After joyous journey of nine months and exhausting labor pains, when you hold your baby in your arms, you tend to forget everything except the pile of pounds on your body. The only safe and sure way to regain your pre-pregnancy body, without losing your mind is to exercise after pregnancy.

Read the rest of this entry

Hi. I am 26 years old and 38 weeks pregnant.
I already have a 3 and a half year old son.
I am 1 million percent sure that I do not want anymore children in the future. Pregnancy is just not for me. Plus I will always be high risk so it is just too stressful. I also suffer from depression from time to time. I have expressed all of this to my doctors(Kaiser) and they will not do it. Their excuses are because of my age, and because the divorce rate is so high. I do not want to take birth control because it has terrible side effects in me like weight gain and hair loss and I plan on going back to work after the baby so this is not an option for me!! What other arguments can I give to make them give me the operation? And if they still refuse what other options do I have? Should I just see a non Kaiser doctor? Does anyone know the price of tubal ligation?

…prescribed medications?

I ask this as a 32 year old mother of a toddler, who has been dealing with serious back problems for over 13 years now (stemming from my 6 years in the Army). I have been to every type of medical and alternative type of professional out there and so far the pain only increases. Now it’s one thing to go from being a fully functioning, high level achiever to someone who is “disabled,” but add to that the responsibilities of single motherhood and all I want is to be the best mom I can for my daughter.

Over the past 8 years or so I have educated myself tremendously about the various medications and treatments I’ve been prescribed and those available. Unfortunately my only medical care is through the VA hospital so I am limited in my options. Over the 13 years of this ordeal thus far, doctors have prescribed probably 50-75 different types of medications and combinations thereof to try and treat my pain level. As of August 2007 (when I found out unexpectedly that I was pregnant) I was on 160 mg of Oxycontin plus about 8 Percocet, plus Valium, muscle relaxers, and two different types of depression medications – all just naturally prescribed by my doctors (not at my request, but without my objection). When I found out I was pregnant my pain management doctor actually told me it was OK to stay on all that medication and my baby would “just have to detox” after birth! I said no way in hell and I began to taper down my meds on my own, which I did incorrectly at first until I found another doctor that agreed with me about detoxing myself over the course of the pregnancy. By the time my daughter was born (perfect and healthy) I was down to 20 mg of oxycontin/day, one anti-depressant (although not the best treatment for my issue but best for my daughter while growing inside of me) and a very mild anti-anxiety med once in a while for severe attacks. I stayed at that level for 6 more months while breastfeeding then my doctor wanted to start increasing my pain meds again. I was in tremendous pain and was OK with increasing at that point. About 3 months ago I was up to 80 mg Oxycontin again and finally I decided it was enough and I requested to be tapered off the meds again since they weren’t really helping my pain level much anyway. OK, I realize this is long but I feel I need to give a little background, please bear with me.

Read the rest of this entry