Alphabet soup: NaBloPoMo and 2 IUDs
Hello all,
Well, I just failed at writing over the course of the busy season at work. Been meaning to get back into it, and found the perfect excuse: NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Not feeling particularly like writing that novel? Just post on your blog for 30 days instead!
We'll see how I do. Today I'm not feeling much like writing, as I just got my second IUD out, so I'm just going to write this and about that for a moment and call it a day. This may seem unrelated to the main theme of this blog, but birth control is something that has allowed me to have the sex I've had without having children and that's related enough for me. Plus, you're about to get another 29 posts out of me in the following few weeks, there will be time enough for other things.
I started taking the pill shortly after I started having PIV sex with my boyfriend Art in high school. I straight up told my parents we were sexually active and asked what to do, and remember my Dad driving me to Planned Parenthood and leaving me in their capable hands. It's one of the best parenting moments I remember of them, as it started me on a path to being comfortable going to the lady doctor and being careful. Despite all you've read and will read on this blog, I've successfully never gotten pregnant or seriously infected by anything- it can happen!
Ultimately I switched to a low dose pill after being too moody on the regular dose, and that worked for me for over a decade. Until last year, when my local ob-gyn said she didn't feel comfortable prescribing it to me again. I get very infrequent migraines, but that was enough to render my risk of stroke unacceptable, she said. I disagreed, and visited a neurologist who backed me up and wrote a letter, and I got my prescription refilled that year.
This year, at my annual exam, I knew they were going to bring it up. I did a lot of research and thinking about things, including the potential for changes to how birth control was covered by insurance, and the real risk, though small, that I could actually have a stroke, and decided to go for the littlest, lowest dose IUD out there, Skyla. When the NP brought up the recommendation that I switch, I was ready.
A couple weeks later, it was put in. It sucked, no kidding, but it was quick and my NP was good it, although I wasn't her best work. I bled like crazy and tried to go grocery shopping on the way home- big mistake. Halfway through, I needed to use the bathroom, and the little Latin market near home I was at didn't have one. I dashed home and immediately to the toilet in record time.
The few days after that are a blur. I missed work, multiple times. I bled, I slept, I tried to eat around terrible nausea and migraines. I also had symptoms that felt like puberty, sped up- breast tenderness, awful feelings. We don't have to dwell.
I tried to stick it out out of a belief that this might be normal, but after a week of suffering I called them to ask how much longer I would be in this hell and they sounded concerned and told me to come back in. We did an ultrasound and discovered the IUD had barely, juuuussst barely, perforated the side of my uterus. Yep. Well, at least it wasn't all in my head.
So, the IUD had to go. Time got a bit quicker after that. Someone mentioned alternative methods that I wasn't interested in trying. My doctor, badass that she is, swept in with an idea- even though I apparently have a very tiny and cute uterus, a Skyla should still fit, because it is also very tiny. We could take the old one out, and pop a new one back in there, as long as we had the ultrasound going while we did it. Did I want to try that?
Sure, I said. So that's what we did. The second insertion was much harder- I was so sore from the week of suffering after the first one and unprepared for a do-over, and instead of just the NP and me, there were a lot more people in the room. But they were all joking with me about my adorable little bitty uterus and I was a trooper and I got a second IUD and then was left alone on the table on a towel spotted with my fresh blood to clean up and be sent on my merry way.
The new IUD was immediately, noticeably, in a better spot than the first one. With the first, I had had a sensation of my core muscles clenching, and they didn't unclench until that one was removed, it felt like. I had a sensation of plastic in my stomach and so much pain in my back. The second, though, was no cakewalk either. I had a couple more days of bleeding and pain just due to reinsertion, and while I was ultimately able to relax my abs sometimes, many of the side effects continued. I was so uncomfortable it made me not want to have sex with my current partner, Gus, and that was just ridiculous- if I wasn't ever going to have sex, why did I need birth control in the first place? He wasn't a fan, either.
I tried dealing for 3 full months. But I went to my primary care doctor for something unrelated last week and was complaining about how awful I still felt and asked her when it would stop. She told me she wasn't sure this IUD was going to work out for me. She told me it was okay if I wanted to get it removed. I scheduled the appointment the next day.
I came into the office today prepared to do battle to convince them I really needed it to come out. I was scheduled with a different doctor than my regular ob-gyn, and he was brusque. I told him why I wanted it out, and out it came. I told him I wanted to be prescribed the pill I took before, and he did so. I felt very relieved and energized. He disappeared before I could ask him any questions and I got my prescription filled and went home.
Since then, I've felt pretty gross- better than after insertion both times for sure, but there's definitely still been blood and headache and nausea. I've had about as much screen time as my headache can take, actually, so I'm going to wrap this up. There might be an update post later this month. Like I said, I think this is related to the sex life at hand. It's also one of those things that it's hard to write publicly about, but I do think is worth writing about. When I was researching the IUD, I didn't think I'd have many, if any, issues with it. I really wanted to like it. But it didn't work out for me, and man, it's made life complicated for a couple months now. So I definitely want to say, if you're struggling with one or nervous about one too, you're not alone.
