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Not Taken Seriously

**Warning: About Periods**

By Ginger CurlsPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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Periods... Every girl gets them eventually. For some, bleeding 3-5 days out of a month just passes by like any other day. Not for me. I got my period on the first day of seventh grade. I came home from school and just after I finished eating supper I went to the washroom. All day my stomach had been really bad, and I was light headed and nauseated. To my surprise when I was in the washroom I noticed some faint staining in my underwear and I realised what was happening.

I ran out to the kitchen and told my mom while she was washing dishes in a very hush voice because I was so embarrassed, "Mom, I'm bleeding" I said as my face turned the color of a tomato. She looked at me rolled her eyes and told me to get a band aid if I was bleeding, I looked up at her in tears and said "No, mom you don't understand, I am bleeding... down there." She laughed and brought me back to the washroom. I told her that I got some blood on my underwear and that I didn't know what I was supposed to do. She left the washroom, and a few moments later returned with a clean pair of underwear for me and opened the cupboard under the sink. She proceeded to haul out a package of Always pads and explained to me how to put them on my underwear and then instructed me when she left to take off my old ones and rise them in cold water to get the blood out. I was finally a woman.

I guess because this was my first period it was not too bad. It lasted about 7 days and it was fairly light bleeding throughout. The next month nothing happened, of course I then thought "What if I am the next Virgin Mary, what will I do." I waited, then the next month was straight out of a horror film.

My second period was so heavy I went through an entire pack and a half of pads, and I ruined so many pairs of underwear. Embarrassed, I didn't tell my mom that it was so heavy and I didn't know at the time there was different size pads you could buy (my mom only bought the regular ones). I would put two pads in my underwear at a time to prevent leakage, especially when I was at school and playing basketball and volleyball. Not only was my period so heavy, I was in agony. My stomach felt like a knife trying to cut through the muscles strand by strand.

This went on for years, heavy, irregular, painful periods. Thankfully I figured out tampons and pads by the time I entered high school because that would have been even more of a nightmare. One thing I could not figure out were the painful agonising period cramps.

"It's not that bad" my friends would say. Yes, for them it might not have been that bad but for me it was. I would pass out from pain, or throw up. Nothing would stop it. Heating pads, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, Maxidol, nothing worked. I tried herbal teas for period cramps. I had tried everything. And I mean everything.

One day, I got the nerve up to ask my mom if I could go on the pill and she got mad at me. I explained to her that I did not want to go on it for sexual reasons, I wanted to go on it because I had learned that for some people it helps with their cramps and regulate their periods. She wouldn't let me. And because I was under 18 I had to have her permission.

Flash forward a year after I graduated high school. This is now SIX years of brutal irregular periods. I was now 18 years old, living on my own so I decided to take it into my own hands and go to my doctor to get on the pill. This was not only for my period but for the obvious reason now.

I start taking the pill as my doctor had explained on how to do. Everything was going well. My period was regulated in two months and much lighter, my cramps on the other hand were still bad.

I would explain this to my doctor. She did not listen, she told me to take ibuprofen, news flash: it doesn't work for me!!! She then tried prescribing me Naproxen, basically ibuprofen but a little stronger. This did not work. Surprise. She then gave me a prescription for Ketorolac, this did nothing for my cramps, but it helped with other pain I was having until the side effects started: Acid reflux. Tums, Zantac, or any over the counter medication would not take this away. So on top of my monthly agonising period cramps I had acid reflux EVERY. DAMN. DAY.

I went back to my doctor. She said we ran out of options for my cramps and I would just have to live with it, but I am going to start you on a PPI* called Rabeprazole for your heartburn even after I told her that Ketorolac is not meant to be a medication you use daily, it is only supposed to be for short periods of time. She ignored me.

Unfortunately, I had to keep taking the Ketorolac because of other pain I was having, so I would take this NSAID** that was eating away at my stomach lining and I would take my PPI so that I wouldn't feel like my esophagus was on fire constantly.

I have dealt with period cramps for almost ten years now. Some months are okay, I can function with the feeling of a knife ripping at the endometrial lining of my uterus. Other months, like last month, I am crawling to my bathroom to vomit at 4 in the morning and having to call in sick to work because I am in that much pain that I can't keep water down.

I am now not seeing my old doctor, because I was not taken seriously. I know that Ketorolac was not my final option, thanks to a lot of research and nursing school. Tomorrow, again I will see a new doctor, explain to them what is going on with my cramps, explain the excruciating pain I have to deal with every month for 3 full days, not just the first day but throughout the entire period and hopefully something can be done.

Thanks to nursing school, medication guides, and loads of research, I have a few options I can present to whichever doctor I get to see, and hopefully they will take me seriously and take my options into consideration and I will finally be able to live my life without the fear or doing of vomiting and passing out every time I get my period.

*PPI- Proton pump inhibitor

**NSAID- Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug

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About the Creator

Ginger Curls

Just another millennial trying to figure out the world.

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