It begins...

For about a week, I was experiencing very strange bleeding. I knew it wasn’t my typical period, but took notes and didn’t think too much else of it. On Friday, November 4, I call in sick from work. If you know me, you know this NEVER happens. I call my gynecologist. Again, if you know me, you know this NEVER happens. I tell them what’s going on (I’ll put a description at the bottom, should you want to avoid the gory details) and am told that they will notify the doctor and if he feels it’s serious, he’ll call me back. Does he call me back? No. This continues for a full week before I finally call him again on November 9. He prescribes medroxyprogesterone to try to get the bleeding to stop and made me an appointment for November 11.

*WARNING: GORY DETAILS FOLLOW*

• October 27-heavy bleeding for one hour, nothing else rest of day
• October 28-passed a HUGE clot, probably the size of a golf ball; bled through superplus tampon, liner, underwear, and jeans in less than an hour; bled two hours total, then completely stopped
• October 29-no bleeding
• October 30-no bleeding
• October 31-bled very heavily from 7:30 am-10 am; passing large clots
• November 1-no bleeding
• November 2-spotted before bed, so put a tampon in; took tampon out in morning, completely clean, but started bleeding heavily into the toilet
• November 3-normal, period-like bleeding
• November 4-from 4:30-6 am, extremely heavy bleeding; bled through multiple superplus tampons in under 5 minutes; passing lots of large clots; moment of panic when I sat on the toilet and couldn’t find the string: the tampon had become so saturated that it slipped out on its own (I wasn’t even aware this was possible); decide to call in sick and call the doctor
• November 5-extremely heavy bleeding from 10-11 pm
• November 6-normal, period-like bleeding
• November 7-extremely heavy bleeding from 5-6:30 am
• November 8-had almost entirely stopped bleeding after yesterday’s morning episode; woke up at 1:30 am, tampon nearly empty; wiped and was bleeding very heavy again; inserted new tampon but didn’t even make it into bed before it was saturated
• November 9-after hardly bleeding all day, awoke at midnight to same heavy bleeding, this time accompanied by lightheadedness, shakes, and nausea; took an iron supplement before returning to bed around 1:30; heavy bleeding started again at 2:45 and lasted til 4:45 am; called Dr. Umstead’s office again and was prescribed medroxyprogesterone to stop the bleeding and got an appointment in his office on Friday, November 11
• November 10-moderately heavy bleeding 12:30-1:15 pm