Blog 5 Miscarriage

After I watched the power point "Little Loss, Big Hurt: Miscarriage," I was expecting to hear about how miscarriage affects the woman and her family. Although the information was good, there was only one slide that mentioned how the woman may feel. In the power point it says that some women may feel guilty, blame themselves, and feel some sort of abandonment. I know this is true. I worked in an OB/GYN office and have seen it firsthand. I've had to take a fetus that was the size of the palm of my hand and put it into a plastic container so that it could be "disposed" of properly. Talking with the mother was heartbreaking. She felt guilty because she had been doing light exercises. This wasn't the reason for the miscarriage and the doctor confirmed that. She couldn't help blaming herself anyway. Also, she was worried about how her husband would react. Would he blame her? Would he leave her? She eventually had a healthy baby boy but did require psychiatric treatment to deal with the miscarriage.
The power point did a good job explaining the medical aspects of miscarriage, but could have devoted more to the psychological aspect.

Amy Morrow

source: Kampschroeder, M Spring 2007

First Menstrual Cycle

When I had my first menstrual cylce, I was 11 years old. I was at home and my best friend Shelly had come over to play. As most girls did, my friend went to the bathroom with me. When I pulled my bottoms down my friend said, "look you hit puberity!" We were both excited because I was the last one of my group of friends to start my period.
My dad was the only parent home at the time and he was asleep because he was working nights. I was afraid to wake him since he had not been asleep very long. Shelly, being excited about the whole thing, went into my parents bedroom and woke him up. She was yelling, "Amy hit puberity, we need money to go to the store!" My dad woke up and asked if I knew what to get at the store. I told him no since we had never talked about periods. Shelly said she knew what to get. My dad started getting dressed when my brother came home. Needless to say, my brother wound up taking Shelly and I to the store.
When my mom got home my brother told my mom what had happened and made it clear he wasn't taking me to the store for those kind of products again. My mom couldn't believe it because she thought I was too young. After the shock wore off, my mom cried because she was happy and my dad just said, "congratulations I guess."

Blog 3 Self Assesment

After reading the self assesment, I would rate my preventive practices as a 5 on a 1-10 scale with 10 being the worst. There are things that I should do to help improve my health. One of the things I should do is change my eating habits. I have cut down on cokes but still don't drink enough water. I need to cut down on my sugar. I have trouble with my insulin levels at times and I'm sure having sweets does not help. I need to eat more fruits and vegetables. My family doesn't like vegetables, so I rarely eat them. I like vegetables so I need to get in the habit of eating them whether anyone else does or not. There are fruits we all like but for some unknown reason, I just don't buy them very often. I need to start exercising again. I've let that fall way behind and my weight gain has shown it. I need to make a schedule of days and put in time for exercising. Hopefully, that will get me started on the right track.
As far as the preventive practices that I use, I do not smoke or use illegal drugs. I also wear my seatbelt when I'm in the car. As far as health care, I get my blood checked every year and a physical. I've started going to the dentist like I should for routine care. I'm doing better on how I handle stress and that just makes me feel better in general.
Overall, I'm not as bad as I could be, so that makes me feel good as well. I do have a plan to help improve my health and hopefully by the end of the semester, I will be able to say that my health has improved.

Amy

Blog #2

I believe access to health care is a right. People get sick and hurt everyday but not all of them have insurance or can afford to go to the doctor. If our government would allow the citizens to go to a primary doctor of their choice and not have to pay, more people especially women, would probably go for preventable care. The people should be educated about illnesses and how going to a doctor for regular check ups can help catch certain illnesses and diseases early. Take the United Kingdom and how their health care works. Their citizens are allowed a certain level of care. If anything goes beyond the guidelines of the level, they have the option to buy supplemental insurance. America could do something similar. If some one needs supplemental insurance, their cost should be according to their income. Just because some makes less than another person, it should not mean they cannot afford insurance. There are many women who do make much money, so they can't afford to go to a doctor. Some of these women will even die because of this.