NagMummy

As the recent World Cup showcased the best of South Africa, I can’t help being affected by the contrast presented in 2 articles in the June 14 and 28 issues of TIME magazine about the plight of women and children in other parts of impoverished Africa.

Authored by Alice Park, The Perils of Pregnancy: One Woman’s Tale of Dying to Give Birth tells of how a woman in Sierra Leone lost her life at age 18 after giving birth to a pair of twins due to the lack of medical services. According to the article, “… childbirth remain among the leading causes of death of woman worldwide; every day, one woman per minute dies while giving birth or soon after.” The pictures in the article were especially disturbing, including the 18 year-old’s final moments. 

The next article, Battling A Scourge by Alex Perry, is about how the children of a small town in Uganda – Apac suffers from malaria, where “almost 90% of malaria victims are children under 5”. It’s hard to imagine raising kids in these extreme conditions, and reminds me again of how fortunate we are to live in Singapore.

So, there is always two sides to every story…

I started suffering from heel pain around the last trimester of my pregnancy. It was also then that crack lines started to show around my heels. Little did I expect that the pain would only get worse after giving birth. Somehow, even after losing all the weight I gained during pregnancy, the pain persisted. It is usually worst in the morning when I get off bed. As I start walking, the pain subsides for a while but returns if I continue to be on my feet.

I finally decided to seek help when a friend recommended her TCM practitioner. The doctor immediately diagnosed it as a heel spur (although only an x-ray can prove it), and used an infrared lamp on my heels for around 10 minutes. I felt excruciating pain during that 10 minutes. It felt like my heels were on fire!

The doctor then explained that heel spurs are caused by a high level of ‘acidity’ in the body and said I should avoid cold, sweet food. I did not really understand the relation but I know I will have great difficulty adhering to it because I love cold and sweet stuff! Besides this, he recommended that I wear bedroom slippers at home and high-heel shoes when I’m out. The bedroom slippers was supposed to keep the heels soft and warm because cold hard floor will only make the pain worse. But I was really surprised about the high heels – something I’ve avoided since I was pregnant. Anyway, it is supposed to bring forward my centre of gravity and relive pressure on the heels. Finally, he said a daily foot bath will improve blood circulation around the heel area which will help ease the pain.

The bedroom slippers was the easiest and most effective thing I did. Wearing high-heels when I’m out is a big challenge as I’m usually with M and I still need to carry her a fair bit so I do not want to risk losing my balance. The foot bath was nice and relieves pain but I found it quite a hassle.

So I was really excited when I came across the Philips Infrared Lamp ($50+) when we were shopping at Best Denki some time back. It worked just like the lamp at the doctor’s and sure saved me a lot of trouble and money (around $30 per consultation). And the best part is I can use it for relieving my back ache too!

Definitely a good buy

On my first visit to my gynaecologist when I was pregnant with M, I was informed that I had 2 fibroids. Even though the size of the fibroids were rather small then (1.1 cm and 2.1 cm), we were forewarned that fibroids can complicate pregnancies if they continue to grow, taking away essential nutrients from the foetus. However, gynae informed us that nothing can be done to the fibroids during pregnancy so we could only monitor and hope for the best.

And we were very fortunate that my fibroids hardly grew during the next 34 weeks (pregnancies can accelerate their growth). The check-ups after childbirth showed they remained ‘subdued’ in the sense that no medical intervention was required. However, gynae did remind me that I should go for a review if I start experiencing heavy periods.

Before I continue, some background information about fibroids. Uterine fibroids are benign tumours (muscle growth) which rarely turn cancerous. Their size can range from as small as a pea to as big as a melon. Most common symptoms are heavy bleeding, abdominal pressure or discomfort and changes to bladder & bowel movements. The female hormones – oestrogen and progesterone have been related to the growth of fibroids but the real cause is unknown. Treatment options vary with different sizes and locations of the fibroids.

