Oversharing Blog Post #too many

Hopefully this can be the last over-sharing blog posting for a while. Believe me, I’m getting just as tired of it as you are. I was going to try and do one of those expandable post things so you could click if you wanted to read all of this but it looked too complicated. So read on if you'd like. Or don't. It's your choice. We're all adults here.

I had mentioned a while back that at my last doctor’s appointment they gave me Seasonique in place of the Seasonale I’d been on for the past two years because it mysteriously quit working (tons of breakthrough bleeding.) I started taking the Seasonique right away and for about a month things were fine. And then in the middle of July it started. It went on and on, ebbing and flowing, completely unpredictable, uncontrollable, a constant frustration. I had to break down and buy maxi-pads for the first time in about six or seven years because I couldn’t predict when it would start or stop so I didn’t want to use tampons. There were days I actually had to take drugs to be able to function because I was cramping so badly. The Wednesday before the wedding was one of those days. After returning from the drive-in with Adam and Catherine I laid down in bed, took two Pamprin, and tried to relax my discontented uterus.

I had considered calling the doctor in the week before the wedding to see if there was anything they could do to help me out, but I didn’t. I probably should have. On Friday morning it was still there. At that point, though, there was really nothing I could do about it except make the best of the situation. Luckily it wasn’t turbo-style, just an annoyance, but it still lingered at the back of my mind throughout the whole day. When we left for Alaska it was a minor inconvenience. But by Wednesday it was back with a vengeance and made the excursion in Skagway almost unbearable. It was the longest one – an eight hour bus/train ride up to Yukon and back – and let me tell you it’s not a pleasant situation, being stuck in a bus for hours in that condition. I stayed sitting in the back of the bus most of the time. I didn’t want to risk standing up because it was such a disgusting feeling. We missed our opportunity to get our picture taken by the “Welcome to the Yukon Territories” sign because I’d decided I couldn’t wait and tried to go to the bathroom on the bus. By the time I came back out everyone was back on the bus. I broke down in the back of the bus, fearing I was ruining our honeymoon because my stupid body refused to cooperate. I’m tearing up even writing about it now.

I know it was frustrating for Adam too but really there was nothing either of us could do about it. I had not anticipated it would reappear so fully (blindly optimistic of me, I suppose) so I was forced to buy overpriced stuff from the ship’s store in brands I didn’t like just to survive it. Wednesday was definitely the worst day and though it remained a bother, I was able to function and deal with it a lot better for the duration of the trip since it was confined to just one area rather than attacking my whole body at one time.

This, of course, led to discussions about what we were going to do when we returned. I had considered throwing the Seasonique into the ocean half way through the trip but I reconsidered that when I realized that I was completely unprepared for a full-blown appearance. So I kept taking the pills although I abandoned my 7AM on the dot concern to which I had remained so religious. I stopped taking them the Sunday we got back. And, true to my prediction, was soon thereafter hit by the full-blown, hormone-control-deprived results. Without anything foreign in my system it went through its usual route and was gone about a week later. For the first time in over two months I could get dressed without worrying about getting the towel dirty or deciding which level of protection to go with.

*sigh*

But this still left us with the decision of what to do. I had actually talked through this a little over lunch with Catherine (the sister) on the day before the wedding. I know there are many non-hormonal birth control methods out there. My problem is I like most of the effects of the hormonal methods. I was on a 28-day pill for a couple years back in college and it was great. And even the Seasonale worked wonderfully for almost two years. I went on the 91-day pill to avoid all the side-effects of my natural cycle. I’m all for having something control it a little. Plus, most non-hormonal methods require, uh, planning (ahem.) We’re lazy. It’s much easier for me to pop a pill every morning.

So I called my doctor yesterday afternoon to request a prescription for the 28-day pill again. It’s not my ideal solution but I’m hoping it will solve my breakthrough problems (as in, there should be no unexpected bleeding. EVER!) and will be a satisfactory and dependable birth control method until it’s decided to un-control birth. We'll see how it goes.