Friday was my daughter's Middle School culmination.
It was also the eighth day of what I've come to call "Menstra-Palooza, which is now mid-way through the second week of a record engagement.
I'd love to be able to share sentimental reflections of my daughter's milestone, and I did indeed get teary when I watched her walk down the very same outdoor stage I marched across 40 years ago. I'd love to opine about how our generation keeps making each stage of our children's lives bigger (we had to purchase a cap and gown for a middle school culmination) while also dumbing everything down (the kids were not allowed to wear the caps out of fear that the pointy corners would poke someone's eye out).
But I'm afraid that the main thing I am going to remember about Megan's big day was my fear of bleeding through to my clothes.
After five months of going period-free, I am angry at how many of my experiences have been marred by feminine hygiene -- like the camping trip we did last year, which corresponded with my "heavy day." Or the last day of our weekend in Paris, when I had run out of supplies and we spent an entire morning walking around the city in search of a pharmacy that sold feminine hygiene products (on that day, nobody seemed to have any, and it didn't help that "tampon" was not a word that ever came up in French 101).
My husband says he thought that day was kind of fun, but he wasn't stressing over the prospect of spending the rest of the day walking around with an embarrassing red splotch on the back of his pants.
So while I was seated on the "Senior Lawn" on Friday as my daughter's 300 or so colleagues shook hands with the principal, I was stressing about our impending flight to London and the practical implications of getting through a 10-hour flight in this condition.
Once the ceremony and photos and congratulations were done, I called my doctor. We were due to meet at the home of one of my daughter's friends for a celebratory brunch, but office hours on Fridays don't begin until 1:00 PM, so I thought I would be able to get down there, socialize a little and then run back for any appointment I might be able to make.
"Can you come in now?" they asked. It turned out that my doctor was also going on a big vacation -- an entire month in her native China, so she was in early that day. I called another friend who was going to the brunch, handed off my daughter and the quiches I was contributing and ran off to see my doctor, whose waiting room at that point was standing room only.
She wrote a prescription for something she hoped would stop the bleeding in time for our trip. "But I want you to call your OB/GYN right away," she instructed. "I won't be here to follow up with you."
I promised to call her - but it was 1:00 and I had been receiving frantic texts from my daughter, who I'd shipped off to the brunch without a change of clothes and all the other girls were ready to use the pool. Besides, I was certain the other doctor's office had closed for lunch and would not be answering the phone until 2:00. Plus, I was hungry. All I'd consumed to this point was a Starbucks latte I'd guzzled on my way to the school.
I stopped off at Target to drop the prescription off and then dashed back home, gathered up my daughter's shorts, t-shirt, swimsuit and a towel, and headed southeast to our friend's place in Studio City (when your kids go to a magnet, they wind up with friends who live all over the place). Fortunately, there was some food left, which I happily devoured. I politely declined the host's offer to make me a Bloody Mary.
And I am sorry he had to hear me utter the words "abnormal vaginal bleeding" a half hour later when I tried to reach my OB/GYN. The receptionist took down my information and said they'd call me back.
A theme that came up over and over again this past weekend was how delighted we all are with the friends our daughters made in middle school. These are nice, smart, confident girls... and they've got great parents who are fun to hang out with, too. I wish I could have spent more time with them on Friday -- but I wanted to get started on my prescription. I left Megan back at the party (there were two families there who would be able to bring her home), went back to Target and then home... and where I discovered a message from the second doctor.
For the second time that day, I had a doctor who wanted to see me immediately, which is not my usual experience. "I want to take a biopsy," she said. "Can you get here before they close the office at 4:30?"
It was 4:00 now. I called my friends to let them know I was leaving home again (just in case they tried to bring Megan home - fortunately, the party was still going strong) and met with the second doctor of the day. We discussed the procedure I'd had in November, the results of the MRI I'd taken just last month (which showed that the fibroids had indeed started to shrink), the blood test of two weeks ago that indicated I no longer suffered from anemia (yeah, I'm pretty sure that's changed now).
While I was focused on getting on that airplane on Thursday without having to use the lavatory on an hourly basis, my doctor wanted to talk about long-term options. Hysterectomy is still on the table.
"Your age is in your favor," she pointed out... meaning that at 54, my menstruating days will soon be over and I won't have these problems any longer. We might be able to ride them out by tricking my body into thinking I've gone into menopause by taking hormones. A year ago, I didn't want to go that route, because the minute you stop taking the drugs, my body would likely go back on its natural course, which could mean dealing with the symptoms of menopause TWICE. But if it turns out that the UFE has failed, I may not have any other option.
I showed her the prescription I'd just picked up and she shook her head. This was not going to do the trick, she said. She wrote me another scrip. "If you experience unusually heavy bleeding over the weekend, I want you to take this," she said. "Otherwise, let's wait until we get the results of the biopsy."
I asked her to define "unusually heavy bleeding," because I'm pretty sure that's what I was doing last Saturday, when I was going through super plus products at the rate of one every 20 minutes. She nodded as if to say yes, that's what she means.
Fortunately, it's all tapered off to what I would consider a "normal" period and I did not have to take any of the pills she prescribed. That's a good thing, because I'm not too happy with the list of possible side effects: "Nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, mood swings, trouble sleeping, weight gain, breast swelling, change in sexual interest, unwanted hair growth, or hair loss may occur...This medication may rarely cause very serious (possibly fatal) problems from blood clots (e.g., heart attack, stroke, blood clots in the lungs or legs, blindness)."
After reading the drug warnings, I'm less concerned about the inconvenience of having to use the airplane lavatory once an hour or so. Besides, on Saturday the bleeding began to taper down to what I consider "normal." So what if it's been going on for 12 days now? I can handle this.
My doctor gets the biopsy results today. I'm hoping there won't be any nasty surprises.
Oh dear I really feel for you! Have you been checked out for fibroids as they were responsible for my (very) heavy bleeding. If it is fibroids, your diet can be changed to help and certain aspects of your lifestyle modified to help you avoid the "dreaded" hysterectomy. However, if you think you are near the end of your menstrual like-stick it out (if you can)
Gail
http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-shrink-fibroids
Posted by: Gail Atkinson | June 25, 2010 at 03:10 AM