Since my sophomore year in college I’ve suffered from ovarian cysts. I was in and out of hospitals (which I’m still paying medical bills for) because I was always in pain. At almost every emergency visit, I was told that everything appeared normal. You ever been in pain and knew something wasn’t right with your body but when you went to the people who are “supposed to help“, they told you “Oh it’s nothing. Just take some pain medicine”? Or a more common “solution” I received was “Well birth control should help. Are you interested in that?” NO! Actually, I’m not. (No offense to those of you who take birth control and I did try it once for about a month. But, I’ve just never been interested in putting something inside my body to “regulate” it)
At the end of 2017 I was in the doctors often due to severe abdominal pain. My [then] doctor spoke to me about possibly having fibroids, follicular cysts, and then she told me she could not see me conceiving a child. I remember speaking to husband (then boyfriend) about what we would do when we planned to start trying to have children. My doctor told me that she could refer me to a fertility clinic to help us start the process. At that time, I was living alone and working in Washington, DC and my boyfriend had recently joined the United States Air Force. Paying for a fertility doctor was not something we could even think about. *Heartbreaker* I’ve always dreamed of giving life to another human being and having this amazing relationship with them that I didn’t have with my own parents.
On January 10th, 2018, I found out I was pregnant and on April 7th, we found out we were having a baby girl!
I could not believe that just a few months before finding out I was pregnant, I was being told I couldn’t have a child. (But God!) From that moment, I told myself I would be more conscious about my body. I decided that I would seek providers who are willing to help and listen when I came to them about how my body feels. I became a bit of a health freak during my pregnancy. I always thought something would go wrong so I started to read a lot more. After reading several articles, most of them had one thing in common. Reasons why a lot of black women and men are unaware of their current health conditions. There were three that stood out the most:
Lack of education/resources
Fear of finding out
Unable to afford seeing a specialist
It’s so important that we educate ourselves so that we can be a resource for others. Being fearful of knowing about certain health issues your body is suffering from, I get it. But sometimes being fearful causes us to be too late. (And this is what we want to prevent) There is no simple answer to being unable to afford a specialist. I’ve suffered from going months without having health insurance at all which caused my medical bills to go into collections. (Prime example of a situation that brought me back to “ugh, this is what parents are for”) But! Eventually I got a “real” job and was able to pay for my own medical and dental insurance.
COLLEGE STUDENTS: Always look into the insurance offered through your school if you are not on your parents insurance. (3 medical bills later, I found out I was suppose to have insurance through my school, ha)
I’ve always been a “I’m not taking any medications to feel better” person. (Personal reasons) And honestly, I’m still that way. Lol! But now I’ll at least look into it before saying “absolutely not”.
Being pregnant made me think about the importance of health and gave me a new love for taking care of myself. Every day I’m reminded that I am no longer living for just myself but for Ryann as well. (Crazy how when you’re pregnant you make all of your decisions based on a little person in your belly that’s not even here yet right?) Anywho, your health is wealth, so invest in it!