Nex
Forum Turnip
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2004
- Messages
- 1,655
I'm putting this here in the science forum because it seems that the doctors and medical professionals come here most. I'm sure you all have heard something like this before, maybe, but bear with me.
This is why I became a skeptic, and why I hate sCAMs so damned much.
I just need to get this off my chest. Here I can be anonymous. I'm embarrassed. No matter how stupid you think I may have been, trust me, I've kicked myself over it enough already.
When I was 19, I had a surgery to remove a portion of my cervix. I had an abnormal PAP smear. They wanted to make sure I wouldn't get cancer. Between this, a tilted uterus, and some serious hormonal imbalances, my gynecologist and GP were both of the mind that my chances of conception were somewhat low.
Fast-forward to 2003. I got married to the most wonderful man in the world. We wanted children. With my condition, I wanted to make sure we could conceive.
We couldn't afford fertility treatments. Still can't, but it doesn't matter now anyway.
I started taking these herbal supplements for fertility. They contained a bunch of stuff, but I remember saw palmetto, black cohosh, fenugreek, and something else. I took them according to the directions, 3 pills a day. I took them for about six months, maybe eight, and then I stopped taking them because I was gaining weight and was feeling tired all the time. I didn't like how I felt so I knew they probably weren't doing much good. The weight gain and the tired, listless feelings came on slowly, which is why I took these herbal things for as long as I did.
I began having some soreness in my stomach not too long after I took these things. I kept hoping it was a sign of pregnancy, but the tests always came back negative. My doctor never knew I was taking these herbal supplements; I didn't think it was necessary to tell her, and she never asked.
Over the course of a year, the stomach pain went from soreness to a sharp pinching feeling. On May 31st of 2004, at 4:30 am, I was taken into the emergency room with severe stomach pain.
It took them 14 hours to find out what was wrong. My liver was riddled with tumors.
I was assigned a team of 4 doctors. A gastroenterologist, a gynecologist, a hepatologist, and an endocrinologist. They worked together to figure out why a 25 year old woman, in the prime of her life, had a swollen liver filled with tumors.
It was those goddamned pills.
I was sent to a huge teaching hospital on the East Coast of the USA for my surgery. It took 6 hours, and was performed by one of the US's leading liver transplant surgeons. He removed a bit less than half my liver, and my gall bladder as well.
I was in agony for 3 months afterwards. Nothing dulls pain like that. Nothing. All morphine did was make me sleep, and I can tell you, unconsciousness was the only blessing I had during those long lonely non-visiting hours.
That surgery was on the 3rd of June, 2004. It's been almost nine months. I still have pain sometimes, and I still have to sleep with a pillow on my stomach. My nerves are a mess. There are days where the pain from neuropathy is so bad I can't barely breathe, I can only sit slightly reclined and gasp like a fish out of water. I have a bandage on my navel that keeps anything from touching it, because if there's any touch or feeling there, it screams bloody murder.
I have a foot-long hooked scar that runs from my sternum around to my side, following the curve of my ribs. The ongoing joke is that you could stick your head in that hole, it's so big.
Those f***ing pills. Now I've got almost no chance of conception or carrying to term. I took them to help me, but they ruined it all. I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world that my husband doesn't mind. He says he's with me because he wants me, not because he wants a breeding cow.
So, if you have a patient taking this herbal stuff, saw palmetto, black cohosh, or fenugreek, tell them about me. Tell them what that stuff did to me.
That's why I'm posting this. I want the doctors and medical professionals here to see this.
Thanks.
This is why I became a skeptic, and why I hate sCAMs so damned much.
I just need to get this off my chest. Here I can be anonymous. I'm embarrassed. No matter how stupid you think I may have been, trust me, I've kicked myself over it enough already.
When I was 19, I had a surgery to remove a portion of my cervix. I had an abnormal PAP smear. They wanted to make sure I wouldn't get cancer. Between this, a tilted uterus, and some serious hormonal imbalances, my gynecologist and GP were both of the mind that my chances of conception were somewhat low.
Fast-forward to 2003. I got married to the most wonderful man in the world. We wanted children. With my condition, I wanted to make sure we could conceive.
We couldn't afford fertility treatments. Still can't, but it doesn't matter now anyway.
I started taking these herbal supplements for fertility. They contained a bunch of stuff, but I remember saw palmetto, black cohosh, fenugreek, and something else. I took them according to the directions, 3 pills a day. I took them for about six months, maybe eight, and then I stopped taking them because I was gaining weight and was feeling tired all the time. I didn't like how I felt so I knew they probably weren't doing much good. The weight gain and the tired, listless feelings came on slowly, which is why I took these herbal things for as long as I did.
I began having some soreness in my stomach not too long after I took these things. I kept hoping it was a sign of pregnancy, but the tests always came back negative. My doctor never knew I was taking these herbal supplements; I didn't think it was necessary to tell her, and she never asked.
Over the course of a year, the stomach pain went from soreness to a sharp pinching feeling. On May 31st of 2004, at 4:30 am, I was taken into the emergency room with severe stomach pain.
It took them 14 hours to find out what was wrong. My liver was riddled with tumors.
I was assigned a team of 4 doctors. A gastroenterologist, a gynecologist, a hepatologist, and an endocrinologist. They worked together to figure out why a 25 year old woman, in the prime of her life, had a swollen liver filled with tumors.
It was those goddamned pills.
I was sent to a huge teaching hospital on the East Coast of the USA for my surgery. It took 6 hours, and was performed by one of the US's leading liver transplant surgeons. He removed a bit less than half my liver, and my gall bladder as well.
I was in agony for 3 months afterwards. Nothing dulls pain like that. Nothing. All morphine did was make me sleep, and I can tell you, unconsciousness was the only blessing I had during those long lonely non-visiting hours.
That surgery was on the 3rd of June, 2004. It's been almost nine months. I still have pain sometimes, and I still have to sleep with a pillow on my stomach. My nerves are a mess. There are days where the pain from neuropathy is so bad I can't barely breathe, I can only sit slightly reclined and gasp like a fish out of water. I have a bandage on my navel that keeps anything from touching it, because if there's any touch or feeling there, it screams bloody murder.
I have a foot-long hooked scar that runs from my sternum around to my side, following the curve of my ribs. The ongoing joke is that you could stick your head in that hole, it's so big.
Those f***ing pills. Now I've got almost no chance of conception or carrying to term. I took them to help me, but they ruined it all. I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world that my husband doesn't mind. He says he's with me because he wants me, not because he wants a breeding cow.
So, if you have a patient taking this herbal stuff, saw palmetto, black cohosh, or fenugreek, tell them about me. Tell them what that stuff did to me.
That's why I'm posting this. I want the doctors and medical professionals here to see this.
Thanks.
