Advents Corner

Today I am cramping a little more.  I was told that as long as I am bleeding I will hurt because of the endometriosis.  Hopefully it will be better in a couple of days.

BTW, I am going to stop the counting of days and I will just highlight milestones, like the number of months or something and we will call this Living with Mirena.  That sounds good.

One of the concerns I am having is the fact that some people have issues with depression while on this or so I have read.  Just for the record, I already have problems with depression and I am on a daily medication.  I have suffered with depression since the age of 11 so I have quite a few coping techniques that I know work for me so I am able to manage a good part of the time but I never stop taking my meds no matter how good I feel.

Well I wish I could say today was as great as yesterday.  I woke up with severe cramping at 1:30 am.  I could no stay in the bed because I was afraid I was going to keep Matt awake.  I got up and took some Alieve.  The pain is coming in waves through by stomach and I am having a lot of pelvic pressure.  I am not bleeding any more than I was before so that is good.

One hour later I took Tylenol because it did not seem like the Alieve was working.

One hour later I decide to go and try to lay down because with it being the last day of the month I have to go to work.  I am the lead processor and it would not look good if I called in on the last day of the month.

I was able to get a little sleep in between cramps but I don’t know how much rest I got.  I got up to go to work and the bleeding has picked up since yesterday.

I get to work and at 8 am I call my doctor’s office and leave a message and tell them what is going on.  I am popping Alieve and Tylenol but nothing is happening and at this point I am finding it uncomfortable to walk around and speak to my processors.

At 12 pm I call the doctor’s again because I have not heard anything and I was told they were finishing with the last patient and the doctor wanted to call me back and speak to me herself but they left that I was going ot have to come into the office.  By 1 pm I could not handle it anymore and I sent out an email that I was going to have to leave for the day.  As soon as I pulled into my driveway my doctor called and told me to come in right away to do an ultrasound because she was afraid it might have moved.

I head over to the doctor’s office and I get there about 2 pm.  They take me back and do a 2D ultrasound and from that view it looks like the IUD is right where it is suppose to be but she wanted another doctor to do a 3D to just make sure and this doctor has been doing ultrasounds for 30 years and they want her to look at me.

At 3 pm they put me back in the waiting room and say it will be 30 minutes and they would come and get me to have the next ultrasound.  Well, 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm and then finally they bring me to the back to sit in a different chair to wait.  I get to see the other doctor at about 6:30 pm.  She took a history and we chatted about the fact that her husband had done the 4D ultrasound for my daughter back in July 2006.

She was very careful and asked a lot of questions and she concluded the IUD was in a perfect spot but that was not my problem.  I was having so many problems because I have endometriosis on my left ovary.  She seems to thing that it probably happened in July 2006 when they tied by tubes because that was when all of my problems started.

She stated they needed to stop my periods all together and she is afraid the IUD is not going to do that.  She wants me to come back in March and have another ultrasound and if I am continuing to have cycles she will then decide to put me on hormones to stop them or have the endometriosis burned off.

Slight cramping and the blood flow is almost completely gone.   I have to say that as much as it hurt to have it inserted I did not think I would feel this good the next day.  I have been taking Alieve just to help with the little cramping but I am at work today with no issues.

After much thought and saving I had the Mirena inserted today.  My insurance did not pay for any of the cost.  My doctor even wrote them a letter stating it was medically necessary because I had my tubes tied in July 2006 after the birth of my third daughter.  I had terrible periods after one year of having the tubal and they just got worst.  To the point that by the time summer of 2008 came along I was anemic from the blood loss.

My doctor suggested the Mirena but because I did not have the $586 at the moment to pay for it I started on the Nuva Ring.  I hated that thing.  Not to mention the fact that I was still having to go to the pharmacy every month for birth control.  I finally was able to call the pharmaceutical company and order the Mirena.

I wish someone would have told me a little more about the insertion process.  Of course my doctor gave me a local anathestic but that did not help.  My doctor said my uterus was set to the side and pointing down so it was a little more difficult to put in there.  I can not describe the pain and let me just say I have a high threshold for pain but this was very unexpected to say the least.  Basically what they do it take a thin plastic rod and push it through the opening of the uterus.  When you are not dilated there is no opening so they have to make their own and it fells like they are pushing their arm through you.

Anyway enough of that.  The pain is gone except for on the left side.  I was told that I would have some bleeding for 2 days and cramping for 3.  The flow is already slowing down but the cramping is still there.