I’m sorry if this is TMI for some people, but I have been dealing with this condition for over a year and I’m finally going the surgical route in order to try to fix it. What is this condition? Well, I have had my period since September 2022. Yes, you read that correctly. I have been bleeding continuously for the past year and five months.

It all started when I had to change my brand of birth control pills. My insurance no longer covered my old brand Natazia (which I loved but is apparently too expensive and has no generic equivalent), so I had to switch to another generic brand. My OB tried her best to match me to a pill that wasn’t that different from my old one, and I thought everything was fine…

But a month after I started the new pack of pills, I got my period and it wouldn’t stop.

I can’t be sure it was the new pills. Maybe that was just the trigger. Was it perimenopause? Perhaps. (I turned 43 in December, so it’s a possibility.) Was it a hormonal imbalance? Maybe. Nonetheless, I returned to the OB a couple of months later and she recommended another brand of pills.

Needless to say, that didn’t work.

Because we wanted to give these pills at least a couple of months to try to work, this process took a while. At the next appointment, they took my blood to test my hormone levels and for other abnormalities. Everything was within normal range. We also scheduled a full pelvic ultrasound, and found nothing abnormal.

By the time the next appointment rolled around, it had been a full year since the bleeding had begun. I asked about getting an IUD, because I know that a lot of my girlfriends said they stopped getting their periods with an IUD. My OB agreed, and she prescribed the Mirena.

The IUD took another month to order, get approved with insurance, schedule the procedure, etc.

The IUD didn’t work either.

My doctor prescribed birth control pills on top of the IUD, and additionally put me on a 10-day dose of antibiotics, just in case. No dice.

Now we’re at the surgical options.

On Thursday, I will undergo a hysteroscopy with diagnostic D&C. The doctor will scrape the lining of my uterus and hopefully remove any of the tissue that is causing the prolonged bleeding. The tissue will be sent to the lab for testing afterwards. It’s a small surgical procedure with little risk but a surgical procedure nonetheless.

The doctor said that if that doesn’t work, he would recommend an endometrial ablation, where he would destroy the lining of the uterus using heat. He asked if I have kids, and if I plan on having more, because this procedure would not allow me to get pregnant in the future. Since J and I are done having kids, I said I am fine with this procedure if it comes to it.

The last option would be a hysterectomy.

But one day at a time. I’m really hoping that Thursday’s procedure will work. Because it’s getting hard to remember how it was like when I was not bleeding. And, because it’s become such a PITA, I am willing to get a hysterectomy, if that’s what it comes down to.

On Thursday, the doctor will be removing my IUD as well, because he can’t exactly do the procedure with it being in the way. J’s company has changed insurance carriers since this whole debacle began and I’m pretty sure the new insurance company covers Natazia (my original birth control pills). So after the removal of my IUD, I’m going to ask my doctor for a prescription for Natazia.

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there! J has been away this week on a business trip and will not return until late tonight so we already gave him his gifts before he left. The picture below popped up on my Facebook memories and I couldn’t had a chuckle over how little our girls used to be.

My own father is in Texas so I am not able to spend the day with him. Two months ago, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. This came as a complete shock to us — he already suffers from chronic hepatitis B, so his health is already fragile. He had been admitted to the hospital for vomiting blood; the cause was esophageal varices due to cirrhosis of the liver. The varices were clipped, but the doctors were concerned because his platelet counts were so low, and they continued to stay low even with transfusions. That’s when they discovered the leukemia.

My father stayed in the hospital for a month and a half, receiving chemo and recovering. Luckily, he had a great oncologist and after just that course of chemo, he went into remission. Before my father’s diagnosis, I wasn’t aware that going into remission technically means (at least for acute myeloid leukemia) that there are less than 5% cancerous cells in your blood and bone marrow. So there are still “bad” cells in his body, but they are under control.

The oncologist says that my father has mutations in his blood that need addressing. So he’s going through more chemo, but not as intense as last time. He can do this as an out-patient. And there’s still a chance that he may need a bone marrow transplant.

It sucks that this happened just months into my parents’ retirement. And it sucks that I can’t be there physically for him. I will probably make a trip to Texas this summer and spend some time with my appa.

Please keep my father in your prayers. And I hope your fathers are happy and healthy!