A Public Health Announcement

I am woman, hear me roar. I'm not much of a "feminist," but I do love the fact that science has developed birth control so that I can have lots of sex and not get pregnant. Not to mention it helps tremendously with cramps. So, let's go back about 3 weeks and revisit my healthcare hell.

Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since I was released from the hospital. A week before I even went to the hospital, my leg started hurting like hell. It hurt to walk, bend it below the knee and started swelling a little. A quick stop at the WebMD Symptom Checker after a couple of days of this pain led me to believe I had just tweaked my sciatic nerve and that a couple days of bed rest would make everything better. Well, the following week, I woke up and it hurt to breath. I could take shallow breaths just fine, but deep breaths, coughing, sneezing and yawning caused me a lot of pain. This is what finally led me to the hospital.

Once there, I got a chest CT scan to confirm the doctor's suspicion that it was in fact a pulmonary embolism caused by a deep vein thrombosis clot that broke off and travelled to my lungs. They had me admitted and I spent 5 days at the hospital getting my blood thinned out so that my body can go through the long process of healing. I now have to go to my doctor every week to make sure that my medicine is keeping my blood thinned out like it should. I will be on these blood thinners for a year now, after which if I have another clot I will be on them for life. I also found out that I have both an iron defiecency and a pretty severe hemoglobin deficiency. Essentially, not only do I lack the nutrient essential for oxygen to bind to my red blood cells to travel through my bloodstream, but I don't have enough red blood cells to begin with. I am now under the care of a hematologist to hopefully correct this.

Now, to the crux of my health issues. I am far too young (I'm only 26) to be worried about blood clots. There is no history of them in my family. So what was the variable? Birth control pills. To be specific, Beyaz. I've also recently started seeing ads for this specific birth control, so I'm getting my story out there to hopefully educate other women about it. Beyaz is essentially Yaz or Yazmin reconfigured to include folate, which is recommended to women who want to get pregnant to prevent birth defects. Now, here's the fun part. If you google "Beyaz," "Yaz" or "Yazmin" and "blood clots," you'll find that there is an increased chance for blood clots with this pill. There are also quite a large number of lawsuits against the drug maker, claiming users were not properly warned about the risk of blood clots. They link this increased risk with drospirenone, one of the hormones they put in the pill. Even one of my nurses asked me why I used it considering all press this brand was getting about the very thing I was in the hospital with and the lawsuits against Bayer. I could have died! The clot could've stopped in my heart or brain and killed me! The increased risk is real, and don't think it can't happen to you.

Now if I want to get pregnant later in my life, I'm screwed. Pregnancy increases your risk of blood clots, and since I've already had one, I'd have to give myself low molecular weight heparin shots every day so I don't develop a new one, as well as be on a heavy duty iron regimen so that the baby doesn't leech it all away from me. And let me just say, praise Jebus that we overhauled our healthcare last year. Now I have 2 preexisting conditions, so insurance can't deny me coverage nor can they deny payment for anything concerning my conditions.

Long story short, avoid this trio of birth control pills. There are plenty of options that don't carry this risk, so talk to your doctor and get a prescription for another brand.

Seriously, liberals?

Happy New Year to one and all! I hope 2011 will be a hell of a lot better than '09 and '10 were. Anyways, just wanted to get a little something off my chest.

It's come to my attention in the past couple days that I need to insist Geico "dump" R. Lee Ermey of Full Metal Jacket fame because of a rant in which he blasted Obama. Seriously, liberals? Why are you getting your panties in a knot over this? This rant happened to be at a Toys for Tots event last month, which is a Marines charity. And for those of you who don't know, Ermey was in the Marines before he started acting. He's a badass in real life and could still probably kick your ass to next Tuesday if he wanted to. He's been affiliated with the Marines long before Geico came around. Granted, there are better venues for him to say that Obama is destroying America, but it WASN'T a Geico event. It would have been another story if it had been. And I'm also not going to sit here and defend what he said. I think it's deplorable that he's calling on our armed services to rise up against Obama's administration. But calling on Geico to get rid of his ads? Seriously? That's tantamount to calling a boycott against Geico because of his actions. It would've been a lot more scandalous I think if the guy who does the gecko voice or the guy playing the CEO, or even the guy who asks if calling Geico can save you money {insert commercial set-up} was the one who got caught saying this. I've also heard that people on the interwebs are saying he's a Geico spokesman. When I think of Geico, my mind goes to the gecko. Ermey was in a single ad, that does not make him a spokeman. It'd be like blaming an extra from a Progressive ad and calling him the spokesman, when Flo is the face of their advertising campaign. And I'm sure I'll get some flack from pointing out the absurdity of all this. "But it's a kid's event! He shouldn't be trying to brainwash the kids!" Was it really a kids event? No. It was a USO event sponsoring Toys for Tots. He was speaking to Marines, not kids.

I've never really understood why people get all worked up when they find out people in the entertainment arena have political opinions with which they don't agree. In the real world, I work very closely with a couple of raging Tea Partiers. But you know what? We rarely ever talk politics because we know where we all stand on certain issues. And when we do, it's a very civil conversation where we always end up agreeing to disagree. I respect their opinion, they respect mine and we try to find a common, middle ground. Do Stewart and Colbert need to have another rally to remind you crazies out there to behave and not to stoop to the same level as the other guys? We're better than that! If Ermey thinks Obama is destroying America, let's work to prove him wrong, not call on Geico to pull his ads. He's already been paid. It won't hurt him any if they don't run any more.

*sigh* OK I feel better. It just irks me when people call for boycotts. They rarely work. People just need to get off their sanctimonious high horses, quit their bitching and move on with life. Develop a thicker skin, for Christ's sake.