Warning: IUD talk

This morning I had my IUD inserted. All in all, the procedure was less painful than I anticipated and the post-insertion cramping was much more painful than I expected (in fact, I was so worried about the insertion that I completely forgot that it might hurt after. I started taking advil the night before and based on my sister's recommendation, I asked the doctor to numb my cervix. It always feels a little bit like being a car at the mechanic when you're up in the stirrups with the speculum and this was no exception to that rule. There was pressure at the injection (like when you get your mouth numbed at the Dentist), and definite pressure with a cramp at the dilation. The actual IUD insertion gave another feeling of pressure and a cramp (about 6 on a menstrual cramp scale). The whole process took about 20 min and L held my hand the whole time. Apparently when someone messes around with your cervix the body redistributes blood flow away from the head and towards the internal organs, so it took me a while until I had enough blood recirculating to stand back up.

Once I was up, about, and riding the endorphin rush, I decided coffee and chocolate (in the form of a brownie) were in order. Unfortunately, most of the cafes on campus are closed and the nearest one only had greasy looking cookies, scones, and croissants - nary a brownie in sight. After waiting 10 min or so for the bus I got fed up, like I usually do, and decided to walk from Engineering to Stevenson for a second go at coffee and a brownie. A concerned L set me off on my determined way and all was fine until I was about 10 min into my walk and my uterus started going "hey! hey! wtf did you poke in me?!" Seriously, it felt like being 13, crampy and in the nurse's office all over again. I kept going until I got to the coffee shop, still under the delusion that I was going to get my goodies and get some work done (note to readers: if you get an IUD, your experience may be different, but don't plan on doing much more than taking a warm bath and cuddling up to your favorite heating pad on the sofa). As I walked into the coffee shop I spied a beautiful tray of thick, fudgy looking brownies. I barely got my order out, grabbed my double cap and brownie and high tailed it up to my office. Once there I sat down to take a bite of what turned out to be an utterly bland, dry, stale, non-chocolaty tasting baked good. Disappointed, hungry, frustrated, and again feeling like I was 13, I burst right into tears and decided that maybe I was better off at home (yeah, it took me that long to come to the conclusion- I'm sort of a dolt some times). Since coming come I curled up with the perfect layering of couch, me, heating pad, purring cat, and actually finished another book for my diss (2nd this week). Now that it's several hours later I feel much better and am only getting the occasional cramp.

All in all it's been not as bad as I expected initially and much more draining after the procedure then I thought it would be. I'll probably weekly updates on what it's like with the IUD and off the pill. Again, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll email you back.