down below

In the past I have alluded to ‘woman’ problems I have had, but allude I will no more!

So if you are of a weak disposition, or don’t want to read about that ‘sort’ of thing, when you actually came here to read about or see;
a. Gingerbread men recipe
b. look at pretty pictures
c. hear about my lovely children
if any of those are you, look away now!

So are you ready??

Lets go…

I will start at the beginning, when I was pregnant with William (7 years ago), I had Thrush for the first time, and was told it was hormonal, which it was to be honest, it was treated, and went away.

After having William I had the copper coil fitted, and since then I have suffered with Thrush, ranging from the slightly annoying, to unbelievably painful, so bad one time I could barely move. There is another thing as well, just about to get to that!

Now rushing to forward through time and to now, well 6 weeks ago actually.

You are meant to have your coil changed every 5 years, well last year came and went and I forgot, and I forgot to get my smear done as well, but I knew it had to be done, so I booked myself in, joy of joys!

While talking to the nurse doing the smear I said that I had had suffered from bleeding after intercourse (I thought I would use the technical term!) and she noted this down, and said I should mention this when I saw the doctor about the coil, so I wasn’t worried, I mean it had been happening for at least 18 months, and it couldn’t be that bad.

Saw the doctor, I explained about the bleeding, she had a look, said it looked inflamed, took a swab, and then said I would have to go up to the Hospital to be looked at by a Gynecologist, when she was saying all of this, it was very matter of fact, not great bedside manner!
She then when on the say that it could be that I had ‘damaged’ cells around my cervix, and no more explanation. When she said this, to me, it meant one thing, cancer, and I went home to worry and worry a bit more.
The next day I had more bleeding, rang the doctors, now really quite worried about all of this.
We have a certain doctor at our surgery who is lovely, she always puts me at ease, and I feel very confident with her, thankfully it was her I spoke to while in a blind panic!
She explained that the swab had come back showing an infection of Thrush, and that the whole bleeding thing, was not that unusual, and they are now told to send anyone suffering up to the hospital! Why didn’t the one the day before say this!!!

Now calm again!

Smear test come back, all clear, calmer again : )

Another letter arrives, saying that I have Antinomyces-like organisms showing up on the smear test, this is often seen in someone who has a coil fitted, symptoms of pain, discharge etc, hmmmmm, see a link here? So another thing!

Appointment letter for Gynecologist arrives yesterday, appointment today!

Off I go, a bit unsure, but ok.

I see the most lovely man, so nice, calm, didn’t talk to me like I was some twittering idiot, I then explain what is happening, he reads my notes, and he says that he believes I have Cervical Erosion.
This is a non-cancerous erosion of cells at the neck of your cervix can lead to bleeding between periods and after sex.
He goes on to tell me that this is not unusual in women who have had at least one child, and after having children the lining of the cervix can start to sort of grow out through the entrance of the cervix. It can also be caused by other things like the pill, and stuff.
But the reason why it happens isn’t really that important, you either have it, or not!
So he thinks I have this, when this exists the cells that should be in the cervix have sneaked out, they are more like the cells that line your mouth, quite delicate and easily damaged, so that is why they bleed after intercourse.
Also the cells produce more mucus to protect themselves, and because of the ph balance, do you see where I’m going with this!

So! To cut a long story short, he has a look with a camera, and I watch too, and he is right, I can see the cells and they are all inflamed, and all the extra mucus as well, I hope you aren’t eating while reading this!

So he takes a little bit to do a biopsy of, standard practice, and tells me that he will book me in to have my coil removed, and the erosion treated by cauterizing it! They do this using some local anesthetic, and then the normal skin around the entrance will grow back, and no more bleeding and yukky discharge!

Now you may be wondering why I have written this, put you off you tea, made you never want to read my blog again, but my point for doing this is this,

I would never have gone to the doctor to have talk about this, it was sort of by chance, just because I was there about a related matter.
If I hadn’t said anything, the bleeding would have continued, until I have got really worried about it, and become paranoid that I had cancer.
So what I’m saying is, don’t just worry about it, it could well be this, something I had never heard of, and to be honest, it has all been painless so far, and one less thing to worry about.

Once this has been done and the coil removed I also hope that I will finally be free of all the thrush stuff too.

So don’t just sit there and cross your legs, hope for the best, go see your doctor, remember to get your smear test done, it is better to do it now!

I’m sorry if I have rambled, and talked rubbish, but I wanted to share my experience, as I had no knowledge of this, I promise it will be back to business over the weekend, when I will waffle about the course I’m running instead!!

Thanks for listening : )