Less gross post tomorrow hopefully!
Well, I just failed at writing over the course of the busy season at work. Been meaning to get back into it, and found the perfect excuse: NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Not feeling particularly like writing that novel? Just post on your blog for 30 days instead!
We'll see how I do. Today I'm not feeling much like writing, as I just got my second IUD out, so I'm just going to write this and about that for a moment and call it a day. This may seem unrelated to the main theme of this blog, but birth control is something that has allowed me to have the sex I've had without having children and that's related enough for me. Plus, you're about to get another 29 posts out of me in the following few weeks, there will be time enough for other things.
I started taking the pill shortly after I started having PIV sex with my boyfriend Art in high school. I straight up told my parents we were sexually active and asked what to do, and remember my Dad driving me to Planned Parenthood and leaving me in their capable hands. It's one of the best parenting moments I remember of them, as it started me on a path to being comfortable going to the lady doctor and being careful. Despite all you've read and will read on this blog, I've successfully never gotten pregnant or seriously infected by anything- it can happen!
Ultimately I switched to a low dose pill after being too moody on the regular dose, and that worked for me for over a decade. Until last year, when my local ob-gyn said she didn't feel comfortable prescribing it to me again. I get very infrequent migraines, but that was enough to render my risk of stroke unacceptable, she said. I disagreed, and visited a neurologist who backed me up and wrote a letter, and I got my prescription refilled that year.
This year, at my annual exam, I knew they were going to bring it up. I did a lot of research and thinking about things, including the potential for changes to how birth control was covered by insurance, and the real risk, though small, that I could actually have a stroke, and decided to go for the littlest, lowest dose IUD out there, Skyla. When the NP brought up the recommendation that I switch, I was ready.
A couple weeks later, it was put in. It sucked, no kidding, but it was quick and my NP was good it, although I wasn't her best work. I bled like crazy and tried to go grocery shopping on the way home- big mistake. Halfway through, I needed to use the bathroom, and the little Latin market near home I was at didn't have one. I dashed home and immediately to the toilet in record time.
The few days after that are a blur. I missed work, multiple times. I bled, I slept, I tried to eat around terrible nausea and migraines. I also had symptoms that felt like puberty, sped up- breast tenderness, awful feelings. We don't have to dwell.
I tried to stick it out out of a belief that this might be normal, but after a week of suffering I called them to ask how much longer I would be in this hell and they sounded concerned and told me to come back in. We did an ultrasound and discovered the IUD had barely, juuuussst barely, perforated the side of my uterus. Yep. Well, at least it wasn't all in my head.
So, the IUD had to go. Time got a bit quicker after that. Someone mentioned alternative methods that I wasn't interested in trying. My doctor, badass that she is, swept in with an idea- even though I apparently have a very tiny and cute uterus, a Skyla should still fit, because it is also very tiny. We could take the old one out, and pop a new one back in there, as long as we had the ultrasound going while we did it. Did I want to try that?
Sure, I said. So that's what we did. The second insertion was much harder- I was so sore from the week of suffering after the first one and unprepared for a do-over, and instead of just the NP and me, there were a lot more people in the room. But they were all joking with me about my adorable little bitty uterus and I was a trooper and I got a second IUD and then was left alone on the table on a towel spotted with my fresh blood to clean up and be sent on my merry way.
The new IUD was immediately, noticeably, in a better spot than the first one. With the first, I had had a sensation of my core muscles clenching, and they didn't unclench until that one was removed, it felt like. I had a sensation of plastic in my stomach and so much pain in my back. The second, though, was no cakewalk either. I had a couple more days of bleeding and pain just due to reinsertion, and while I was ultimately able to relax my abs sometimes, many of the side effects continued. I was so uncomfortable it made me not want to have sex with my current partner, Gus, and that was just ridiculous- if I wasn't ever going to have sex, why did I need birth control in the first place? He wasn't a fan, either.
I tried dealing for 3 full months. But I went to my primary care doctor for something unrelated last week and was complaining about how awful I still felt and asked her when it would stop. She told me she wasn't sure this IUD was going to work out for me. She told me it was okay if I wanted to get it removed. I scheduled the appointment the next day.
I came into the office today prepared to do battle to convince them I really needed it to come out. I was scheduled with a different doctor than my regular ob-gyn, and he was brusque. I told him why I wanted it out, and out it came. I told him I wanted to be prescribed the pill I took before, and he did so. I felt very relieved and energized. He disappeared before I could ask him any questions and I got my prescription filled and went home.
Since then, I've felt pretty gross- better than after insertion both times for sure, but there's definitely still been blood and headache and nausea. I've had about as much screen time as my headache can take, actually, so I'm going to wrap this up. There might be an update post later this month. Like I said, I think this is related to the sex life at hand. It's also one of those things that it's hard to write publicly about, but I do think is worth writing about. When I was researching the IUD, I didn't think I'd have many, if any, issues with it. I really wanted to like it. But it didn't work out for me, and man, it's made life complicated for a couple months now. So I definitely want to say, if you're struggling with one or nervous about one too, you're not alone.
Less gross post tomorrow hopefully!
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