Saturday, August 14, 2010

Harsh dose of reality

A few weeks ago, I was informed of a woman on our RA support group who had become unintentionally pregnant. She had been using an IUC as birth control. She was also on the same medication as I am, methotrexate. All of us on this medication have been told by our doctors and pharmacists how dangerous to a fetus this medication can be. Understandably, this woman was very concerned about her pregnancy - not only how the medication would effect the baby, but how was her RA going to be during a pregnancy. The support group reassured her as far as RA during pregnancy - many women had experienced remission during pregnancy with the RA not returning until after delivery. However, no one had personal experience with a pregnancy that was exposed to the medication.

This morning, she contacted us to let us know that she lost the baby. She went to her doctor for an ultrasound and they discovered that not only did the baby have no heartbeat, but many of the limbs were malformed as well as an absence of a brain. Our entire support community is grieving over this right now. It brings home to us all the harshness of this medication we have to take in order to control our disease. Please pray for this mom and her family.

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