Subj: A letter I sent to
Mrs. Clinton today
Date: 97-11-09
Dear Mrs. Clinton, My name is Jill Eckman
and I'm 30 years old, have 2 beautiful daughters
and a wonderful husband. I first want to
tell you that I really admire you for speaking
up on women's health issues and you are
truly a role model for our children.
The reason for my letter is to ask for your
help in getting the word out about pelvic
adhesions and women that suffer chronic,
daily, intractable pain from them. I want
to help to get funding for more research
on this problem to find a solution for us.
There are some doctors out there that are
trying so hard to help, but, they need funding,
such as Dr. David Wiseman, in Dallas, Texas.
I really am impressed with his work so far,
but he needs funding.
I have been "trying" to deal with
the pain from adhesions for over 7 years
now. It is so hard to be a good mother and
wife, when you are bedridden by pain. My
children don't understand why mommy can't
go out and play with them like she used
to, and my husband now has to do most of
the housekeeping because I can't anymore.
I talk to allot of women that have massive
adhesions
like I do and they feel the same as I do.
Drs. are still being taught that the first
thing to look for when a woman comes to
them, complaining about pelvic pain, is
to look for depression or to blame it on
being sexually abused as a child. Then they
tell us that the only way to get rid of
the pain is a hysterectomy, which causes
more adhesions, and is the reason that I'm
in so much pain today. I was given a Hysterectomy
when I was 23 years old and it only made
the pain worse.
When we ask for pain medication, we are
told that we are "drug addicts"
or "drug seekers" when all we
are asking for is relief from the horrible
pain we are in. We are mothers, daughters,
sisters and wives and all we want is to
have our lives back and to be painfree.
We totally agree with the "war on drugs",
but, that war is being used on some of the
wrong people, such as us. So many doctors
are afraid of losing there medical licenses
for giving us the proper pain relief. It
is so cruel to let so many people suffer
like we do. The medical technology is there,
it just needs to be used.
We used to be productive people and we are
not able to even do everyday things like
clean our house or attend school functions
or church because we are in so much pain.
I think that if this subject would be brought
out in the public eye, maybe there would
be more done for us. If you could speak
out, it would help so much. I am just one
person, but, I want to help so much. Not
just for myself but, for the others out
there, too.
Alot of us are made to feel that we are
weak and guilty for needing pain medicine,
but we should not have to feel this way.
It causes so much depression. If there were
more Drs. that would give effective pain
relief, I believe that there would be less
depression and there would be less people
killing themselves or using doctors like
Dr. Kovorkian. We feel so hopeless that
sometimes, killing ourselves seems like
the only way to end the suffering. I would
like to invite you to visit "our"
forum on America OnLine, called The Pain
Relief Center, Keyword- relief. You will
find that there are so many suffering and
you will see that we try to offer support.
Thank you so much for your time.
GOD BLESS, Jill Eckman |
