Blog #5 Miscarriage

I am one of the 15% women who were mentioned in Mrs. Kampshroeders power point on miscarriage. My first miscarriage was when I was 21 years old. I had been married for a year and my husband and I decided we were ready for children. I can remember it was such an exciting time preparing for our first child. At 16 weeks, I started spotting. My doctor ordered me to bed. Two weeks later I was still spotting so I went in to see the doctor, hoping he could do something to insure me a healthy baby. My doctor did a urnine test and then called me into his office to tell me the bad news. I started crying, and he got frustrated with me. I will never forget when he said "why are you crying, it's not like you lost a baby, you just aren't pregnant anymore". He went on to tell me that I was still carrying the fetus, but that it was dead. He said to go home and when I started really bleeding and cramping to come back and he would do a D&C. 4 weeks later I returned, bleeding profusely. He put me in the hospital and sent my husband home. I went through labor that night, all alone in that hospital room and finally miscarried the next day. My friends and family were kind, but what they didn't understand was that I needed to mourn my baby. If I had carried that fetus for a couple more months we would have buried that baby. I think that would have almost been easier, because then people would have understood what I was going through.

I am also one of the 60 - 70% of women who go on to have healthy pregnancies after miscarriage. I had two very healthy boys, the first 3 years after my first miscarriage and the second two years later. Three years after my second son, I went through a second miscarriage. It was just as devestating and my arms felt just as empty, but my doctor, my friends and my family were alot more sympathetic, giving me time to grieve.

Little Loss, Big Hurt: Miscarriage.ppt by Michelle Kampschroeder (Spring 2007)

Blog #4 First Menstrual Cycle

Growing up in Washington state I lived close to my father's family. My mother's family all lived in Texas. Every other year my mom would load me and my brother up and bring us to Texas to visit the relatives. My mother was one of 11 children, 5 of which were mentally retarded. When I was 5, one of these aunts was having her period and ended up changing her pad in front of me. Being 5, I just thought it had something to do with her being mentally retarded. My mother found out about it and threw a fit. I didn't understand what it was about, but I knew it was bad. Fast forward 4 years. In the third grade we were shown the becoming a woman film. I remember the film saying that most girls started their periods around 12-13 years old (this was back in the 1960's). I remember being horrified that this was going to be part of my future! I had never heard anything so terrifying before, so I put it out of my mind since 12 - 13 was a lifetime away!

Nothing about cycles, bleeding or cramping was mentioned again. Then when I was 11, I went to summer camp for a week. I must of started my period the first night there. I had no idea what it was. I thought it was a stomach ache and I was too embarrassed to tell my friends or counselors because I thought it was because I was fat and so it was the way I was eating that caused this. I remember going for a whole week in dirty undies and shorts. No matter what I did I couldn't keep clean or stop this "diarrhea". I was never so glad to get home! But then it happened, my mom was doing laundry and found my soiled garments. She said I had started my period and then fussed at me for not having told the camp nurse or one of my counselors. Everything that I had learned to that point and was continuing to learn was that periods were bad, embarrassing and that I needed to hide the fact from everyone or they would think I was a bad person.

In high school was our next sex ed class. My teacher asked us about our first periods and if any of our parents celebrated it. The most popular girl in school responded that her mother made a day of it. She kept her daughter home from school that day and they spent the day together shopping and doing lunch and other girly things. She said it was great because her mother made her feel that becoming a woman was special. That was the first time I thought it might be alright to have a period and that it really was just a normal part of life.

My mom wasn't a bad person. She taught me the way she had been taught. That's why I believe that our churches and schools should be involved in sex education. It's great when you have parents that are comfortable talking to you, but for those kids whose parents have no clue how to talk to their kids about sex, we need to make sure those kids get just as much education. When my oldest son was 12, our church sent home permission slips for them to be taught a Biblical sex ed class. For any parents that wanted to teach their own children, there was a separate class for those kids that day. That way parents still had a choice, but kids were given the chance to learn.

Blog #3 Self Assessment

When I think of preventative practices in healthcare I thought the only thing I did in my personal life was my recent change in eating to a healthy diet. I was surprised to discover by the way the question was phrased that I do not eat what most would consider a healthy diet, because I do not include any fruits or grains. I have been eating high protein / low carbohydrate diet for the past 6 months and have lost a great amount of weight (although I'm only 1/2 way to my goal). At this point I do not plan to change my eating habits as I have more energy than I have had in years and am loosing weight at a slow but steady pace. Once I get to my goal weight I will be adding fruits and grains in moderation to the diet I am now eating.

The next area I am lacking in prevention is physical activity. When I took an office job just over a year ago, I went from a very active lifestyle to a very sedetary lifestyle. I am going to plan to add walking 30 minutes a day at least 3 days a week to my schedule. I think this will help my weight loss as well as giving me more physical strength. Hopefully I will be able to add to this program over time to maintain my health.

While adding changes to promote a healthier body, I will be going to the doctor, dentist and optometrist this year for a check-up. I have not had a yearly check-up in any of these areas in about 10 years. This is the year to start putting myself first.

When rating my responses, I was not satisfied with 70%. I liked knowing that there are several things I am doing right, but I can still see room for improvement.

Blog #2 Healthcare - Right or Privilege?

I believe healthcare is the right of all humans. We know there is a higher mortality rate for women in countries that enjoy healthcare such as the United States. We also know that there is a higher mortality rate among those women in the Untied States who have the advantage of healthcare services. It seems to me like the actual question we are asking is whether or not all people have a right to live, or is that just a privilege?

Once we establish that all humans have a right to live, we need to determine the way they can live the best life possible for them. The United States has doctors with so much knowledge and the best equipment and medications of any nation in the world, yet we are not allowed to take advantage of those resources to keep our citizens healthy.

I watched Michael Moore's movie "SIKO" the other day. Although I don't believe everything I saw, I do think he may have been right when he said one of the things that keeps Americans from wanting a Healthcare system like Canada, England or France is the media and politicians telling us that socialist medicine is bad. They've picked out all the worst things about healthcare in these countries and kept us afraid of change and grateful that they are protecting us from such horrors. I think we need to stop being afraid and start exploring other options, because our system is not working. This doesn't necessarily mean socialist medicine is the best thing for the United States. Why do we have to have it the broken system it is in other countries or the broken system it is here? What ever happened to America as a world leader?