Which one first?

Half of you would like the good news first. I prefer to end on the better note: My own version of the spoonful of sugar.

The bad news first.

While we battle cancer here, at home another family member battles at nearly the same place. Mary Jo is my stepmother. Her Mother's Day news was not as wonderful as we would have hoped. Her PET scan and release from the hospital yesterday was difficult.

After a long bout with breast cancer, Mary Jo's PET revealed the cancer has metastasized to all of her major organs and her bones. She was released into hospice care.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.

Russell will be the topic of conversation for the hospice caregivers and the oncologists. Russell has reached the point where the discussion is of a pain pump: Twenty four hour continuous release morphine. The mets delusions now get him out of bed to take care of things which are only real inside his head.

Now for the good news.

I will be posting a picture at the conclusion of Momma and Poppa's stay of yours truly climbing a tree, provided Momma used my camera properly.

Yesterday, for my Mother's Day gift, we harvested oak trees and bluebonnets for my yard from the game preserve across the street from my house. We also harvested a specific breed of pine tree which makes giant cones and has such long needles its branches have the look of pompoms. These will be Momma's take home gift from South Carolina.

Buds which arrived on Friday in anticipation of Mother's Day pushed out double-bearded blue irises by Saturday. Sunday brought Asiatic lilies opened wide like a sailor's sunrise.

I am not yet a grandmother, you see, that would not have been a grand Mother's Day present. My angel still has 2.5 weeks to go. Do you think she will make it? What if I told you that picture was more than a month old? Did that change your answer?

Even though the pop-up timer is fully extended (her navel), Caden needs to stay put at least another week. We would be happiest with two.

Chin up!
Ann Marie

Visit Virginia's Dream. International shipping available on request.

Birth Control Pills Have Effects After Their Use Is Discontinued.

Understanding how birth control pills work helps to demonstrate the complications of infertility issues once their use is discontinued.

Many women are mistaken into thinking that the fertile month following discontinuation of the pills is a safe time for conception. Typically amenorrhea, failure to menstruate, occurs the month after discontinuing BCP, which mimics pregnancy.

The active ingredient in birth control pills, progestin, a synthetic hormone which mimics the natural hormone progesterone produced during pregnancy, interferes with the pituitary gland's signals to the ovaries. The pituitary gland recognizes the progestin in the body and stops the ovaries from producing enough estrogen to ovulate. This is the reason that, when taken properly, the birth control pill is 99% effective in preventing pregnancy.

Birth control pills interfere with the body's natural ability to assimilate certain nutrients, causing common deficiencies in the vitamins B6, B12, C and folic acid. These deficiencies directly affect fertility. Additionally, folic acid deficiency can lead to a toxic increase in vitamin A, which is a major contributor to birth defects.

Birth defects and abnormalities in babies conceived in the month after BCP are discontinued include, but are not limited to: heart, kidney, vertebrae, anus, esophagus, trachea and limbs.

Modifications of sexual organs, specifically the change from female to male, occur with three times more frequency. Blood bilirubin at increased levels and jaundice are reported in births where BCP were taken shortly before or after conception.

Anecdotal evidence has been presented that BCP may hasten menopause in women who take the pills for more than 15 years and that the quality of eggs is decreased; However, clinical trials have not produced the same effects.

Before taking birth control pills, consult a physician about the possible side effects with reference to later fertility, residual effects that could affect your baby and the lasting effects on your health.

Visit Virginia's Dream. International shipping available on request.