And Now For Something a Bit More Serious

Warning! The following post contains things that may cause the heebie-jeebies, especially for men. Proceed with caution!

I went to the dr. today to get my IUD removed. I was sick of having very heavy, week-long periods for the past year, and figured since Harrison is weaned now (yippee!) I don't need to worry about avoiding excess hormones that the pill or other hormonal birth control would cause.

I was doing the fun gyno routine - naked from the waist down, speculum in, looking at the neat mobile above my head and pretending someone wasn't poking around in my coochie - when I heard the dreaded words: "I can't find your strings."

See, the IUD is inside a woman's uterus, but has strings that hang down through the cervix for removal. The person doing the removal just gets those strings and pulls on 'em, and voila, no more IUD. But not so simple if you don't have the strings hanging out of your cervix. The midwife doing the removal then got what looked like an extra long crochet hook and dug around in my uterus for a bit, but couldn't find the amazing missing IUD. Yes, this was painful. And in addition to the pain, I now have a complex that I have a freakishly big uterus, or one that eats IUDs. Or that my cervix is so big I managed to lose an IUD and didn't notice it.

So, now I have to go back in a few weeks for an ultrasound so they can figure out where the IUD is. Yes, I have to wait and worry about having an embedded IUD for 10 days. As soon as I left the drs. office, I started to worry about the worst case scenario - I'll have a horrible pelvic infection, have to have a hysterectomy, etc. I know this is probably not the case, but I'll still worry about it. And even though I know in my heart I don't think I can handle having another baby, as the two children I already have drive me bonkers a great deal of the time, I still like having the ability to have children, just in case I change my mind and decide I want another child.

So, now I'm feeling depressed and crampy. Yay, me.