So I couldn't find the string. Which is weird. I've had this IUD since Nov 1999 and the string has always been right where it's supposed to be. I don't check every month, but often enough. I'm so grateful to this little device that keeps me free from an unwanted pregnancy. I know it's crazy! I'm 50. I have too many friends in their early 40s struggling and struggling to reproduce but I'm still ovulating and it could happen. My first kids are old - I'm done with that phase. I don't want to return; don't want the possibility made real, a too-old pregnancy, it's inevitable loss.
So the gyn wasn't worried. "I bet the string's just curled up in there. Hmm, your uterus is hard to get to. Hmmm. Well I guess you should have an ultrasound to see if it's still in there. " They take me pretty much right away, right downstairs. The tech is taking all sorts of measurements. "Is it hard to find?" "Oh no," she says. "Pretty easy but as long as were in here I'm doing a full exam."
The gyn calls later. Well, it's still in there but you have some fibroids. I told you you had fibroids, right? Uh no. "Well one is surprisingly big. Like 8, 8 1/2. Big as a grapefruit. I'm surprised it's so big. If it gets to 9 1/2, you're going to have some decisions to make. Oh, and it's pushed the IUD down to a lower position than usual, so that's why you said you thought you could feel your cervix before I even went on in there. The fibroid is exerting pressure. It's like you're 3 & 1/2 months pregnant. If you stopped ovulating in the next year or two, it should shrink. Problem will be if you're still going on @ 55. Or if you start having periods like a gulley waddle."
Uh, what?! "Can you translate from that Texas speak?" (At least I think that's what she said. - something about too much rain and overflowing the gulleys. gullets. I don't know.)
Not life threatening. Not even a sickness. But disturbing and uncomfortable. I can feel the pressure, in a place where sensation usually doesn't exist. And there are repercussions. Again, not life threatening, not even dangerous. Just a surprise and a drag. A mental drain and perhaps some unpleasant decisions and procedures ahead.
3 comments:
That is a "gully washer," pal!
Yikes-- not a good scene at all.
Ah, yes. Well, I escaped the threat of pregnancy with the tube-tying at 40 after decades of 'the pill'. They tied both even though I had lost an ovary at 22. I pretty much started flirting with menopause after that and by 50, done. Those fibroids can be bad but removal isn't too bad. Easily said when it was happening to my friends, not me. But then I'd had the open you up and take the appendix and ovary and a mass of stuff for good measure at 22.
take care and best wishes
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