I got an IUD put in yesterday. I'll write a bit here about it, in case someone is trolling for some information. I'll be fairly graphic, so if you aren't interested in the details about this, please stop reading here. Thanks.
I should first start with what my expectation was going in, based on what I read from other people's experience. And for the most part, what they said made it seem like it wouldn't be that bad. Let me tell you - it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. Granted, I've never given birth. I've only gotten a tattoo and a piercing, which were plenty painful on their own. I asked my gyno if I would feel a pinch and he said, "You'll feel pinch, cramp, cramp. Do you want the laughing gas? You won't feel anything". Sure, I said. I didn't think it was a time to be brave, with my cervix on the line. So the assistant gave me the gas and told me to hold it and breathe in. So I held it and breathed in normally. I felt myself starting to getting dizzy and then I felt a little pinch. Since I thought that he was probably done, I took the mask from my face. Big mistake. All of a sudden I felt this horrible sharp pain and I started moaning how bad it hurt. I almost yelled out the F word, but thought my gyno probably wouldn't appreciate that and instead bit my lip. "Use the gas!", he shouted. I put the mask back on my face and whimpered through the rest of the insertion, my uterus feeling like there were 20 little daggers stabbing into it. He annouced he was done and I took the mask from my mouth, feeling naseauous from the pain, trying my hardest to hold it together. He told me to just lay there for a bit, not to rush and that he'd see me in 6 weeks for a follow-up visit. He left the room and the assistant chatted with me for a minute, telling me that it hurt a lot when she had it done, but that I would feel no pain tomorrow. I tried to take comfort in that, but as soon as she left the room, I burst into tears. I just laid there feeling sorry for myself, crying like a little kid after getting a vaccination.
After a few minutes, I got dressed and went to check out. I already felt a lot better, as I'm sure some endorphins had kicked in. But I knew I couldn't go back to work, so I started to head home. I'm not sure if it was the laughing gas or just swelling in my pelvic reason, but all of a sudden, I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom - both ways. I got home and made a beeline to the toilet. I was hesitant to go; I thought for sure that if I beared down in anyway, that little copper sucker was going to pop right back out. And I sure as hell wasn't going through insertion again. After that, I settled down for a nap with a heating pad.
It was difficult to fall asleep at first. I would get waves of pain as my uterus tried to push the device out. I could only imagine that this is what contractions felt like. I got about 2 hours of sleep and was still in a great deal of pain when I woke up so I decided to take an Aleve. It didn't help at all. I ran out to the drugstore to by a different heating pad, and then came home and snuggled up with it. Still in pain, I tried to sleep again. When I awoke around 3am, the pain had miraclously stopped. It was almost like nothing had happened. And when I awoke again this morning, still no pain. It was pretty amazing. But as the day wore on, I would get waves of sharp cramps, about once every hour. As I write this now, at the end of the day, it seems like the waves have stopped, but I do feel a dull ache in my pelvic region. I am acutely aware that there is something foreign in my body right now. But I'm sure that feeling will go away and in the long run, this will all be worth it.
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