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From: Andrea Pendley
Email: pendleyan@yahoo.com
Category: Induction/Pitocin
Date: 09 Mar 2002
I have a question. I just now started reading about Pitocin. I have read about the affects it may have had on MANY children, and my question is, did it have any long term effects on mothers? I had a baby in October of 2000. I had just turned 40 weeks and my doctor decided to induce labor 2 days later. I checked in at the hospital at 5 am. They started my Pit around 8. When they first put the IV in I had the most bizzare, excruciating pain go up my arm. It hurt worse if I lifted or moved it. The pain continued to get worse. They had the blood pressure cuff on that same arm and it would not register a blood pressure. Finally the pain had made it all the way up to shoulder in about an hour. I was in tears. (Yes, I was having contractions, but I was crying over the pain in my arm!) The nurse kept checking the IV and re-taped it a few times, but she said there was nothing wrong with it and offered to put it in the other arm. I hate needles, so I stood the pain as long as I could before telling her to switch it. After she put it in the other arm the same pain began. People just kept trying to put pillows under it and relieve the pain. (it didn't work!) I was on the Pit all night. I finally delivered at 10:15 the next morning after the Dr. broke my water. I had the most horrifying, painful labor. But after the Dr. broke my water I began dialating so quickly that he said I wouldn't have time for an epidural. So I had no pain med. Labor was undescribably painful. Anyways, after I had the baby, they kept me on the Pit to help my uterus contract back because I was bleeding heavy. Well my hand was already swollen and continued to swell during the day. They had every nurse in the place come and check the IV because I was still complaining about my hand. They all said the IV was in okay. Finally, that night when the night shift nurse came in, she ripped the IV out of my hand. By that time my hand litterally looked like a latex glove that someone had blown up. Well that was just the begining of my problems. A couple months after that my arm started to hurt. The pain lasted all day and all through the night. I was up all night crying because the pain was unbearable. It was the exact same pain that I had experienced for the first time in my life when they gave me that Pitocin IV. After that, my other arm started to do it. That pain has eventually led to more bizzare upper body pain. My arms swell, and I have neck pain and other various upper body pain. My husband has missed several days from work because I have been up all night crying in pain and I can't watch the kids the next day. I have been to a Neurologist and a Rheumatologist. They have finally diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia. But unlike other Fibromyalgia patients, my pain doesn't move around my whole body, it is always in my upper body. And since then, I have problems with my blood pressure. Doctors can't hardly get a reading for it. And most of the time it is really low. (the same thing that started with that IV.) I have also had 2 miscarraiges in the last 6 months. I am only 22 years old. I had never had a miscarraige and had never had any health problems. I have just had a "gut" feeling for a long time now that something went wrong in the hospital. I am just now starting to piece things that have gone wrong with me in the 16 months and told my husband that the only thing that I can see would make sense is if there was a problem with the drug Pitocin. He said oh that can't be it, they give Pitocin to a lot of women. So I just now came to the computer to do a quick search on it and immediately I started reading all these horror stories. I just can't find anything on effects of the drug on the mother. If ANYBODY can relate to ANY of this or has any idea where to get more info on long term effects of this drug on the mothers, PLEASE, PLEASE send me an e-mail at pendleyan@yahoo.com. And I want to sincerely thank anyone who has sat and read this long, long story.
Just for the record, all information posted here are personal experiences/stories. There are no Doctors/Nurses answering questions on the board. This board is for sharing stories so we can learn from each other! If you have any problems with the board, please email me at Angela4KP1@comcast.net