Just wondering....

...if anyone ever reads the emails send to the Oprah Show?
...if anyone ever reads the emails send to guests of the Oprah Show?

Yes, I confess, I love Oprah, even though I think she has lost a bit of that bite she used to have years ago.

So, I decided to create this blog after I I watched the Oprah Show tonight.

I record the Oprah shows and watch when I have time.
Oprah´s guests in this particular show were Nicholas D. Kristof and his wife Sheryl DuWunn.
They spoke about their book "Half The Sky".
Very touching to me.
But.... I started thinking...
that maybe, if not Oprah could give me a voice, then Nicholas could?

So, I googled him and found the contact him through his website to let him know that while his work is great, I would love for him to tell my story.

I came to the United States a few years ago, to be with my Husband, and I had the misfortune? bad karma? bad luck? to be in the wrong space at the wrong time?
to find myself now handicapped because a Doctor in a local Hospital knew "what I needed".

I walked into the Hospital a healthy, just pregnant young woman.
I went there because I thought my water broke.
After it was clear, that the baby was due- prematurely- I asked for a c-section.

I did have a very strong instinct/feeling that I had to have a c-section.
I try to not question my instincts as they have saved my life before.
I would gladly explain more, but... also fact is
where I come from (not grew up, that is a different story!) that request would have been no problem, and I was so convinced it would not be a problem at all in "modern America".
But, the Doctor looked at me and said to my complete amazement "You don´t need one" and with that, she almost ran out of the room.
She had never seen me before.
How could she possibly know me?
How could she even make a guess at what I needed?
I still don´t have any answers for those questions.

They used alot of force during the birthing process.
When I tried to get out of bed the next morning I noticed a sharp, stabbing pain in my right calf. I could not control or move my leg much...
I could not get out of bed on my own.

With this, my nightmare started.
It has not been solved until today- almost 4 years later.
I have been and am in pain for almost 4 years now.
I cannot tell you how it is that I have not yet lost my mind over the amount of pain I am in 24/7.

Maybe there is somebody that can help me with this, I do not know.
So far, I have not managed to get much help from Doctors and/or lawyers, and/or anyone I tried to talk to.
Like Oprah...
Like Nicholas...
Like a gozillion of other people.
I tried them all- but, nothing so far.

After watching the Oprah Show with Nicholas and his wife, I sat down to write him my story.
This is what I wrote him on November 30, 2009, after I watched the Oprah Show and after I went online and after I read his column "Are We Going To Let John Die" published November 28, 2009.

Dear Nicholas

My name is Gertie. I came to the US about 5 years ago to be with my Husband.
Before that, I was the Host of Gertie´s Country Show on AFN....
My life was not only good, it was great (compared to now!). I grew up as part of a small suppressed minority (Siebenbürger Sachsen) in communist Romania. Me and my family were sold to the west in 1984. An incident at the border ( a soldier wanted my earrings) left me partially hearing impaired. Being locked up in Romania only tempted me more, once free, to go see our beautiful planet. I came to the US as an exchange student when I was 17. I have done and seen many amazing, incredibly things, probably topping it all with my own radio show at AFN. I never thought how bitter and desperate I could get- in the United States of all countries of the planet, a country I thought and felt so highly about after I had lived here as an exchange student... On January 25, 2006, I thought my water broke, and the nurse we called at the Hospital I was scheduled to give birth, told me to come by, they would check it out. I was a healthy, happy (just pregnant) young woman when I went to the Hospital. Coming from Europe thinking I am in a modern, civilized country where I can request whatever I´d like done with my body when I am in a Hospital I requested a c-section when it was clear that the baby was due sometime later. It was denied by a doctor, that had never seen me in her entire life, knew nothing about me or why I wanted a c-section (not that she even bothered to ask). Sad enough, they used a birthing bar during the delivery process, among other things, when the baby just didn´t want to come out (after a nightmare of them trying everything possible and impossible) and rushing me along the entire time, while on that bar, I heard a loud crack on my right side where a nurse was holding my right leg. The next morning, I noticed a sharp, stabbing pain in my right calf and that I could not get out of bed. The leg was treated wrong, which led to an almost lethal blood clot and a permanently damaged femoral vein. The pain is still there, but has now taken over the entire leg. It is the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life, and it just never stops. I know about you, because I watched the Oprah Show today, which I record, and then catch up with watching when I have time. As ironic as it is, I have not voice on this matter, I am in so much desperate pain, and while I am glad, we did not lose our house to foreclosure because of the tons of medical bills (yes, they screw you up and bill you for it!!!), I do not know what to do. I have seen what are supposed to be some of the best doctors in the United States, but they could not figure out what is going on with my leg. They all asked me if this was a "work related injury" and if "there were lawsuits pending" well, gotta tell you without a diagnosis (which I do not have, just a feeling what it could be) I cannot even get a lawyer to take me seriously. Any questions I have for them (the Doctors that I have seen) if they have ever heard of something like my pain, or the noise I heard during my time on that birthing bar, I just sense they do not want to answer and they do not want to really help me with anything beyond more pills...
Please, Nicholas, I am begging you, write about me. Help me get this nightmare out there so that maybe I can get some help with my persisting pain. I do not know just how much longer I can stand it. The pain is nonstop, persistent and never gives me a break. I cannot sit, drive, walk, stand, sleep, lift my little one much, run in the snow with him, dance (except if I sit on a chair and he dances around me) and while getting around the house on a skateboard sounds like fun, it is a complete nightmare that will be 4 years old on January 26, 2010, the same age my beautiful little one is.

Please: HELP ME!
Thank you and Merry Christmas.
Gertie

The countless emails I have written to Oprah?

They might follow...

Thanks for listening in tonight- please do
follow your hearts (and your instincts, even though a Doctor might tell you otherwise) and until soon again,