I was regular for years - 28 days like clockwork. I still marked my calendar because otherwise I wouldn’t remember when to count 28 days from.
When I was pregnant with my third kid, I starting bleeding heavily and called my OB in a panic. Unfortunately, another doctor was on call, and told me cheerfully, “Oh, you’re having a miscarriage. There’s nothing that can be done. Goodbye.” Well, I was having a placental abruption, and nearly bled to death – however, the baby survived and is now 6’4".
When I was first married, I went to my husband’s doctor for a sinus infection, and he told me that I should lose weight to lower my blood pressure. I raised one eyebrow and said, “My blood pressure is usually 90 over 60. Where would you like it to go? If it drops any more, I’ll be a puddle on the floor.” He blushed and mumbled while looking at my chart. I didn’t go back.
I’m glad you’re OK. I had a similar experience, except that the strange doctor said, “Well, if you go to the hospital, they’ll admit you, but there’s nothing that we can do, so you might as well just stay home and wait and see what happens. They won’t try to save the baby before 24 weeks anyway.” Fortunately, the bleeding did stop, although I later ended up hospitalized for eight weeks before the baby was born.
Wait, you were (apparently) miscarrying late enough for the baby to be viable, and the doctor thought you should just stay home and do nothing? Even if it really was a forgone conclusion that the fetus would be lost, shouldn’t it be delivered in the hospital? Or were you just supposed to pop it out in the bathtub and throw it in the trash?
Aaaack. I’m glad you and baby made it. I’m told that placental abruptions are serious bad news.
c) Much of the variation in pregnancy length from LMP comes from variation in the amount of time between when you menstruate and when you ovulate.
I have it on the best authority that this time is always, always, always 14 days. No matter how long or short your cycle. If you had IVF and they did the retrieval on day 12, it doesn’t matter - it still goes in your chart as having happened two days later. Unless your 14-week fetus “measures large,” in which case they will change it again. And then it will be right - you were probably lying about which day the IVF was, anyway.
Oh that reminded me of when I caught a doctor lying to me. I was attacked by a dog and my hand was a bit of a mess. I was also in shock and so I was acting kind of weird. I knew at the time that I was acting weird but I couldn’t stop it. When she tried to wash out the cuts I’d sort of involuntarily scream and jerk my hand back.
After a couple of times she said “fine, do it yourself” and left me with the dish of water and cloths. When she came back I said that I thought it might be broken because it felt the same way it did when I’d broken my hand before. She said “it’s not broken, you don’t need an xray” but I insisted. When the results came back she sort of quickly held up the picture and said “no, I was right, it’s not broken”.
A couple of days later I went to my doctor for a follow up and she had the report there and sure enough, written in the report was that it was broken but by then it was too late for a plaster cast so she bandaged it up as best as she could.
I have scar tissue now around where the bone was broken.
I just don’t understand why you’re counting. Seems obsessive and frankly a bit gross.
Really? You can’t imagine why a woman might want to keep track of her menstrual cycles? There’s not a single reason you can think of?
What’s gross about keeping track of menstrual cycles? We’re not painting pictures with the blood or anything.
No, gross is when you’re like me and you don’t keep track, and you wake up one morning and have to wash a sheet, and underwear, and the bed. Keeping track is logical and a good idea, because it prevents those kinds of things (besides knowing if you’re late, or any of the other good reasons.)
It’s not like it’s an hour long process everyday. You just mark the calendar when you start. (when I remember to I usually draw a red flag, because I’m a freak and it amuses me. I think normal people just put a dot or something.)
And now there’s an app for that-- according to my daughters. I’m long done with it.
Methinks you’re not really a vixen, unless they make them w/ penises now. At the very least we like to know when to pack our purses and start the PMS-avoidance diet.
Bad advice numero uno - ‘Chiropractics will cure your scoliosis.’
A close runner-up; ‘You won’t know if you can carry full-term (w/ severe scoliosis) until you try.’ Yes, I should absolutely take a chance at sacrificing my future health and another human’s life just to see if I can.
Worst procedure - pelvic exam given to me by a military doctor when I went to enlist at 18 having never even used tampons much less had sex. I told the doc all that and he said, “We’ll just do it real quick, then.” Ladies, you want to guess what he did ‘real quick’ w/ the one-size-fits-all injection molded plastic speculum w/ the seams on the outside?
I sobbed so much the rest of the day I was actually fine w/ being told I couldn’t enlist (lifelong dream and only plan after high school) due to my scoliosis.
Don’t carry one. I keep a pad in my glove compartment though.
Again. I have no idea what this is. You guys really have complicated lives.
You must be using a definite of “complicated” with which I am unfamiliar.
The bad advice I was given is minor in comparison to some others, but here goes. I was prescribed omeprazole before some lab results came back positive for a parasite a few years ago. The gastroenterologist’s nurse and two other doctors that I saw for some lingering symptoms all insisted that I needed to keep taking omeprazole before the gastroenterologist explained to me that I could stop taking it whenever I wanted. My remaining symptoms resolved once I stopped taking it (and without the colonoscopy that the gastro wanted to do).
The two doctors I saw during that time had some other quirks as well. First one asked me, “So what brings you in today?” That was after I’d already given a rundown of my ongoing issues, including that I was still vomiting periodically. I refrained from telling her my need to not vomit brought me in. Second one asked if I thought I should give a urine sample. I thought he should be the one to decide that since he was the one with medical training.
Wait, are you saying they prescribed a proton pump inhibitor to treat a parasite, or they weren’t aware that’s what it was yet and when it turned out not to be GERD/Acid Reflux/a gastric ulcer they insisted you keep taking it anyway?
Never mind - both are equally obnoxious.
Mine is so irregular that I don’t bother keeping track. It wouldn’t tell me anything.
Its not that difficult. I would rather know when to expect my period and leave home wearing a pad, than not know and start spotting far away from a bathroom. I put one dot on my calendar to indicate when my period started. That’s it. How’s that gross?
Good lord - that’s both unbelievably callous, and unbelievably stupid advice. So glad you didn’t lose your baby!
My doctor/husband told me to take uppers and downers to make me feel better. Thus began a five year period of pill addiction hell. Particularly at the end when I quit cold turkey.
Two years ago, I told this story to a doctor and told him I would not take drugs. His response? “That’s not drugs, it’s medication.”