Need Support, pretty upset - Long

[Guest guest]

I know that this group is specifically about us being pregnant and have WLS, but

I'm posting here because I think everyone may relate a bit to what I'm going to

and hopefully have some advice.

Along with being MO and needing WLS, part of the reason I got approved for the

surgery is because I severe psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia. For a long

time I could not get a doc to prescribe better meds for my arthritis and as a

result I needed to take more pain meds just to function in daily life. Finding

a good rheumatologist to treat me was difficult as my husband is in the Army and

we were moving alot during 2001-2002, but now that we have been settled for a

while I finally got established with a good one. When I had my very first

appointment with him was a couple months into my pregnancy and he agreed that

Enbrel was the best medication for me, but he wasn't comfortable giving it to me

while pregnant, though I had the blessing of my OB and it is considered " class

B " for pregnancy. I figured that I would just tough it out for the rest of the

pregnancy, focusing on the fact that once the baby was born I was finally, after

several years, start to feel normal again. As my pregnancy progressed I started

to realize that I REALLY wanted to breastfeed my child so I talked to my OB

about it and he told me it wasn't a option for me because of the meds I was

currently taking. Of course I was pretty bummed about it, but started the

process of accepting that I couldn't breastfeed. Later, once we started our

birthing class and I spoke to our instructor she encouraged me to get some more

opinions and do more research. After doing this I have discovered that

breastfeeding is definitely an option for me and that most of the medications

that I have to take, if they show up in breastmilk at all, it is at such a small

amount it is barely measurable, and certainly not a risk to my child. Well,

today my husband and I met the pediatrician that my OB recommended we take our

child to and she was totally against me breastfeeding. I told her about the

information I gathered and asked her if she was at least willing to read the

data before she totally made up her mind and she said yes, but she had

reservations. The information I found is mainly from one person who is doing

actual tests on breastmilk from many mothers with many of the new and popular

medications used by doctors today, but as we all know there are tons of

medications out there so its not like he has tens of thousands of patients to

base his data on.

Here is were I'm scared and upset.....I know ultimately that none of my doctors

can force me to stop breastfeeding my child, but I'm so very, very scared that

any one of my docs will tell me that they refuse to prescribe the medications I

need if I don't stop breastfeeding. If I'm put in this position I don't know

what I will do. I know breastfeeding is the best choice for my child, but if I

don't get the medications I need I will literally become wheelchair bound. I

feel that my personal choice as to what I believe is the best choice for myself

and my child will be taken away from me. This makes me so angry because it

should be my choice as to the risk and benefit to my child, not anyone else. I

know that doctors are really just concerned about protecting themselves legally,

but by doing this they are taking away my choices without studying the data.

Does anyone have any advice for me? My husband is almost ready to just not tell

my rheumatologist about me breastfeeding, but I know that the doc will ask and I

know I will have a hard time avoiding that question.

Axelrod