So early this year, I noticed my period was gradually getting heavier and the last time I saw gynae was probably late 2007 (when my period had just returned since I breastfed for 6 months). It took me a while to finally find time to visit gynae, sometime in May.

And then came the not so good news – one of the fibroids (originally 2.1 cm) had now doubled in size to nearly 5 cm. Gynae recommended that I have them removed in a surgery (myomectomy) before my next pregnancy to avoid complications. I was really frightened by the thought of a surgery (I’ve never had one!). But gynae said situation was not critical and a review was planned 6 months later. Meanwhile, she prescribed some medicine for me to deal with the heavy period.

After getting over the initial shock of an impending surgery, I did some online research. It seems surgery to remove the fibroids (myomectomy) is usually recommended for women who still want to have children. For those who have no need for childbearing, a surgery to remove the uterus (hysterectomy) is sometimes recommended since it will remove the possibility of new fibroid growth which is the drawback of a myomectomy. A keyhole surgery (laparoscopic myomectomy) is possible in some cases but I recalled gynae saying she won’t be able to detect any other small fibroids which may not have been picked up by ultra-sound.

I also read about how some people were able to totally dissolve their fibroids by adopting some special diet or lifestyle. But they obviously wanted money for revealing their ‘secrets’, which I’m still not convinced. Anyway, I decided to visit the TCM practitioner that I’ve seen when I was pregnant to see if he could do anything the ‘natural’ way.

He painted a similar gloomy outlook of fibroids, saying that they will cause ‘damage’ to a foetus and that fibroids bigger than 3.5 cm are difficult to dissolve. Hearing this, I really regretted not seeing him earlier! Nonetheless, he prescribed some chinese herbs to be brewed.

After two doses of that yucky horrible-smelling black concoction, I noticed a lighter period the following month. Encouraged, I’ve gone back to see him 2 more times since he prescribes herbs for a month per visit. In the last visit, he mentioned it would be good that I go for an ultra-sound scan to check on the fibroids’ situation. Since it’s pretty near the review date, I’ll be making that trip soon.

Well, all these have just made me rethink if we should have another kid, since the objective of the surgery at this stage would mainly be for that purpose. My current symptoms are still rather mild and I could probably live with them for a while before any serious medical intervention.

Hmm… still pondering on it. Let’s see what comes out of my visit to gynae…

p/s: this video provides a good overview of fibroids (with gory pictures of fibroids)…. so not for the faint-hearted!

I used to be quite a happy-go-lucky type of gal. Nothing really worried me excessively throughout my smooth sailing childhood-teens-early adulthood. But motherhood can really change our lives beyond our expectations. The worry wart must have started growing on me the day I found out I was pregnant. And its probably grown quite substantially over the past few years.

From the days of “Is the foetus growing well?” to “Is she eating enough?”, I have come to realise that I may never be able to get rid of the worry wart for the rest of my life. With a young kid, there’re just too many things to worry about!

To start with, M was/is a very small foetus & baby & toddler. At our detailed scan when I was 5 months pregnant, we were informed that M’s growth was behind her peers – her dimensions were actually below the growth chart, meaning she was below the 0 percentile! And with many charts flashing in front of us, we were informed that her laggard development was of a concern. The consultant in charge of the scan even mentioned the equivalent of a ‘vulgarity’ – abortion.

Silly as it sounds, I actually burst into tears there! After consulting my gynae, I went for an amniocentesis for peace of mind. Luckily, the test result came back favourable and she maintained a steady growth rate throughout the rest of her gestation, even though she continued to be small. But the amount of worry I went through during that hoax was unprecedented in my life!

Although that episode is now behind me, I’m still faced with many little worries about M. In any typical day, things I can worry include “Is she going to eat her food”, “Is she going to fuss during her shower?” Will she be cooperative during nap time?”, “If she doesn’t take her nap, is she going to be cranky during class?”, the list continues..

Fortunately, life with a lively and blissfully ignorant toddler can help one forget about the future sometimes and just live in the moment