Friday, March 12, 2010

Follow-up to "My 3-hour-tour..." 2009

Last year, I gave birth to my second daughter.  It was beautiful and wonderful!  And it was at home!  My midwife discovered a vaginal cyst and it was decided to go to the hospital for quick removal and then back home....three days later (!) we left the hospital.  Read my postpartum story here

Go ahead.  I will wait.  Get yourself a drink and read it if you haven't before.

Why did I have elevated liver enzymes?  They never could figure it out...  I went to another GI doc as an outpatient and he wanted me to have more tests done...SCREW THAT!  I never had it done.

Then today I came across this article on shower curtains and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  And I remember reading something many months ago (1, 2, and 3 different articles - I can't find what I did read originally) about how VOCs can cause a variety of problems, including elevated liver enzymes. 

The key element in this is that I bought two new shower curtains - one for my shower and one for my bed - for the birth.  I had been exposed to VOCs without even knowing it!  And that, I believe, raised my liver enzymes, causing an unnecessary problem of me being in the hospital for three agonizing days!!  It kills me because I carefully chose a no-VOC paint to use in the bathroom just shortly before the birth.

I currently have a shower curtain from IKEA that is either low- or no-VOC, so I hope I don't have to worry about that....just wish I had time and energy to clean my bathtub ;)