some things you can do to help bring your period down? Home remedies, safe over the counter meds, ANYTHING?

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do!!!!

With Valentine's Day just around the corner I'm sure there are people out there who is NOT looking forward to seeing all the happy couples or watching the gushing of your co-worker as she happily accepts flowers and chocolate that was delivered from her sweetheart. Some of us might be on the other end of the happy spectrum. I always hated the proccess of getting over someone but absoultely loved the feeling of liberation once I did. It sometimes takes a little longer than we would hope. So my questio for you all today is how do we get over a case of the ex???

So here’s the scenario: you’ve met this amazing someone, you can’t seem to get your mind off of. Movie dates, late night phone calls till the wee hours of the morning, text messages saying “I’m thinking of you” and all that other cute stuff that makes you gush at the sight of their name on the caller ID, (you know the kind where you run to pick up the phone because you have a special ring tone just for them!!). C’mon you know who you are. We’ve all been there, either the one doing the gushing, or causing the gushing. So things are going good, when all of a sudden everything changes and you hear words similar to “I think we need a break,” “Its just not going to work between us,” “I found someone else,” “maybe we should just be friends”  and my all time personal favorite “I’m just not looking for a relationship right now.” WTF??? What just happened here?? Now you’re stuck with movie stubs, his old t-shirt, saved voicemails from when you first started dating when everything was just peeeeachy, memories, photos, and not to mention BILLS. So now what do you do? The truth is getting over somebody you care about and moving on with your life is one of the hardest things the heart has to face and for lots of people you can expect to stare this love-demon in the face more than once in a lifetime.

Well now its time to MOVE ON! You can’t dwell on the past. What are some things that you can do, to help move on?

Here’s my personal list of some of the things I always advise my friends to do and I have tried practice myself back in my single dating days.

If you have any little tricks, please feel free to share.

1. Accept that it’s over and FORCE yourself to let go. There are better things out there.

2. Avoid talking about them to friends, calling and hanging up or driving by their house/work(you know you’ve done it). As a matter of fact delete their number from your phone and email address from your contacts. That way there is no temptations or cause for excuses. (Let's hope you have not memorized it!)

3. The best way to get over a hot guy/girl, is to meet an ever hotter guy/girl. So don’t lock yourself away, Date, meet new people and DON’T compare them to your ex...but DON'T rush into another relationship. Give yourself time to heal and breathe. Reconnect with YOU

4. Get busy, do stuff, go out, get involved, work out. Keeping busy will help get your mind off that loser, who wouldn’t know a good thing if it bit him in the armpit (sorry a little personal venting there..lol )

5. Pray.. its amazing how much it helps and gives you strength.

6. Make the effort to look good everyday. When heads turn, it will give you that spunk again, that reminds you that you still got it going on. We all know when you look good, you feel good!

7. Put away all that little sentimental crap that remind you of them. Give it back, trash it, burn it... I don't care, just get it out of your life.

8. Think positive. How did you learn from this experience? Maybe that person wasn’t for you to begin with. S/He isnt’ the last wo/man out there. The best is yet to come.

9. Smile, laugh, be happy. You’re a great person, and have lots to offer. Even if you have to fake the happiness and smiles at first. Pretty soon you will find yourself naturally happy and enjoying yourself again.

10. And last but certainly not least, unless they did something really terrible to you that you just can't forgive, DON'T HOLD GRUDGES. This person was once a part of your life and hating them,cursing,plotting against them and talking smack is just harboring unhealthy, negative feelings that won’t help the situation. Be mature and realistic. Try thinking in a positive way, you’ll see how much easier it will be. You always want to be the one walking away with your head up and them realizing ah shit.. I lost a good thing. Trust me, when one window closes, ten doors open.

What are some things that you guys do to get over someone? It doesn't only have to apply to love relationships but also friendships gone sour. Let me know.

I can't get my one year old to sleep through the night.

For those of you who know me personally, know that I have an amazing little baby boy who is the light of my life. He is my little buddy and in many ways my bestest friend in the whole wide world. It goes without saying that I love him very very much, however the little punk is seriously robbing me of my sleep. It’s been nearly 20 months (since I was about 5 months pregnant) that I have not had a full night’s rest without interruption. I know this is partially my fault because I was not consistent and dedicated enough when it came to letting him sleep in his crib. Yes he sleeps in our bed! Although it is not an inconvenience when he wakes up, since he just looks for me and goes right back to sleep, it’s the break in MY sleep cycle that takes a toll on me. I suspect that he wakes up because it’s routine now since he’s used being nursed. I have tried putting him in his crib but I guess he is so used to the warmth of our bed that he refuses to sleep in his crib for more than 2-3 hours. I’ve tried leaving him to cry it out as the pediatricians recommended but It is only a matter of time before he starts hacking from all the crying and by that time I’m obviously too heartbroken by his sobbing and dead tired to let him continue so of course he ends up right back in my bed with us. To make a long story short, I am incredibly sleep deprived and I need to figure out a way to get my little man to sleep throughout the night. Does any of you (moms or not) out there have any suggestions?