In the beginning of third grade, I had a crush on a boy named Jared. I came into school one day wearing my first bra ever and of course I was so proud of this achievement. I remember when lunch came around I slipped my sleeve down a little, showing him the strap, hoping that it would impress him. I watched him snicker, and raise his hand to tell the teacher of the horrendous act that I just committed…or at least that’s what I thought of it at the time. I remember my eyes watering up as I begged him not to do it. A wave of relief rushed over me as he put his hand down, as lunch had finally ended and he went on as if that had not even happened. At that time, that was considered a traumatic experience for me. I think anyone could agree with me as I say, it’s pretty much a traumatic situation for any third grader.
Later that year, my definition of traumatic had changed. It was no longer almost getting in trouble by one of my teachers, but it was now having to watch the most important person in my life’s physical and mental health crumble to pieces.
May 15, 2007 started off like any normal day for me except for the fact that my mother was going through three surgeries that day. I was younger and naïve, and didn’t think anything of it though. I had faith in doctors, not believing that anything could possibly ever go wrong or at least not to my mom. She drove me to school, probably getting in a fight as we pulled up considering she always tended to play loud classic rock that had been on the radio, and loved getting a reaction out of me for it. I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as always, unless kids were walking by of course, and walked away not knowing that was the last time that I would see her before the life changing surgery went down.
At the time, no one had really heard of transvaginal mesh considering their had only been about a thousand cases of it. The problem with the transvaginal mesh implanted in my mom was the fact that it’s unremovable. This product was made to form around the organs and stay in the body forever. I couldn’t really wrap my head around this at the time. Always telling her to try to get a surgery to get it fixed not understanding the fact that at this point, no doctor wanted to even try to remove it from her and that the results of this surgery could be even worse then what she was already going through and could end up in her being paralyzed.
After two months, the mesh had already eroded but as soon as she woke up from the surgery she felt the pain in her legs immediately. And when she asked her doctor about it, the response she received back was, “I tied off the mesh from the rectum to the tendons in your thighs because I didn’t know where else to tie it off to”. This is extremely terrifying to think that the same doctor is still out there performing these types of surgeries on women.
The pain my mother experienced after this surgery that she once had thought was terrible is now nothing due to the excruciating pain that she goes through every second of every day.  And it’s horrifying to think that years from now, the pain she will experience will only be worse. Due to this mistake that the doctor made, and the now recalled product that they put in her, she no longer can do what she did before like going on the beach, dancing, or even just walking for too long. Even just sitting on the couch and watching the TV has her in pain.
I believe that this complication needs more attention drawn to it because now instead of one thousand women going through this problem, there are now three hundred thousand more women just like my mother who have to suffer through this. The saddest part of these statistics are that only fourty-nine thousand of those women have federal lawsuits against these companies who wronged them, which isn’t even a guarantee for them receiving any type of money amount. No one deserves to go through this, and after having to continually watch what my mother goes through, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.