TW: heavy bleeding & hospitalization

HiReader,

Some of y'all may know that part of my "wounded healer" story includes a uterine hemorrhage I experienced at age 21. On the second day of my torrentially heavy off-cycle bleeding I called the nurse practitioner my mom had taken me to since I hit puberty. The nurse offered me birth control pills as an option to curb the flow. At the time I was two years into practicing the sympto-thermal method of fertility awareness, was fanatical about my ovulation, had never taken hormonal contraception, & sure as fuck didn't want to start. After I declined her suggested treatment plan, this nurse told me my option was simply to "wait & see". All this was over the telephone. I was offered no invitation for physical examination or testing, nor given any instructions for how to monitor the situation for if or when I might need urgent medical attention.

My self-prescribed care plan was "body talk" meditation & herbs; a plan that failed miserably.

Because I had witnessed routine abuse & negligence under the moniker of "gynecological care" in the hospital as a doula, I fought like hell to stay out of the clutches of the medical system, waiting until I was nearly dead to seek care. Finally, on the third day of the deluge, after passing out when I got up to change a pad, my boyfriend took me to the ER. The staff informed me I had less than 1/3 of a healthy adult's red blood cell count, & gave me 6 units of blood transfusions. They told me I could have easily died if I'd delayed my hospitalization by just a few hours.

The rest of that story's details are not for the container of this email. Suffice to say my experience in the hospital & in recovery from that event, both physically & spiritually, shaped my passion & praxis as a healing artist profoundly.

If I had a friend like nurse Steph at that time of that hemorrhage, or had tuned into a pragmatic conversation like the one we're going to have next Monday ahead of time, things would have definitely gone very differently for me.

I have no doubt the suffering I endured would have been greatly reduced.

This is part of why I am so stoked to be sharing a conversation with my dear friend, nurse Steph a week from today: babe! don't bleed to death! Monday, May 18th at 10am PST. Steph is an ER nurse with nearly 20 years of frontline experience, including rural obstetrics & trauma response. She totally understands my current (& my inner freaked out 21 year old's) preference to avoid allopathic care, while possessing clarity about how that care can be both humane & life saving.

We're gonna be chatting about how to address & assess heavy bleeding in menstruation, peri-menopause, & pregnancy release of all kinds in a myriad of settings, from the wilderness to the ER. For cases that do end up in the ER, we're gonna chat about strategies for patient advocacy, communicating & collaborating with the staff.

babe, don't bleed to death!

a conversation with myself & Stephanie Portell BSN, RN

Monday, May 18th at 10am PST

live on Zoom, audio only, with recording available.

My convo with Steph will be recorded & added to the FoK archives, with a limited replay sent to a la cart registrants. As part of my new participant privacy policy, we will not record participant discussion at the end of the call to enable folks who join live to speak a bit more freely.

Please hit reply if you have any Qs about this call, FoK Buddy Sessions, or my offerings in general.

I love hearing from you, & it's an honor to be of service!

So much love,