Chapter 23: The Follow Up

Hello, all. First of all, here's a reminder to practice social distancing and to wash your hands. Even if you're not worried about your own safety, remember the elderly and immunocompromised people are at a higher risk. Be a good person and a good samaritan when you can. Take this seriously.

I live in New York, where there are currently 20,000 cases. Most of them are at the other end of the state so it's helping prevent my panic. However, we do have over 80 cases in my county so to say I'm anxious is an understatement. I'm grateful for state and county leadership trying to keep us safe since the president clearly has no idea what the fuck he's doing.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled uterus content. I had a follow up with Dr. Ghomi, my surgeon, about a month ago. My periods were still coming every 21-23 days, even though they were much lighter. As I'm on the pill, that means that I got my period while I was still taking the active hormone pills. The best part of being on the pill is being able to control when you menstruate, so this was annoying. No one wants a period every 3 weeks instead of 4. He recommended i stop having periods all together by skipping my inactive pill and going on to the new pill pack. He sent authorization to my insurance to fill my pill packs a week earlier than usual and it was a simple and quick appointment.

I've skipped the placebo pills once since then and it's been interesting. I had some cramping and back pain when I would have normally gotten my period, but nothing like it was pre op. I also have been spotting for about two weeks now, which is a new experience. I never understood what panty liners were for until now. When I bled, I needed supersized overnight pads always. Now I know what spotting is and why panty liners exist. I wish I would have learned this at another time in world history when people aren't hoarding everything due to the pandemic. Thank goodness for Thinx period panties. They have been a life saver on cutting down store trips and making due with access to fever products. I am not sponsored by them (but would love to be), but I seriously recommend investing in a few pairs if you can swing it.

I also had a nice chat with Dr. Ghomi about how much more research and knowledge is needed in women's health, especially things like endometriosis. It's so reassuring to have a highly trained surgeon who knows what you're going through and cares. He also did a quick mental health check to see how I was handling things, which was greatly appreciated. I'll dedicate a whole post to that soon.

My anxiety has been a little higher than usual since I started this, but it could be the whole end of the world under a widely incompetent president thing that's causing that. It's hard to really tell.